This week we viewed the movie Kuhle Wampe. This movie had a great impact on my views of post war Berlin. The movie used the city of Berlin and especially one family to depict the struggles of a post war Germany. When the young man committed suicide towards the beginning of the movie, I could feel the hopeless struggle of a young German working class that were without jobs. When the father yelled at his daughter, I could feel the clash between the past and present generations. This movie made me realize that post war Germany was anything but stable and that there are signs in the film that point to a rocky recovery for the new German nation and its people.
My film group decided to cook together and then discuss how and what we were going to film for the point of view project. The dinner really helped break the ice for discussion so that after we ate we immediately jumped into some really great dialog of what we wanted in our film. Ever since we concluded on the idea to do the point of view on a beer bottle, I have been fascinated on the idea of ending the movie through breaking the object that is being viewed. The movie ends through the demise of the object itself. The group all agreed upon this ending. We also discussed how we were going to shoot the party scene but decided to wait until the next day so that we could tell more people about our project and have them participate. Instead of calling the meeting over, we decided to get the final scene on film.
Using the group's creativity to act out a drunken stumble and crash of the beer bottle was a lot of fun. I feel that my role in the group has changed since the first week because during the first week I felt that I had to be very outgoing and aggressive to gather other people's ideas and thoughts on some aspects of our film projects. This last week I have been able to sit back and let other members in the group become more active in bringing up discussions and ideas for our films. This more active group that I have witnessed this week shows very promising characteristics of a team with great chemistry and a group that can easily form thoughts from discussions. I feel very confident that our team will produce a great movie for class.
Our group changed due dates to Friday the 19th, because we finished filming the majority of our work and felt confident that we could finish in time. The big party scene was filmed earlier in the week and due to choreographed rehearsals and the great participation of our fellow CHID students we shot a great segment that holds the majority of the material for our film. All we need to do now is shoot an intro and then edit the movie. I am very excited to show the class our film and to accomplish this group project to the best of my abilities.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Week 2
This weekend was great and I really got a feel of the famous Berlin nightlife. I am trying to become familiar with many parts of the Berliner lifestyle because I feel it will help me with my decision of what and where to film. The first group meeting took place this weekend was very successful. I am very excited about this group because we immediately hit it off with some great ideas and it seems like we have great chemistry as a team. I could barely keep up with taking notes as the ideas for the movie kept fluttering out. We decided to take 4 individual stories of the city, each member doing their own, and somehow intertwining the individual accounts together to create an overlapping display of stories throughout Berlin.
This idea was mutually created and agreed upon. We sat around a table and came up with many creative ways to weave our stories together by using the geographic properties of the many sites of Berlin. One idea that our group came up with was to use the U-Bahn as a device for switching between stories. As one story ended, that character would enter the train and another character would exit the train and the camera would follow their story.
This week's class has been very interesting because Professor Wagner's class was held in the Jewish Museum. Being able to sit in class and realize that we are discussing topics of memory inside of a Museum that is world renowned for its display of memory was a delight. The reading in Brian Ladd is further connecting the dots of Berlin for me. Utilizing the bus tour and readings from class has helped me gain a concrete grounding for the city that I now live in. I walked around the city for 4 hours before class Tuesday and picked out many of the sites that were mentioned in the readings. One of the most fascinating was the Nikolai section that was built by the East Germans. In this area the streets began to narrow and I found myself traveling back to a classic European city. This rebuilt area has a Disneyland feel to its authenticity. The Nikolai Church did retain a classic European feel that I have encountered throughout Europe. The most incredible experience was walking out of this area and into modern day Berlin where cranes hoisting steel are the modern equivalent to an ancient church containing a holy relic.
In my movie I hope to incorporate the old and new sides of Berlin. I also want to integrate old and new memory of Berlin’s history that is visible throughout the city. I look forward to exploring the city with a more in depth approach in the following weeks to try and find buildings, landmarks and monuments that will help me with my movie.
This idea was mutually created and agreed upon. We sat around a table and came up with many creative ways to weave our stories together by using the geographic properties of the many sites of Berlin. One idea that our group came up with was to use the U-Bahn as a device for switching between stories. As one story ended, that character would enter the train and another character would exit the train and the camera would follow their story.
This week's class has been very interesting because Professor Wagner's class was held in the Jewish Museum. Being able to sit in class and realize that we are discussing topics of memory inside of a Museum that is world renowned for its display of memory was a delight. The reading in Brian Ladd is further connecting the dots of Berlin for me. Utilizing the bus tour and readings from class has helped me gain a concrete grounding for the city that I now live in. I walked around the city for 4 hours before class Tuesday and picked out many of the sites that were mentioned in the readings. One of the most fascinating was the Nikolai section that was built by the East Germans. In this area the streets began to narrow and I found myself traveling back to a classic European city. This rebuilt area has a Disneyland feel to its authenticity. The Nikolai Church did retain a classic European feel that I have encountered throughout Europe. The most incredible experience was walking out of this area and into modern day Berlin where cranes hoisting steel are the modern equivalent to an ancient church containing a holy relic.
In my movie I hope to incorporate the old and new sides of Berlin. I also want to integrate old and new memory of Berlin’s history that is visible throughout the city. I look forward to exploring the city with a more in depth approach in the following weeks to try and find buildings, landmarks and monuments that will help me with my movie.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Week 1
It is still difficult to comprehend that I am now studying in Berlin. A city in which history is visable around every corner and a city that has even more history buried underneath its surface. The first week in Berlin has been one that I will not forget. I feel that all my expectations for a city and school courses have been realized in the very first week. I have very high optimisms for growing as an individual through the combination of cultural and academic growth that can only be provided in a study abroad program.
The first week of classes have mostly been centred on discussing the future of the courses and becoming acclimated with the professors. The readings relate directly to the city that surrounds us, which provides me with constant internal discussion of the readings as I wonder the streets of Berlin. Discussing about the Palace that once stood on the other side of Under den Linden made me realize how the memory of this city is incorporated with daily life for Berliners. Memory is more than a photograph or a story to the people of this city, memory must be something tangible so that future generations will not forget or distort its past.
We watched a film in class by Daniel Isenberg called The Displaced Person, this film provoked my thought process for my own film. The film showed a mysterious character later to be known as Hitler moving around Paris. It used old film footage and reels to show how Paris reacted when Hitler arrived. The reception shown in the film is one of delight and fascination with the powerful leader. The film then spliced in many images of people being deported to concentration camps on trains. The powerful image of a single helpless woman leaving in a train car is juxtaposed with the all powerful Hitler arriving in his train car.
These strong images made me think of the helpless people that became victims of the Holocaust due to the Nazi regime. I also pondered if it was my duty to speak out as a Jew in Berlin for those who did not have a voice. Should my film be based on the Jewish tragedy just because I myself am a Jew? I had a lot of questions to ask myself about the direction and focus of my film.
On Friday I got to meet Thorsten Wagner. Professor Ames told the class that we were fortunate to have such a prolific scholar teaching us this quarter and I could now see it for myself as we reviewed the syllabus. This is the class I wanted when I first thought of studying abroad. I want to take to the streets and become apart of the history. This class touches on the history of the surrounding environment while at the same time questioning the history and forces us to think of what the future holds for this city. I am very excited to go on our first excursion and to see if my optimism will be fulfilled.
The first week of classes have mostly been centred on discussing the future of the courses and becoming acclimated with the professors. The readings relate directly to the city that surrounds us, which provides me with constant internal discussion of the readings as I wonder the streets of Berlin. Discussing about the Palace that once stood on the other side of Under den Linden made me realize how the memory of this city is incorporated with daily life for Berliners. Memory is more than a photograph or a story to the people of this city, memory must be something tangible so that future generations will not forget or distort its past.
We watched a film in class by Daniel Isenberg called The Displaced Person, this film provoked my thought process for my own film. The film showed a mysterious character later to be known as Hitler moving around Paris. It used old film footage and reels to show how Paris reacted when Hitler arrived. The reception shown in the film is one of delight and fascination with the powerful leader. The film then spliced in many images of people being deported to concentration camps on trains. The powerful image of a single helpless woman leaving in a train car is juxtaposed with the all powerful Hitler arriving in his train car.
These strong images made me think of the helpless people that became victims of the Holocaust due to the Nazi regime. I also pondered if it was my duty to speak out as a Jew in Berlin for those who did not have a voice. Should my film be based on the Jewish tragedy just because I myself am a Jew? I had a lot of questions to ask myself about the direction and focus of my film.
On Friday I got to meet Thorsten Wagner. Professor Ames told the class that we were fortunate to have such a prolific scholar teaching us this quarter and I could now see it for myself as we reviewed the syllabus. This is the class I wanted when I first thought of studying abroad. I want to take to the streets and become apart of the history. This class touches on the history of the surrounding environment while at the same time questioning the history and forces us to think of what the future holds for this city. I am very excited to go on our first excursion and to see if my optimism will be fulfilled.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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