Between the Films—A Photo History of the Berlinale

Gerhard Kassner, Heinz Köster, Mario Mach, Fumiko Matsuyama, Erika Rabau, Christian Schulz, Marian Stefanowski

Press photographers have accompanied, documented, and even interpreted the Berlin International Film Festival from the very start. The Deutsche Kinemathek archives a number of photographic estates, whose lenses have focused primarily on the social side of film events in Berlin. Yet the special appeal of these collections is concealed in the marginalia of the actual motifs, reflecting casually captured moments of fashion, zeitgeist, everyday life, and our society’s culture of representation and consumerism. Moreover, the photographs document the eventful history of the Berlinale and of the city of Berlin itself. Founded in former West Germany, the film festival survived not only the division of the city and Reunification, Allied occupation and Berlin’s newly attained status as capital, at times it immediately reacted to political shocks as well. The exhibition presents works from the 1950s and 1960s, for instance by Mario Mach, whose works are presented to the public for the first time; works by Heinz Köster and Erika Rabau; as well as original prints by contemporary photographers including Christian Schulz and Gerhard Kassner.