I curated the film hub of the 3rd Berlin Biennial, one of three thematic foci within the exhibition (artistic director; Ute Meta Bauer). The theme of the Biennial, Complex Berlin was concerned with revisiting the city's culture and history 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I decided to examine the multiple intersecting histories and viewpoints in post-war Germany and specifically Berlin moving image production with a focus on East Germany, for the first time the East German Super-8 movement was made internationally visible. The exhibition explored East German social modernisation and the history of gay and lesbian representation and organisation in the East through moving image documentation. Again, this history, though available locally, was not previously visible internationally. The film hub was located in the Arsenal Cinema in Potsdamer Platz, where the Berlin Film Festival takes place, and was timed to facilitate some joint programming and panel discussions.

I made two written contributions, both entitled Other Cinemas, one for the short guide and one for the exhibition catalogue. Both explored the notion of third or other cinema, which had previously been discussed in a post-colonial context to consider film from the now defunct East German state, and with a particular focus on oppositional super8 work by collectives, groups and individuals, some of whom made gay work. It took a non-German to introduce the avant-garde cinematic heritage from the former East to an art-world audience! It was also important that the gay and lesbian films focused attention on the very different histories of these movements in West and East. In my research I drew on the work of Claus Loser and Rainer Herrn respectively. My original contribution was to place both elements within an international art exhibition and insist on their relevance for an understanding of Berlin and German culture today.

http://www.berlinbiennale.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategor&class=42&Itemclass=82