Magical History Tour – 
Improvisation in Film

"Improvisation is the highest form of concentration, of awareness, of intuitive knowledge, when the imagination begins to dismiss the pre-arranged, the contrived mental structures, and goes directly to the depths of the matter. This is the true meaning of improvisation, and it is not a method at all, it is, rather, a state of being necessary for any inspired creation." Taking Jonas Mekas's quote from his “Notes on the New American Cinema” text as a starting point, we are dedicating this month’s Magical History Tour to the different forms and manifestations of improvisation in film. Eleven examples that criss-cross film history testify to the massive scope for trying things out in rehearsals or in front of a running camera, to the programmatic opportunities to shape proceedings both by actors and for them, to breaking though boundaries and conventions, and last, but not least, to the exuberant joy of acting (together), experimentation and the unpredictable.