Film Series “Shared Histories – Collaboration in Ethnographic Film” from 25 to 28 September 2025

08.09.2025
Ethnologisches Museum

The curtain is about to rise at the Forschungscampus Dahlem (Research Campus Dahlem): The Ethnologisches Museum is opening its auditorium for a special film series about transcultural collaborations in the history of ethnographic films.

After a many-year break, the Ethnologisches Museum at the Forschungscampus Dahlem invites visitors to attend the film series Shared Histories – Collaboration in Ethnographic Film. In 16 films spanning more than 100 years, perspectives on the collaboration between filmmakers, Indigenous communities, archives and specialists are made visible ‒ in a polyphonic dialogue about power relations, participation and transcultural collaboration in ethnographic film.

• Film Series Programme

The films – including Berlin premieres, new digital restorations and analogue copies – will be screened in the original with English subtitles. Introductions, lectures and discussions with international guests complement the programme.

Among the invited guests are:

• Alice Apley (director, Documentary Educational Resources)
• Vincent Carelli (filmmaker, founder of Vídeo nas Aldeias)
• Sarah Elder (filmmaker, ethnologist)
• Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio (filmmakers)
• Augustine Moukodi (film producer and specialist)
• Shurenhuar (filmmaker, actress ‒ including Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia (1989) ‒ professor at the National University of Mongolia)
• Elżbieta Wysocka-Koerber (deputy director of the Filmoteka Narodowa, film restorer
• Patrick Holzapfel (film curator and critic, author)

The film series Shared Histories – Collaboration in Ethnographic Film, funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Capital Cultural Fund), is curated by Regina Knapp, curator für visual anthropology at the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, and Louise von Plessen, freelance curator and author.

Publication Accompanying the Film Series

The film series is accompanied by a richly illustrated, English-language publication (ISBN 978-3-86930-158-3). Published and distributed by edition text + kritik, this volume assembles 15 essays by internationally renowned filmmakers, ethnologists, film critics and specialists. It reflects on forms of collaborative work in ethnographic film as well as on perspectives for a decolonial practice in museums and archives. The accompanying publication was kindly supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Stiftung Kulturwerk der VG Bild-Kunst.