“We have lost our homeland, but not our dreams,” says the film “Dreams of the Future.” This film, along with others, was created as part of the MitKunst project “Make Your Own Movie!” Over ten days in March and April, young people—refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Chechnya—came together to make films. In response to the open call for participants, young women and men from all over Berlin and beyond, with and without prior filmmaking experience, registered for the workshop. They all shared a curiosity and a desire to try new things together, exchange ideas, and learn the craft of filmmaking.
The film workshops took place in two blocks of five days each:
March 13-17, 2017: All participants learned the fundamentals together: camera technology, sound recording, acting/directing, and film editing. They formed teams and developed their own film ideas, wrote screenplays, worked out scenes, and wrote dialogue. On March 17, 2017, as the culmination of the introductory week, we visited the Konrad Wolf Film University in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Staff members gave us a tour of the building and the university's various departments: animation, music, editing, sound, camera, acting, production, directing, costume design, etc. The participants were able to ask questions about the training programs and admission requirements.
April 3-7, 2017: In the second half of the film workshop, the teams turned their screenplays into film scenes. Filmmaking is teamwork. Even during the scriptwriting phase, it became clear who preferred to work in front of or behind the camera. Everyone took on tasks and supported each other. Props were made, sets were set up, and permits were obtained from various locations, including a football stadium, the police station, and a hospital. The participants also took on small roles as actors in other film crews' projects. At the end of each day's shooting, they reviewed the footage and began editing the rough cut. They decided what worked well and what needed to be reshot or repeated. In the final editing phase, they worked on the pacing, shortened shots and scenes, added sound, and incorporated music. The groups gathered around the screens, and joyful laughter could be heard. The film workshop concluded with a presentation of the films at the wannseeFORUM, to which family members, friends, and members of the wannseeFORUM were invited.
Five films were made during this period, all very different, yet they share many common themes. The works deal with very personal experiences and events. They tell of war and the difficult decision to leave one's country, to leave family and friends, of the dangers encountered during the escape, of arriving and finding one's way in a foreign land, of friendship, and of dreams for the future.
Text from a brochure about the project, available for download here as a PDF (677 kB)
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Statement from Mehdi Moinzadehs, Dari/Farsi interpreter, director, and actor:
“I had the pleasure of spending a week getting to know incredibly motivated and open-minded young people. I was deeply moved by the dedication they showed in working on the various stories and how receptive they were to suggestions, whether content-related or technical. The atmosphere within the groups was generally excellent and focused, without any misplaced ambition – always centered on the story and the storytellers. I was particularly impressed by the fact that many participants had traveled from very far away and found a temporary home at the wannseeFORUM during the project phase, both in its rooms and within the group. I would gladly work with everyone again and look back on this time fondly. Above all, I will miss the humor and will always remember it with a smile.”
“Cut it out, make your film!” was a collaboration between the wannseeFORUM Foundation, the Steglitz-Zehlendorf Welcome Alliance for Refugees, and the Concrete Narrative Society eV.
and Concrete Narrative Society eV.
within the framework of “Culture Makes You Strong” / MIT-KUNST – projects of aesthetic education for young refugees, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, supervised by the Federal Association of Visual Artists/BBK.
Photo: Film still from "Future Dreams"