Symposium Recycled Cinema

The Recycled Cinema symposium discussed the practice of archival usage in film and aesthetic strategies of second hand cinema. The participants debated issues including questions of future sustainability and accessibility of our audiovisual memory, as well as perspectives on quoting rights in film.

The programme
Thursday, 11th September 2014

Welcome address by
Andreas Lewin (Artistic Direction Doku.Arts)

Keynote
Ethics of Appropriation
by Prof. Dr. Thomas Elsaesser
in English

The symposium was opened with a keynote address given by internationally renowned film historian Thomas Elsaesser. The keynote dealt with examples of cinematic appropriation of already used or found film footage. It also explored how cooperation between archives, experts, and artists can enable a living archival work and convey forward-looking perspectives.

When do ethical issues emerge during the creation of a new film work from old material? Using film and archival examples that include found footage, home movies, and historically charged material, Thomas Elsaesser addressed contemporary questions and problems associated with archival film material.

Which editing principles and staging practices allow for a reassessment of the original material? Often, fictionally reconstructed scenes must stand in for missing footage. When and why is the way (out) through fiction or "re-enactment" legitimate? How do filmmakers approach handling archival material in their work and in their stories? How can an archive “profit” from having its material used artistically, or from the added cultural value that is thereby created?

Furthermore, filmic citation makes us confront a new question: Who is the author of a film that “purely” consists of archival material? Must the concept of the “film author” be reconsidered in the age of citing and copying?

Friday, 12th September 2014

(The symposium was translated simultaneously in German and English)

Welcome address by Rüdiger Suchsland, Moderator
(Film journalist, amongst others for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, film-dienst, and Deutschlandfunk)

Key Note: Julie Ahrens
(Director of “Copyright and Fair Use” at the Center for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School)

Panel Reclaiming Fair Use – On the Future of Quoting Rights in the Film Industry

– Lecture Prof. Dr. Alexander Peukert
(Professor for Civil and Commercial Law, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main)
– Lecture Dirk von Gehlen
(Head of “Social Media/ Innovation”, Süddeutsche Zeitung)
– Discussion with Julie Ahrens, Alexander Peukert, Dirk von Gehlen

Panel The Dichotomy between Document and Fiction – Do Personality Rights Amount to Censorship?

– Lecture Elizabeth Gibson
(Intellectual Property Lawyer at BBC)
– Case study by Prof. Thomas Schadt
(Documentary filmmaker, photographer, cameraman, and author; Director of the Documentary Directing Studies programme at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg)
– Discussion with Elisabeth Gibson and Thomas Schadt

Panel „For Educational Use – Remixing Archives“

– Lecture Dr. Balázs Varga
(Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Institute for Art Theory and Media Studies, Budapest)
– Lecture Anthony Wall
(Executive Producer at BBC Arena, the BBC documentary series)
– Discussion with Hans Kohl (Production Manager in the Film, Television, and Radio Department, Goethe-Institut Headquarters, Munich), Balázs Varga, Anthony Wall und Thomas Elsaesser

Flyer Symposium