Berlin Cultural Immersion
Gropiusstadt An Einem Märznachmittag
A short-film on the eerie and beautiful Gropiusstadt neighborhood on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany.
The task was to create a portrait of our assigned location that accurately conveys the character and energy of that place. I wrote the treatment with the assistance of Lenya Meislahn (a researcher I met in Berlin at an independent filmmaker group), compiled references and inspiration footage, and made multiple visits out to the location to capture footage and audio. I made a live audio recording of a DJ performance at KWIA, a venue in Berlin, which later became the soundtrack. The video was edited by me in Adobe Premiere Pro, applying all transitions, filters, motion-graphics, and credits.
In preparation of this production, I attended two independent film-makers meet up groups here in Berlin: KINOLOOP and Filmmakers and Movie Nerds (FMMN). I publicly pitched the film project to the community at the first group, and from that I was able to develop an team of independent creatives and collaborators to assist me with this project. The most significant of these was Lenya, a journalist, researcher, and film-lover, who did extensive research on the site and it’s history, made visits with me to the location, and who assisted in the creative concept for the film. I was also joined by cinematographer Raphael Freitas and sound designer Giovanni Zaniol.
View the full treatment presentation here.
View full film at this link (or below).
// Spring 2024 // Term 05
Begun as an ideal community, built and realized as a troubled and imbalanced place, and most recently arriving at a tension-laden sense of calm normalcy, Gropiusstadt is a place of contradictions — the striking urban apartment buildings tower above their serene natural surroundings, and the dense population of nearly 35,000 residents remain mostly hidden away from sight. The area’s calm general tone exists at odds with its violent not-so-distant past.
The film’s title, which translates to “Gropiusstadt on a March Afternoon” demonstrates this implicit tension.
The mundane normalcy of a March afternoon nevertheless evokes a sense of palpable uneasiness. Gropiusstadt exists at the meeting point of the comfortable and the concerning. Being there during broad daylight evokes a persistent instinct that beyond the periphery of one’s awareness is some unknowable truth, lurking ever in the shadows. As the sun sets, this perception intensifies with the blue dusk mixing with the buildings’ incandescent glow.
