Podcast: Beth B – SALVATION!

The audience discussions at the Berlinale Forum are legendary: they are enthusiastic, interested, profound, honest and enlightening – on the part of the filmmakers and the audience. Most of the talks were recorded and have since been digitized. In order to recover this cultural treasure, Arsenal presents selected conversations as podcasts and contextualizes them in dialogue with experts.

Beth B SALVATION!

Beth B's movie SALVATION! (1987) is a satire that anticipated pop culture's fascination with televangelism. The controversial audience discussion at the Berlinale Forum turns to music video aesthetics and whether the director goes far enough or too far. Introduction by Bettina Ellerkamp.

From August 15 to 25, 2024, the exhibition "Now Wave: Beth B – Glowing" can be seen at silent green Kulturquartier. On August 13, 2024, Arsenal will be showing the film SALVATION! by Beth B and publishing the film talk from 1987 that took place after the premiere of SALVATION! at the Delphi. Moderated by Ulrich Gregor, director Beth B and lead actor Stephen McHattie will answer questions from the rapt Berlin audience.

Bettina Ellerkamp, co-organizer of the exhibition and co-founder of silent green Kulturquartier, gives an introduction to the work of Beth B. She was present at the audience discussion in 1987 and talks about the somewhat harsher tone in the no-future Berlin of the 1980s.

We are showing SALVATION! on August 13, 2024 in the Arsenal cinema as an analog 35mm film print, which Arsenal purchased for the premiere of the film in the Forum of the Berlinale. Beth B is present and talks to Stefanie Schulte Strathaus – and of course the audience.

Further episodes of Arsenal 60 ff.

Published episodes of our podcast with film talks from the Berlinale Forum are Helke Misselwitz’ WINTER ADÉ (1989), Helke Sanders DIE ALLSEITIG REDUZIERTE PERSÖNLICHKEIT – REDUPERS (1978) and Safi Fayes FADJAL (1979).

Helke Misselwitz WINTER ADÉ (1989)

Helke Misselwitz's WINTER ADÉ gives an immediate impression of life and the mood in the GDR one year before the collapse. The audience discussion at the Delphi cinema in the old West Berlin took place in February 1989, just a few months before the fall of the Wall. Conversation with Birgit Kohler, program director of the Arsenal cinema – talk in German.

Helke Sanders DIE ALLSEITIG REDUZIERTE PERSÖNLICHKEIT – REDUPERS (1978)

Helke Sanders film DIE ALLSEITIG REDUZIERTE PERSÖNLICHKEIT – REDUPERS describes the everyday reality of working, single mothers and is also a document of the walled city West Berlin. We talk to Elena Baumeister and Fiona Berg from the feminist collective feminist elsewheres.

Safi Faye FADJAL (1979)

Safi Faye's film FADJAL combines documentary and fiction in a portrait of a Senegalese village. In the 1979 audience discussion, exoticist ideas from the audience meet an African filmmaker with attitude. Karina Griffith, film curator and member of the Forum Expanded selection committee, explains the background.

The podcast Arsenal 60 ff. is hosted by Valie Djordjević. She is a social media editor for the Forum and Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, as well as an author, photographer and translator. Most recently, she published the book "Die Berliner Schule im globalen Kontext. A transnational arthouse cinema" edited by Marco Abel and Jaimey Fisher (Transcript Verlag 2023).

The podcast is part of ARSENAL 60 ff. and is made possible by a grant from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.