There’s a Strong Wind - Exile in the Arsenal Film Archive

A film archive isn’t just a place for storing film prints, it’s a place for narratives and counter-narratives, a cultural memory. And it can be much more than that too: a safe harbor, a protected space, even a “home” for the films from all over the world that come together there. Of the over 10,000 prints that have been collected in the Arsenal archive since the 60s, many have reached us via unconventional routes. For several of these prints, the Arsenal archive became a veritable place of refuge, because the films were not allowed to be publicly screened in their countries of production, were banned, or put their directors in danger. We are presenting several of these films as part of a brochure created for “Archive außer sich” and showing a selection of them on the big screen. In addition, Dorothee Wenner continued her video interview series “Family Affairs” for this project, producing interviews with Erika and Ulrich Gregor, Peter B. Schumann and Ratislav Steranka. They will be screened before the respective films. (Gesa Knolle, Annette Lingg)