Curated by Sarnt Utamachote, Popo Fan and Ragil Huda
SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA
How can a new kind of cinema be collectively created within a transnational society? SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, the cinema-experiment by bi’bak, explores cinema as a space of social discourse, exchange, and solidarity. The curated film series brings together diverse social communities and connects places both near and geographically distant; it links pasts, presents and futures and moves away from a eurocentric gaze towards transnational, (post-)migrant and postcolonial perspectives. SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA is a different kind of cinema, one simultaneously committed to local and international communities, that understands cinema as an important public sphere of sociality; it considers film history as crucial to the work of cultural memory and is committed to a diversity of film culture and film art. In Haus der Statistik at Berlin-Alexanderplatz, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA builds a bridge between urban practice and film to create a space that opens access, stimulates discussion, educates, moves, provokes and encourages.
SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA is funded by Haupstadtkulturfonds, Conrad Stiftung and the Programm NEUSTART KULTUR
Past event series can be found in the archive.
Curated by Sarnt Utamachote, Popo Fan and Ragil Huda
Berlinale Forum Special Programme
Curated by Can Sungu, Karina Griffith, Jacqueline Nsiah, Biene Pilavci and Enoka Ayemba
Children's cinema from SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA
Concept by Malve Lippmann and Dr. Martin Ganguly
Curated by LaborBerlin e.V.
Iranian Cinema Before 1979
Curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht
Curated by Can Sungu and Malve Lippmann
Cinema beyond the Screen
un.thai.tled Film Festival 2021
Curated by Sarnt Utamachote and Rosalia Namsai Engchuan
Feminist Gestures in Film
Curated by Pia Chakraverti-Würthwein & Eirini Fountedaki
Archive screenings with films from Navina Sundaram
Curated by Merle Kröger and Mareike Bernien
Symposium, Screenings, Talks
(Post-)Yugoslavian experiences
Curated by Borjana Gaković and Madeleine Bernstorff
Curated by Darunee Terdtoontaveedej
Perspectives from the South
Curated by Nafiseh Fathollahzadeh and Berke Göl
Curated by Jade Barget and Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee
A program by C/LENS in cooperation with Sinema Transtopia
Curated by Tang Xuedan (Echo)
Director Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre Mexico/USA 2006
68 Min., OV with English subs
Followed by a talk with Vicky Funari, Pia Chakraverti-Würthwein & Eirini Fountedaki and Lourdes Luján
Maquilápolis follows the story of women factory workers on the Mexican border, fighting against environmental degradation and the exploitation of their labour at the hands of U.S. and multinational companies. Carmen Durán and Lourdes Luján chronicle their struggles in video diaries, documenting their work as promotoras: community advocates for social justice. The process behind the film is especially valuable, as it actively involved the promotoras in planning, filming, and distribution, as well as the fact that it directly led to the cleanup of an abandoned factory in Chilpancingo.
Vicky Funari is a documentary filmmaker and teacher. Her films include Paulina (1998) and Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000). Funari is committed to co-creative processes that aim to be of use to the individuals and communities represented. She is a Senior Lecturer of Visual Studies at Haverford College.
Pia Chakraverti-Würthwein & Eirini Fountedaki form a curatorial duo interested in embodied knowledge and collective reflections through film. They co-curated the film series Residing in the Borderlands at SAVVY Contemporary, and participated in the Berlin Biennial 11 curatorial workshop how now to gather. They also co-edited the publication How does the world breathe now? Film as Witness, Archive, and Political Tool (Archive Books, 2021).
