At the time, many of the participants in these discussions, wide segments of public opinion as well as a majority of the film critics were in fact of the opinion that it had become necessary to re-orientate the film festival and that its principles were indeed questionable, particularly its prevailing orientation toward film commerce and the cult of the stars. After many hearings and discussions, the "Berliner Festspiele GmbH", the private limited company borne by the Federal Government and the "Land" of Berlin that is responsible for the film festival, finally arrived at the decision (which was publicly announced toward the end of the year 1970) that the film festival should carry on in 1971 in its previous form, but that the "Freunde der deutschen Kinemathek" ("Friends of the German Cinematheque", which had been founded in 1963 and already come to the fore in Berlin through a variety of activities) should be charged with the task of organizing a new event, the "Internationales Forum des Jungen Films" (International Forum of New Cinema). The Forum would be set up within the framework of the film festival (and financed by the Berliner Festspiele GmbH), but staged under the sole responsibility of the Friends of the German Cinematheque.

This then became the compromise formula for Berlin, and after the preliminary negotiations between the Festspiele GmbH and Friends of the German Cinematheque were resolved positively, the International Forum of Young Cinema became part of the "Berlinale" in 1971 for the first time. In the beginning (and for a number of years thereafter) the two parts of the festival ("Competition" and "Forum") were felt by many to be independent, mutually competitive events (which in fact was the case). The "Friends" set up their part of the festival entirely according to their own concepts, which were based on the principles of the previous activities of the association of the "Friends" and on certain international models (e.g. the "Critic's Week" in Cannes and the "Mostra del nuovo cinema" in Pesaro).

What were these new basic ideas of the Forum? First of all, a selection of films with no compromises or outward considerations, but rather according to the values and views of the selection committee of the Forum; the decisive factor should be not only the artistic quality of a film, but especially the originality of its form as well as its contribution to the development of a new language and aesthetics of film. Furthermore, the films should testify to social and political developments, as in fact films from the Third World nations form one of the focal points of the Forum in general.

In addition, the activity of the Forum was not to be limited to an event lasting only 10 or 12 days, but rather reach beyond the borders of the festival. In practice this meant that the "Friends" as organizers of the Forum directed their efforts toward retaining the films in Berlin after the Forum ended and signed contracts with the filmmakers, producers and owners of the rights in order to make prints available for cultural film activity (i.e. primarily for screenings in film clubs, municipal or communal cinemas and educational institutions, but also in film theatres, depending on the contract and the nature of the film).

Moreover, from the start the Forum has attached great importance to the discussions between filmmakers and spectators in the cinemas immediately following the screening of a film and has made this one of its most important principles (the audience discussions take the place of press conferences, which are only held additionally in individual cases). And finally, the Forum has also always invested a great deal of time and energy in the production of its substantial information material for each individual film. In the mean time, the Forum information leaflets have gradually set a standard that other festivals also attempt to achieve; they contain not only exact technical data on each film, but also extensive background material, film reviews, interviews, essays on the film's topic as well as bio/filmographical information on the director. The purpose of this material is to build up a greater understanding of each individual film. For the Forum, a film isn't seen as an article of merchandise produced for the purpose of entertainment and profit-making, but as an artistic product and as part of the process of communication.

The Forum has worked along these principles ever since its foundation in 1971. In the meantime, there are 19 volumes of collected information leaflets on the individual films, to which videos were later added; an index of all titles and directors is in preparation. Through their activities of collecting and distributing the films, the Friends of the German Cinematheque have meanwhile put together an extensive store of film prints, which are constantly circulating in the communal cinemas of the Federal Republic of Germany and are also often sent abroad to film festivals, cultural institutions and film archives. The only great problem with this work is that there is no money to replace the prints that wear down in the course of time, so that the "Friends" sometimes come into conflict with their desire to show the films (bringing wear and tear or even the possible destruction of the prints) and the need to maintain them. The distribution catalogue of the "Friends" now comprises a repertory of some 500 titles; its focal points are ethnographical cinema, experimental films, films by women, political documentaries and films from the Third World.

From the very first year of its existence the Forum has been accorded an overwhelming success. The list of the most important titles from the first Forum of 1971 includes: "GESCHICHTEN VOM KÜBELKIND" (Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz, Federal Republic of Germany), "DER GROßE VERHAU" (Alexander Kluge, Federal Republic of Germany), "NICHT DER HOMOSEXUELLE IST PERVERS..." (Rosa von Praunheim, Federal Republic of Germany), "LA SALAMANDRE" (Alain Tanner, Switzerland), "JAMES OU PAS" (Michel Soutter, Switzerland), "ANAPARASTASSI" (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece), "W.R. - DIE MYSTERIEN DES ORGANISMUS" (Dusan Makavejev, Yugoslavia), "ORTHON" (Jean-Marie Straub, Federal Republic of Germany/Italy), "THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON" (Mike Gray, USA), "GISHIKI" ("The Ceremony", Nagisa Oshima, Japan), "LE COCHON" (Jean Eustache, France), "MARE'S TAIL" (David Larcher, Great Britain); in addition there were films from Algeria, Morocco, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, including many documentaries - in its work the Forum has never drawn a line between fiction and documentary films.

The Forum began its activities in modest circumstances: in the cinemas of the "Atelier am Zoo" and in its own theatre, the "Arsenal", which came into existence in 1970 (here there had already been programmes shown in the summer of 1970 occasioned by the Berlin Film Festival, including a Fassbinder retrospective of five films - the first ever to take place anywhere!). The capacity was about 600 seats (today the films of the Forum are screened in four different cinemas with a total capacity of around 1,800 seats). For visitors to the Berlinale it was recommended to be doubly accredited - with the Festival and with the Forum. The programme of the Forum met even in 1971 with great enthusiasm and was given a very positive critical reception, which can be explained in part by the fact that the "zeitgeist" demanded a new type of festival such as the Forum represented, where no great importance was attached to prizes; where the new style of cinema, "auteur" films, new German cinema, the political documentaries and films from the Third World were at the centre of attention; where it was possible to discuss films at length. Naturally, a large proportion of the films were in 16 mm format (which has remained so even today).

Another principle in planning the programme of the Forum has always been to place historical films at certain intervals among the modern works - to fill important information gaps, to make certain films finally available to an international audience, to draw parallels and connecting lines between diffenent films. So the Forum cultivated the Soviet classics in its first years and showed films by Dziga Vertov, Eisenstein, Esther Shub and Dovzhenko as well as Kozintsev and Trauberg (before 1975 no films from the Socialist countries could be presented at the Berlin Film Festival because of the then still insurmountable political difficulties; this principle could only be "undermined" in the area of film history). At the same time, the Forum also showed important works of Italian neo-realism, such as "OSSESSIONE" and "LA TERRA TREMA" by Visconti and Rossellini's "ROMA CITTA APERTA" and "PAISA". Adventurous routes had to be taken in order to get ahold of good prints, often with only partial success (the negative stock of "ROMA CITTA APERTA", for example, had just been sold from Italy to someone in Germany and was in an indescribably poor condition). It was equally important for the Forum to be able to present works like Bu¤uel's "L'AGE D'OR" or the American film "THE SALT OF THE EARTH", which at that time were simply not known in Germany and not visible on the cultural horizon.

The programme of the Forum in the 1970s and 1980s reflects the directions taken by the new, burgeoning developments in the cinema. For the record it must be noted that many first-time film directors who were originally very closely associated with the Forum later achieved wide recognition and their films were then presented in various international competition sections. This was the case with Theo Angelopoulos, whose first works were shown in the Forum ("ANAPARASSTASI", "DAYS OF '36" and "THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS"), or with Nagisa Oshima (the Forum showed "NIGHT AND FOG IN JAPAN", "THREE RESURRECTED DRUNKARDS" and "THE CEREMONY" and later "IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES"), or with Mrinal Sen, six of whose films the Forum had presented by 1977. Among European directors, Raoul Ruiz and, in his initial phase, Peter Greenaway as well were regular Forum directors; for example, we screened Greenaway's fascinating first feature "THE FALLS" (1981). Early Swiss films (Tanner, Soutter) were strongly represented at the Forum in the 1970s; also present were directors like René Allio (with "LES CAMISARDS" and "MOI, PIERRE RIVIERE...") and the Taviani brothers (with "SOTTO IL SEGNO DELLO SCORPIONE", "SAN MICHELE AVEVA UN GALLO" and "PADRE PADRONE"). Jean-Luc Godard was a frequent guest, as was director Jean Eustache, who has unfortunately died in the meantime, with his masterpiece "LA MAMAN ET LA PUTAIN"; in 1973 Jacques Rivette presented the world premiere of his 4 1/2-hour film "OUT ONE SPECTRE", which meanwhile has become something of a "white elephant" of contemporary cinema; the Forum specialized primarily in these exceptional and rare, but perhaps also difficult filmic works.

Among the German directors who have presented their films regularly at the Forum are Rudolf Thome, Ulrike Ottinger, Jutta Brückner, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Rosa von Praunheim, Werner Schroeter, Wim Wenders, the documentarists Rolf Schübel, Klaus Wildenhahn and Helga Reidemeister; two women filmmakers were both present at the Forum in 1978 with their first films: Margarethe von Trotta with "DAS ZWEITE ERWACHEN DER CHRISTA KLAGES" and Helke Sander with "DIE ALLSEITIG REDUZIERTE PERSÖNLICHKEIT".

If one attempts to determine what could be called focal points or lines of development that can be followed throughout the programme of the Forum from the beginning to the present, one comes up with the following areas, genres or trends: ethnographic cinema; political documentaries; experimental or avantgarde cinema; films by women; the large-scale documentaries on contemporary history, particularly those concerned with the history of the Nazi period (the Forum has always seen the confrontation with this chapter of German history as one of its top priorities); the cinema of non-European countries; new tendencies and directors from the Socialist countries. In addition, the Forum has also favoured films of exceptional dimension, such as long works ("THE JOURNEY" by Peter Watkins: 14 hours and 33 minutes; or "SHOAH" by Claude Lanzmann: 9 hours and 26 minutes), or an especially short film like Marcel Broodthaers' "LA SIGNATURE" (length: 1 second). In general, however, the Forum does not show short films or in fact films under 60 minutes. We refer filmmakers of shorts to the specialized festivals such as Oberhausen, where short films more likely get their due; exceptions with shorts are made at the Forum only when it is a question of thematically related films or films by one director.

Only a few examples can be given for each of the different areas or genres; they represent important stages, highlights in the history of the Forum's development. Noteworthy examples of ethnographic cinema are Michael Oppitz' film "SCHAMANEN IM BLINDEN LAND" (1981), which he filmed in Nepal, and "BESCHREIBUNG EINER INSEL" (1979) by Rudolf Thome and Cynthia Beatt. There are also filmmakers who use ethnographic methods in describing a European environment, such as the French documentarist Depardon. The ethnographic filmmakers David and Judith MacDougall (1984) and the documentarist Dennis O'Rourke (1986) were guests of the Forum from Australia for the screening of sizable selections of their films. Since 1984 Jean Rouch has come to the Forum regularly to present his films.

"Political" cinema was at the centre of attention for many filmmakers especially after 1968 and in the 1970s; one of their most prominent representatives was Jean-Luc Godard. For many of these filmmakers political cinema was only a transitory phase; others have resolutely continued to develop their methods and have achieved results that are as fascinating for the contents of their social research as for their artistic quality. Among these filmmakers is Marcel Ophuls, whose films "LE CHAGRIN ET LA PITIE" (1972) and "HOTEL TERMINUS" (1989) were shown at the Forum. Both films brilliantly confirm how the movie camera and the creative possibilities of the cinema can be applied as means of social, political and historical research; and how cinema can be something quite different from the narrative feature films made for entertainment, namely a mirror of reality, an instrument of discovery, of enlightenment and of inspiration for every single viewer. It is in pointing to these alternative opportunities for cinema beside and in contrast to the dominating currents of the established, industrially manufactured cinema that the Forum sees its foremost and pre-eminent task. This circumstance also provides an explanation for the fact that the Forum focuses more on documentary films and unusual, experimental film genres than do related festivals or festival sections, such as the Quinzaine des réalisateurs in Cannes.

At this point the film that can perhaps be called the greatest and most moving ever to be presented in the history of the Forum must be named: "SHOAH" by Claude Lanzmann. This film recapitulates a chapter of European history, the annihilation of the Jews by the Nazis, in such an incomparable manner that the monstrosity of the occurrences described as well as their nearness to the viewers, despite the gap in time, enter one's consciousness in a way that no other medium could accomplish. The effect of the film can no doubt also be explained through the personality of Lanzmann, through his passionate commitment and the relentlessness of his probing and exposing. At the same time, this film is a splendid demonstration of how the aesthetic possibilities of the language of film can be employed to articulate a topic, to delve more deeply into it and orchestrate it and finally to establish a special communication with the audience. The film has not only a politico-historical dimension, but in particular an aesthetic measure. It can be maintained that whoever has seen "SHOAH" and let it take effect has been inwardly transformed by this film. The Forum is proud to have shown this film, which concerns Germany like no other nation, and to have contributed to its circulation.

Many other films that the Forum showed before or after "SHOAH" must be seen in the same perspective: "PARTISANS OF VILNA" or "WE WERE SO BELOVED", but also "LODZ GHETTO" and before that "THE 81ST BLOW". The Forum has taken over many of these films into its distribution arm.

Women's cinema has always had a strong presence in the Forum's programme (even if it wasn't always easy to find enough suitable films), and in fact in all genres and areas. It has become particularly evident in the area of German films, where all of the important filmmakers - Elfi Mikisch, Ulrike Ottinger, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Helke Sander, Jutta Brückner, Helga Reidemeister, Jeanine Meerapfel, Ula Stöckl (the list is of course not complete) - have been represented in the programme of the Forum. But there have also been German or foreign films with an explicitly feminist theme or aim, for example the Italian films "PROZESS ÜBER VERGEWALTIGUNG" or "MATERNALE" von Giovanna Gagliardo. The films of the American director Yvonne Rainer can also be mentioned in this context, such as "FILM ABOUT A WOMAN WHO...", or also Chantal Akerman's experimentally constructed film "JEANNE DIELMAN". The Danish movie "TAKE IT LIKE A MAN, MADAME", produced by the "Red Sisters" and screened at the Forum in 1975, has become something of a classic of women's films. This work, like Lizzie Borden's "BORN IN FLAMES", is in great demand at the distribution branch of the "Friends".

An area or genre which the Forum has especially cultivated from the very beginning is that of experimental and avantgarde films. In general, they do not have an easy time in the cinema or at festivals and require particular care and attention. In the 1970s there was still a more or less coherent "school" of avantgarde film, which was sometimes described as the "structuralist" school of filmmaking, although not all of those filmmakers could be thus categorized. The Forum has shown important works from this area, milestones in the development, such as the films of Michel Snow ("LA REGION CENTRALE", "SO IS THIS") or Stan Brakhage ("SINCERITY", "MURDER PSALM", "THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES") or Jonas Mekas ("DIARIES, NOTES AND SKETCHES", "HE STANDS IN A DESERT..."). Directors like Ernie Gehr, Larry Gottheim and James Benning were also guests of the Forum; we also showed the films of Hollis Frampton and Ken Jacobs.

The school of experimental and avantgarde films is no longer as closely knit as it used to be; nevertheless, experimental impulses continue to have an effect on the language of film and on narrative technique, as can be seen in directors like Jim Jarmusch ("PERMANENT VACATION") or Alexander Rockwell ("LENZ").

By nature and due above all to its geographical location, the Berlin Film Festival, and thus the Forum as well, is very interested in all new developments in the area of films from the Socialist countries. Since 1975 the Forum has been able to present many remarkable, courageous and novel films from Hungary, Poland, the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union. From Hungary, for example, the long essay films by Darday and Szalai; from Poland a number of films by Krzysztof Kieslowshi, Feliks Falk and other directors. From the GDR the Forum has shown mostly documentaries, including such pathbreaking works as "LEBENSLÄUFE" by Wilfried Junge and "BUSCH SINGT", a cooperative effort of several different directors with the participation of Konrad Wolf (this film also deals with an important chapter of German history that can certainly not be called "closed"). Of particular interest are the Soviet films that the Forum has been able to show since 1975 (they were not always easy to get), including works like "ICH BITTE UMS WORT" by Gleb Panfilov, the films of Vasili Shushkin, the Georgian contributions by Tengis Abuladse, "DER BAUM DER WÜNSCHE" (Forum 1978), or Otar Ooselliani, "PASTORALE" (Forum 1982), "EINIGE INTERVIEWS" by Lana Gogoberidse (Forum 1979). Overshadowing the others was the figure of Andrei Tarkovsky, of whose works the Forum was able to show "STALKER" in 1981 (other films of his as well as those of Paradzhanov could be obtained for the distribution arm of the "Friends").

Last but not least, the Forum has devoted itself to the cinema of the Third World. In the first decade this meant primarily Africa and Latin America. Directors like Jorge Sanjinez and Ousmane Sembène were present several times at the Forum with their films, and there were also innovative works like Leon Hirszman's "SAO BERNARDO" from Brazil (1972) or "DUVIDHA" by Mani Kaul (India 1975), or "ALLTAGSLEBEN IN EINEM SYRISCHEN DORF" by Omar Amiralay, or films by Dariush Mehrjui (Iran), Mrinal Sen (India), Paul Leduc (Mexico) or Merzak Allouache (Algeria). Since the middle of the 1980s East Asia has moved more towards the centre of interest. Here the Forum has concentrated particularly on the "New Wave" from Taiwan and the films of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, which represent a completely new style and personality. The Forum showed Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "GESCHICHTEN EINER FERNEN KINDHEIT" and "LIEBE, WIND, STAUB".

In the last few years a great many remarkable works came from Japan (a country that has maintained a strong profile throughout the two decades of the Forum). Here the documentaries in particular can be mentioned: "YUKI YUKITE SHINGUN" (Forward Army of God) by Kazuo Hara was awarded the "Caligari" prize of the "AG für kommunale Arbeit" at the Forum and went from its world premiere here on to make the rounds of almost all of the festivals in the world; also noteworthy are the long documentaries by Shinsuke Ogawa ("JAPAN - DAS DÖRFCHEN FURUYASHIKI", Forum 1984, and "GESCHICHTEN AUS DEM DORF MAGINO", Forum 1987).

The International Forum of Young Cinema (whom no one cared to prophesy a long career when it was installed) has meanwhile become a fixed element of the Berlin International Film Festival. Only once was its programme autonomy jeopardized: it was in 1976, when the Berlin public prosecutor confiscated the print of the film "AI NO CORRIDA" ("In the Realm of the Senses") by Nagisa Oshima, an almost unique occurrence in the history of the film festival. The legal proceedings instituted against the director of the Forum were, however, soon dropped, and the film was then even distributed in West German cinemas.

Since 1980 the Forum has been more thoroughly intergrated into the overall structure of the Berlin Film Festival (so that outsiders can no longer as easily recognize the independent organization form of the Forum). For festival visitors this means a simpler and more clearly organized system. And yet nothing has changed with regard to the Forum's programme concept; the selection continues to comply with the criteria established at the beginning: the innovative value of a film or its worth as a testimony, a document, a new experience for the viewer are the decisive factors for its selection. If the borders between the individual sections of the festival sometimes seem to shift, it is because more "young" and innovative - and even experimental - films are also now being shown in the other sections of the festival, due not least to a competitive situation that still exists.

The environment in which the Forum stands today is no longer the same as in 1971. Film forms have changed. There is no longer a decidedly aggressive experimental cinema or the cinema of political dispute. The forms of consumer and entertainment films appear to be stonger and more deeply entrenched worldwide than 20 years ago. And there are also changes in the cinema of the Third World. These films are now nearer to us, but they still cannot be measured by the same criteria as European auteur or art films, if they are to be properly appreciated.

On the other hand, there are still filmmakers working today who stubbornly follow their own intuition, who refuse to accommodate themselves to the rules of the marketplace or try to outwit them, who do not capitulate in the face of difficulties and who develop new imagination and new forms out of the limitations in their production budgets. These filmmakers are the natural allies of the Forum in the present and in the future. It is our opinion that there is also an audience that still wants to see such films, that indeed even prefers them to the highly polished products of the industry and that is interested in entering into a dialogue with the makers of these films. It is for this audience and for these filmmakers that the Forum performs its work; we want to bring them in contact with one another; we want to indicate directions, to beat paths into the jungle of film forms and styles growing rampant throughout the world.