Hidden inside the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is an unusual space: an old rehearsal room that’s been converted into a cinema-cum-film-library, complete with an archive of thousands of VHS tapes. This is the VIDEOTHEK, which began hosting a weekly slate of eclectic events for Berlin cinephiles in December 2023.
Originally functioning as a working movie set for Volksbühne directors who were combining theatre and film media, the space and its programme continues the institution’s legacy of producing genre-bending and politically curious events, pushing the bounds of a film screening and incorporating lectures, live music and food into their cinematic lineup.
The job of programme curation falls to filmmaker Hans Broich, whose Highfalutin, produced in 2021 by his SUPERZOOM-Film, was screened at VIDEOTHEK before he took on a leadership role there, and to Leonie Jenning, a dramaturg who also appeared in another film Broich produced, 2023’s Losing Faith, directed by mutual friend Martha Mechow. The Berliner sat down with the pair to find out what’s next for the VIDEOTHEK and how they create a lineup that sits at the intersection of theatre and film.
This film space is so singular in Berlin – how do you both conceive of it?
Hans Broich: I’m much more interested in the theatre as a working place rather than watching the result of work. Theatre for me as a film producer is very interesting as a space where you can regularly come to not just consume something but to work on something. What is very special about this place is that it’s not a cinema, it’s a stage where people are working with film.
For example, what I dislike about galleries or cinemas is that you always take the works out of the space where they have been produced. Max Linz [a German filmmaker who had the curatorial role prior] asked, “How can you make the theatre space productive for presenting film? What can you do in a theatre with film that you can’t in a cinema?” So we’re looking at how to use and address the theatre as a venue to present films in ways not possible in a cinema.
Leonie has a show where there’s live synchronisation of films, we have shows where we present experimental films next to video diaries from YouTube. We’re thinking about all the aspects of moving image, also the ones which have no place in cinema anymore or never had one. We’re standing more in line with something like [New York City-based film society] Cinema 16 or the film cycle from Peter Kubelka in the Vienna Filmmuseum.
You can get a drink, you can have a look at the VHS tapes, you can smoke on the balcony. It’s like a kind of living room.
We’re trying to put all aspects of the moving image together. Even though I’m ‘curating’ here, I understand my job as a producer, so I’m looking at ways to work with films and not just present them. This is what I’m interested in and believe in.
Leonie Jenning: The VIDEOTHEK is great. It reminds me a little of the youth theatre in terms of freedom and informality. We invite people who we feel share our common values and interests, it’s something personal for the audience and also for us. It was very interesting for me when they suggested this space, because it allows you to break away from the usual long-term economy of filmmaking and think in other new temporal categories of film. You can work on films much faster.
The history of the Volksbühne is vast, and it’s always been a politically-driven space. When did cinema become a part of that programme?
HB: The Volksbühne has a history with moving images in general, working with video in theatre productions. René Pollesch [the theatre’s director, who passed away last year] was shooting films in the set designs and then projecting them in the same room in which they were produced. [German theatre director and performer] Christoph Schlingensief worked here as a filmmaker. So it already had a long history with filmmaking.
The VIDEOTHEK was part of a design which was intended for the Prater Studios at the [Volksbühne] Prater and the idea was to have a small film studio there producing films and showing them. And then Prater couldn’t open, so the set designers Nina von Mechow and Leonard Neumann moved the idea here. In terms of architecture, a film studio and theatre are actually very similar – there’s no daylight, lamps everywhere, actors, directors, people who do lights. So the topography of the place is very similar.
The lineup is always interesting and genre-bending. What’s coming up this year?
LJ: We have different series. One of them is called ‘Scripted Reality’. Filmmaker Martha Mechow brings various discoveries from the internet to the screen and combines them with experimental film classics. In the spaces between the films, she talks about her thoughts on a particular topic. This film collage, combined with her ideas, creates a special evening every time.
Then there is another show that deals with film in a completely different way. In ‘Videoclub’, an actor virtually destroys the VIDEOTHEK with the help of music and other performance artists. In this way, he deals with the films that are here. We also have two new series; first ‘Sex Show XXL’, by and with Ann Göbel. She is an actress and part of the Volksbühne ensemble. Ann presents her favourite movies, and before and after she talks about them.
There is a performative way of thinking about them or there is an interview with a guest. In ‘KONTAKT’ by Luis August Krawen, we try to connect with transcendental spirits through digital forms of rituality made possible by today’s technology-driven world. I really like this series. Especially here at the VIDEOTHEK, it feels fitting – trying to communicate with spirits preserved in the movies on the VHS tapes. Actors who can be watched over and over again, yet may have long since passed away.
HB: We do collaborations with more classical film critics like the Revü film magazine and in April we’ll start a series with the people from Jugend ohne Film about theatre films, which is interesting as it brings a more traditional film language into this room. The biologist Cord Riechelmann also gives regular lectures about animals in films – how they are portrayed and what they represent in movies.
LJ: It’s about the material aspect of film. There are so many different events here, sometimes normal screenings, sometimes performances where we take the cassettes out of the boxes and do something very concrete with the film itself. For example for the G.v.K Live-Synchro show, we fragment films and recut them, scyhchronising them with feminist non-fiction and trying to figure out how we can make film material new and productive for an evening. And every time is unique and can only be seen once.
What are you looking for in the work you screen?
HB: We show a lot of experimental cinema. But when people talk about their cinephilia it makes me cringe a little.
LJ: We are also very interested in the cinema of pop culture.
HB: And then, we have a show called ‘Helden der westlichen Welt’ (“Heroes of the Western world”) where West African mainstream films are presented.
LJ: Musa Gahein-Sama has known this material since his childhood, and he presents it through that lens, which makes it especially interesting. Last time we did it for four hours, episode after episode of a television series he was showing … we served African food, and that was a really nice experience.
The great thing is that it’s not a classic audience stage situation here. You come in, you walk through the room, you can get a drink, you can have a look at the VHS tapes, you can smoke on the balcony. It’s like a kind of living room. It’s not a static movie experience.
HB: And it is for a broad audience. For example, I had someone from my film school who stepped in here by accident because the title of the evening had Antonioni in it. She came in here expecting an Antonioni retrospective, and instead she was at three performance shows by [actor] Maximilian Brauer ripping up the place and working with Antonioni and his work in his very particular way.
Did she enjoy it?
HB: Yes she really did! And I love this moment, because it’s hard to get out of your bubble. Here is someone coming in having no clue what will happen and becoming exposed to a new way of looking and thinking about film – this is the ideal viewer for us. It was beautiful.
And are there films you feel the audience gravitate to?
HB: Playful films.
LJ: Films which aren’t taking themselves so seriously.
HB: Opulent films that don’t have one idea for 90 minutes but an idea every 10.
LJ: For example, as part of ‘Scripted Reality’ we showed a film in which someone made a diary film about their roommate. This movie was perfect for film in a theatre because she had made the movie out of boredom and infatuation – she had a camera and that’s why she made it.
HB: We also had a screening of What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? [screened at Berlinale 2024] and it was an incredible night. In this artistic, experimental, smart and charming film, director Faraz Fesharaki captured his ongoing conversations with his family in Iran for over a decade, showcasing a digital exchange between himself while in Germany studying film and his loved ones. We Skyped his parents in Iran before and after, asking questions and connecting – this is something you can’t do within a classic cinema format.
What are the challenges to offering such a unique slate of film experiences?
LJ: In the beginning, no one could find us. It’s in the heart of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz; before, it was a rehearsal room.
HB: When we started doing collaborations with other institutes and festivals it kind of made me angry, because we got the highest turnover. You’re thinking, ‘but we did such cool stuff before!’ But people come when they see a name they recognise. It’s hard to do something new. But also exciting. It’s important to get out of your bubble though – we’ve got our ideas, but it’s important to exchange and trust others completely with the room and collaborate.
How has the project changed since 2023, and how might it change in the future?
HB: In the beginning it was from time to time, because no one really knew what to do when we took this place over. In the old auditorium we showed films from Wakaliwood – an action film studio from Uganda with live commentary – and [American director] Jack Smith’s works, after his films were banned for their sexually explicit nature. We showed his film reels to music as a performance. We thought, let’s show this special screening practice instead of the films which he never finished himself and instead were completed after his death.
LJ: In the summer we are planning a small festival at the end of the theater season. It will be called VIDEOTHEK Festspiele. And then we might move the VIDEOTHEK to another location.
HB: We like the idea of it moving around.
Lastly, what’s one thing someone can expect when attending the film events here?
HB: You should come here more than once. Maybe you come to a screening and it’s not to your taste, but you like the vibe of the space and the conversations you may end up having and browsing all the film VHS titles on display. It’s more of a world-building project. If you have any ideas, contact us!
- Visit the Volksbühne website to find out more.
