Welcome
Can Sungu and Malve Lippmann, bi’bak/SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA

Greetings
Wolf Plesmann, Senatskanzlei, Department of Bundes- und Europaangelegenheiten, Medienpolitik
Leonie Baumann, Hauptstadtkulturfonds

Conversation
With Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Director and Chief Curator of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) (Berlin, Germany)

Reception

Film Screening (Open Air)
Coconut Head Generation, Alain Kassanda, France, Nigeria 2023, 89 min.
Introductory conversation with Alain Kassanda
Moderation: Pascale Fakhry

Every Thursday, a group of students from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria organizes a film club where they come together to watch and discuss films. Through the works of filmmakers like John Akomfrah and Med Hondo, the lecture hall is transformed into a political agora as heated discussions around topics such as decolonisation, feminist struggles and student rights take place. Kinshasa-born French director Alain Kassanda observes the ordinary lives of Nigerian students in the midst of the challenges they face, showing the immediate proximity between the struggle on the streets and the political energy emanating from the cinema space.

This screening is free to attend. We hope to hold this screening in the SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA garden, but if weather conditions are bad then the event will be moved inside.

On-site Registration

Welcome / Symposium Overview

Keynote
Emancipatory Commoning As a Process of Collective Inventiveness
Stavros Stavrides, Professor of Architectural Design and Theory, National Technical University of Athens (Athens, Greece)

The process of defining and maintaining the common in and through city life is a process of collective inventiveness. This is a multileveled and often contradictory process through which new forms of social organization emerge. Urban commoning may implicitly or explicitly challenge the everyday routines of social reproduction. It may be expressed in cultural or artistic practices that indicate the potentialities of social change or it may directly interrupt normalizing everydayness through the development of urban struggles. Common spaces produced by the development of new urban habits and rituals are to be understood not as temporary enclaves of otherness but as thresholds which communicate and multiply. By using concrete examples from Europe and Latin America, this presentation will try to show that both explicit and implicit efforts for collective creativity may construct emancipatory potentialities in contemporary cities.  

Coffee Break

Presentation
Meet the Partners of Cinema of Commoning 2: Presenting Spaces and Practices

Ibee Ndaw, Yennenga Centre (Dakar, Senegal)
Hania Mroué and Rabih El-Khoury, Metropolis Cinema/Cinematheque Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon)
Ares Shporta, Kino Lumbardhi (Prizren, Kosovo)
Leyli Gafarova, Salaam Cinema (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Amaal Meftouh Ezzeyany, Cinémathèque de Tanger (Tangier, Morocco)
Jesse Gerard Mpango, Ajabu Ajabu (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Malve Lippmann and Can Sungu, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Pascale Fahkry and Dalia Soliman

PechaKucha (“chitchat” or “chatter” in Japanese) is a fast-paced, image-led form of storytelling. In this introductory session, representatives from our Cinema of Commoning 2 partner venues will each have 10 minutes to present their spaces and practices, followed by an open Q&A session. Through these quickfire introductions, ideas and inspiration from a diverse range of experiences will be shared. We might not be able to physically visit every space, but through these PechaKucha sessions we will be able to get a sense of how these innovative spaces operate within their unique contexts.

Lunch

Short Film Screening
Apostles of Cinema, Gertrude Malizana, Jesse Gerard Mpango, Darragh Amelia, Cece Mlay, Tanzania 2023, 16 min.

Conversation
MisafirHANE: On Hospitalities and Collaborations
Moderation: Jowe Harfouche, independent cultural organizer (Berlin, Germany)

HANE (in Turkish/ Farsi space) is the foyer of SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, a space that can always be redefined and its function reimagined. With MisafirHANE, it temporarily transforms into a space for guests (“misafir” in modern Turkish means guest – a word derived from musāfir مسافر in Arabic, meaning  “traveler.”) This gathering provides another opportunity to warmly welcome all those participating in Cinema of Commoning 2. Guests and participants are invited to get to know each other through informal conversation, to exchange experiences and connect. Representatives of cultural institutions, international funders, filmmakers, festival programmers, exhibitors and others will be there to explore possibilities for initiating new networks and collaborations.

Panel
Kinos als Ankerpunkte der transnationalen Stadtgesellschaft – Räume für Diskurs und eine plurale Erinnerungskultur sichern (in German)

Helge Lindh, MdB (SPD)
Filiz Polat, MdB (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Michael Sacher, MdB (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Ibou Diop, Dekoloniale (Berlin, Germany)
Can Sungu, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Malve Lippmann SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)

In einer Zeit, in der Rechtsradikalismus und Rassismus erstarken, müssen wir Maßnahmen ergreifen, um der Frakturierung und Polarisierung unserer Gesellschaft produktiv entgegenzuwirken. Wir brauchen  bundesweite und transnationale Allianzen, um die Erinnerung an Kolonialismus und Migrationsgeschichte im gesellschaftlichen Bewusstsein zu verankern und an kommende Generationen zu vermitteln. Räume, an denen Menschen aus unterschiedlichen sozialen Gruppen ins Gespräch kommen und an denen Demokratie, Teilhabe und Diskussionskultur erprobt werden, können der Schlüssel dazu sein.  Transnationale Kinos sind diese Kulturräume, an denen offener Diskurs und eine plurale Erinnerungskultur entstehen. Aber was kann die Politik tun, um diesen Hubs der Demokratieförderung eine langfristige Perspektive zu ermöglichen und sie resilient zu machen? Wie können die bestehenden (post-)migrantischen Netzwerke über einzelne Communities hinaus bundesweit gestärkt werden, damit sich eine Zusammenarbeit, die auf Intersektionalität und Transnationalität basiert, entfalten kann? Wie können und müssen wir, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, eine deutsche Erinnerungskultur gestalten, die vielstimmig ist und alle miteinschließt? Im Panel wollen wir mit Akteuren aus Politik und Zivilgesellschaft diesen Fragen nachgehen und zukunftsweisende Ansätze diskutieren.

Coffee Break

Panel
Building Alternative Cinema Networks: New Alliances in Film Distribution and Exhibition  

Christo Wallers, Kino Climates (Newcastle, United Kingdom)
Agnès Salson, Cinema Makers (Toulouse, France)
Nada Bakr, NAAS Network of Alternative Arab Screens (Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Can Sungu, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)

Networks foster exchange and synergies, create new alliances, and provide support. Cinema of Commoning, for instance, brings together cinema initiatives from different regions of the world, offering a platform for dialogue and exchange. In recent years, other networks have emerged that explore alternative models of cinema and unite initiatives focused on cultural film work. These networks exchange ideas not only about cinema practice, but also about alternative approaches to film production and distribution. What significance do these networks hold for non-commercial cinemas and initiatives, filmmakers and distributors? How can they strengthen cooperation between continents? How can the insights and knowledge from these network meetings be better integrated and have a lasting impact? What has been achieved so far, and what challenges remain?

Dinner

Film Screening (Open Air)
Penzi La Misukosuko (Restless Love), Neto Joseph, Tanzania 2006, 45 min.
With live narration from DJ Black
Introduction by Jesse Gerard Mpango, Ajabu Ajabu (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)

Neto Joseph’s Penzi La Misukosuko is a love story, an action film and a supernatural horror in one. Drawing from three genres of Tanzanian popular cinema dominant in the 2000s and utilizing both interior and exterior aesthetics of urban and domestic Dar es Salaam for key set pieces, the film exhibits the energy, vision and ambition of a particular period in grassroots Tanzanian cinema. Through its choreography and soundscape, Penzi La Misukosuko also showcases the reverence of this period and mode of filmmaking for cinema itself.

A ticket to this screening is included with Friday accreditation for the Cinema of Commoning Symposium. If you do not have a day pass, or would like to purchase additional tickets book here. We hope to hold this screening in the SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA garden, but if weather conditions are bad then the event will be moved inside.

On-site Registration

Keynote
Beyond Goethe: Cultural Production in Times of Empire
Sinthujan Varatharajah, essayist and political geographer (Berlin, Germany)

Societies produce culture and culture, in turn, produces societies. Culture is the backbone of collective identities. It is a social commons that helps societies to engage, reflect, nurture and grow their own realities. For culture to flourish, a supportive infrastructure is required in order to sustain itself, develop and remain autonomous. While cultural production in the colonial metropolis has been promoted through private and national funding bodies, this isn’t the case in many former and present-day colonies. There, cultural infrastructure is often restrained by a lack of state and private support. This situation increasingly drives cultural workers in these (former) colonies towards the foreign state cultural bodies that have propped up their capitals. In this keynote, சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா will explore how imperial cultural funding bodies (ab)use economic vulnerabilities in (former) colonies to forward their own foreign policy aims, how this shapes cultural production and how cultural workers in the metropolis often become complicit in this process. வரதராஜா will reflect on the shifts required for cultural work, both in the metropolis and the colonies, to be freed from state dependencies and to return to its actual origin: as a social commons that can thrive outside of direct nation-state influence and manipulation.

Coffee Break

Panel
The Embodied Cinema: Why Do We (Still) Need the Physical Space of Cinema?

Abiba Coulibaly, Brixton Community Cinema (London, United Kingdom)
Katia Rossini, Nova (Brussels, Belgium)
Ares Shporta, Kino Lumbardhi (Prizren, Kosovo)
Rabih El-Khoury, Metropolis Cinema/Cinematheque Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon)
Lysann Windisch, MUBI (Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Chima Okerenkwo, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)

In order to grasp the importance of cinema as a physical space, and to address why in-person festivals and other cultural gatherings have flourished more than ever in recent years, we must understand cinema’s multi-layered role as a socio-cultural hub. As Foucault describes, cinema functions as a heterotopia – a place of otherness that juxtaposes several spaces in one. This unique characteristic allows cinema to serve as a point for communal gathering, where diverse groups including marginalized communities, film collectives and individuals of all ages, are able to thrive and share their experiences. 

The new generation of digital natives are becoming more and more interested in tactile and sensory experiences – such as working with analog film material, engaging in discussions and exchanges, and sharing convivial moments before and after screenings. How have our audiences changed in recent years? What are the audience’s expectations, and how do these align with those of cinemas, distributors, and filmmakers? Understanding these dynamics sheds light on what continues to make the physical space of the cinema so attractive and vital in our increasingly digitized and disembodied contemporary society.

Lunch

Short Film Screening
Timis, Awa Moctar Gueye, Senegal 2023, 16 min.

Panel
Exploring Cinema as Social Space: Communities, Encounters, Experiments

Leyli Gafarova, Salaam Cinema (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Jesse Gerard Mpango, Ajabu Ajabu (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Sarnt Utamachote, filmmaker/curator (Berlin, Germany)
Echo Xueden Tang, CiLENS (Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Djamila Grandits, film curator (Vienna, Austria)

A cinema of the commons is a place of collectivity and conviviality. Cinema should be an “agora” where people come together not only to watch films, but to engage in discourse and dialogue, living, working and (un-)learning together. A cinema that sees itself as a social place is committed to local and international communities, encouraging access, discussion, education and alternative ways of organizing. Yet, though it sounds simple, this work can sometimes be challenging.  How can we develop equitable and inclusive programs which involve diverse audiences? How do cinemas create political engagement and collectivity? What discursive, artistic and social forms of exchange and encounter constitute a cinema of the commons? Taking these questions as its point of departure, this panel will focus on the experiences and know-how of cinema initiatives that foster safe(r) shared spaces through participation and solidarity.

Coffee Break

Panel
Cinemas of Solidarity: Strategies to Counter Political Repression

Farahnaz Sharifi, film director (Hamburg, Germany)
Hania Mroué, Metropolis Cinema/Cinematheque Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon)
Pascale Fakhry, ALFILM (Berlin, Germany)
Margarita Tsomou, cultural worker and activist (Berlin, Germany)
Moderation: Marc Siegel, Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany)

A cinema of commons is a space of solidarity, political discourse and awareness. However, cultural workers and organizations, including cinemas, sometimes face social or political pressure to conform to a mainstream political consensus, avoid speaking out on certain issues, or maintain a low profile and not become “too political.” How can this work continue under political repression or in a climate of fear? Where do the limits of artistic freedom lie, and how do censorship and self-censorship manifest? What is the role of a cinema of commons in providing discursive freedom, and how can it ensure that artistic and social forms of exchange remain viable in the face of systemic silencing? What tools have cultural actors developed to circumvent censorship in countries where these practices are institutionalized? This panel explores the ways in which cinema can become a space of resistance and dialogue. Through this discussion, we will scrutinize potential methods developed by cinema, both as a tool and as a space, to remain a site of political activism and to keep a cinephile culture of discussion and dialogue alive.

Dinner

Film Screening (Open Air)
Sayyareye dozdide shodeye man (My Stolen Planet), Farahnaz Sharifi, Germany/Iran 2024, 82 min.
Introductory conversation with Farahnaz Sharifi
Moderation: Eirini Fountedaki and Rachel Pronger

Farah was born in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. With her camera, she captures joyful moments in her daily life, which stand in stark contrast to the social and political repression which surrounds her. She also collects 8mm films from strangers who still dance, sing, and enjoy vibrant social lives in their private spaces. Through her obsession with recording and collecting, she creates her own “planet” that no one can  take away from her.  A connection to Leyla, a university professor who left Iran during the revolution, also finds its place in this archive. At the same time, Farah’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer, motivates her in her fight against forgetting. In autumn 2022, when women in Iran take to the streets to stand up against patriarchal tyranny, the filmmaker also reaches a turning point in her life. The personal becomes political, dancing becomes a form of resistance, and from anger grows courage.

A ticket to this screening is included with Saturday accreditation for the Cinema of Commoning Symposium. If you do not have a day pass, or would like to purchase additional tickets book here. We hope to hold this screening in the SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA garden, but if weather conditions are bad then the event will be moved inside.

Cinema of Commoning Party
With Maque and sherryaeri
Free for those with accreditation, otherwise €5 entry

On-site Registration

Keynote
Cinema as Public Culture: The Other Way of Commoning
Madhusree Dutta, filmmaker and film curator (Kolkata, India)

Cinema, in a post-colonial and multi-cultural, multi-lingual country like India, is the only potential public culture. The publicness of cinema works for affinity among the disenfranchised as well as for strategic social opacity. A cinema space here can offer alternative citizenship and a copy-without-original film might become a palimpsest of colonial histories. This presentation will foreground a few instances of opaque public culture of cinema in India.

Coffee Break

Panel
Transnational Archival Practice as Necessity: Fabulations Beyond National Film Heritage

Deniz Tortum, filmmaker and researcher (Istanbul, Türkiye)
Mosa Mpetha, film curator (Leeds, United Kingdom)
Can Sungu, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)
Jesse Gerard Mpango, Ajabu Ajabu (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Moderation: Lisabona Rahman, film archivist and curator (Berlin, Germany)

Cinema is a public space where archives are made accessible and visible. Archival work, a fundamental aspect of cinema practice, is not limited to preservation and restoration but also encompasses creating a discursive and artistic space through films. This practice advocates for diverse film cultures and contributes to the work of cultural memory. However, it also raises questions about other forms and aesthetics of storytelling, collective authorship, the status of the speculative and fictional, and the necessity of “critical fabulation” (Saidiya Hartman). With “critical fabulation,” Hartman proposes a practice which combines historical research with critical theory and fictional narratives to fill the gaps left in mainstream historical records. Archives must be critically examined. Certain stories are included, while others are excluded. This raises the question: Who gets to speak? Who tells which story, and from which perspective? How can we make visible underrepresented cinematic perspectives? How can we create transnational, non-institutionalized alliances that operate beyond “national film heritage?” In this panel, we aim to explore these questions, discuss how different memory cultures relate to each other, and propose forms of film archiving that can enable dialogues of remembrance.

Coffee Break

Short Film Screening
Por Primera Vez (For the First Time), Octavio Cortázar, Cuba 1967, 10 min.

Panel
Cinema as a Participatory Space for Progressive Filmmaking and Aesthetic Film Education

Ibee Ndaw, Yennenga Centre (Dakar, Senegal)
Agnès Salson, La Forêt Électrique (Toulouse, France)
Dina Pokrajac, Dokukino KIC (Zagreb, Croatia)
Alejandro Bachmann, Lichtspiel/Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (Cologne, Germany)
Moderation: Malve Lippmann, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin, Germany)

Unconventional thinking and progressive approaches have never been more important than they are today for keeping the cultural practice of cinema alive. To inspire and empower the next generation of artists and filmmakers, it is essential to reshape the landscape of film education. Additionally, we need experienced experts to pass on their knowledge and craftsmanship to younger generations to ensure the continuation of cinema as a cultural practice. Can the concept of “film education” be framed in a larger context that includes the inspiration and training of filmmakers, artists and other practitioners in the field of film mediation? What potential challenges and opportunities exist in implementing this vision, and how can they be addressed? How can new alliances and collaborations be created between cinemas and those involved in film production, distribution, and education to promote young, progressive cinematic approaches without relying on industry norms? In this panel, professionals working in the film education sector will share their experiences and discuss, among other things, how networks for knowledge exchange and resource sharing could contribute to developing sustainable models for cultural and aesthetic film education.

Coffee Break

Wrap Up With Aperitivo
What’s Next for Cinema of Commoning?
Eirini Fountedaki and Rachel Pronger, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA (Berlin Germany)

The Cinema of Commoning project, like the concept of commoning itself, has a life which extends beyond the finite period of our Symposium. In this wrap up, Eirini Fountedaki and Rachel Pronger, Cinema of Commoning Co-Editors will moderate a collaborative informal session over aperitivo, in which we will come together to share our experiences of the weekend. In this open conversation, we will discuss how we can carry the spirit of commoning and connection fostered over these few days into our future practice. We will also share the next steps  for the Cinema of Commoning editorial platform and digital archive, and how we can work together to build a meaningful and lasting legacy.

Dinner

Film Screening (Open Air)
Bismillah, Abbas Mirza Sharifzadeh, AzSSR 1925, 57 min.
With live music by Ilkin Huseynov
Introduction by Leyli Gafarova, Salaam Cinema (Baku, Azerbaijan)

This anti-religious Soviet film revolves around a corrupt religious Mullah who cheats, drinks, and abuses women. As is common to many Soviet films of this period, this work of propaganda emphasizes how the arrival of the Bolshevik Revolution brings justice to peasants and liberates women. The struggle against ignorance and illiteracy, the revolution, and the rights of women were central themes in Azerbaijani Soviet films of the 1920s. However, Bismillah also reflects the colonizer’s perspective in its problematic portrayal of the local culture of the time and its depiction of Muslims as barbaric. Sharifzadeh, the first Azerbaijani filmmaker, made this film under the influence of the propaganda machine; tragically, he himself fell victim to the regime during the peak of the Great Purge.

A ticket to this screening is included with Sunday accreditation for the Cinema of Commoning Symposium. If you do not have a day pass, or would like to purchase additional tickets book here. We hope to hold this screening in the SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA garden, but if weather conditions are bad then the event will be moved inside.