Back light Super8 film rental
The backlight Super8 film distribution was in November 1979 at a meeting of film showcase, an association of independent 8mm -Filmemachern and -filmgruppen in the Federal Republic of Germany ( West Germany ) and West Berlin , a regular modern conference in Hamburg founded during. The joint distribution was primarily intended to relieve the groups who, after the production of their films as part of the New Social Movements of the 1970s and 1980s, were overloaded with the distribution of their own films due to the great demand and could no longer make new films. In 1983, according to an agreed cycle, the rental office moved from Berlin to the Ruhr area. Since the Super-8 film was replaced by the easier-to-use video formats in the mid-eighties and the widespread interest also waned, the distribution work was stopped in 1985.
founding
On November 4, 1979, the AGF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Film) in Berlin received the order to set up the film. The rental company was able to start operating in the spring of 1980 with catalog financing from the Berlin organization Netzwerk Selbsthilfe .
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Enterprise of the counter-public
The distribution was an independent distribution organized by filmmakers and film groups. i.e., films made without third-party funding. In line with the membership structure of the Filmwerkschau, Gegenlicht saw itself not only as a 'distribution of motion films', but also took into account the entire diversity of the work of the independent Super 8 filmmakers in its distribution program: artistic films were represented as well as humoresques, crime novels, experimental films and a period film about the peasant war. "The distribution program was presented to the public for the first time at the authors' film show [in Munich in May 1980] [...] and proclaimed an important medium for counter- public and grassroots work."
The focus was on films from and for the environmental protection and anti-nuclear movement as well as a little later on the squatting and the peace movement . Gegenlicht quickly met with a nationwide response from the numerous citizens' initiatives that needed films for their events, from youth centers and clubs as well as from local cinemas and local film initiatives, particularly through the network of the Stattzeitungen . Gegenlicht saw itself as a non-commercial company and accommodated the initiatives in terms of pricing and close, personal organizational contact. The rental work took on a volume that ultimately employed four people in Berlin.
Special features in the program
Three of the films that were sold were also shown at the International Young Film Forum at the Berlinale : February 1980 Anyone who has no courage to dream has no strength to fight , a film by Medienwerkstatt Berlin about the six-week environmental festival at the radio tower in the summer of 1978 The radio tower was the first big public appearance of the alternative and ecological movement and a success with the public. The Berlin squatter films Stein auf Stein and Samba Samba ran in February 1981 and February 1984 in the 'International Forum'.
The program also included the Dutch squatter film Vondelstraat .
In connection with the large-scale evacuation of eight houses on September 22, 1981 in Berlin, the squatter Rattay died after a police operation under a bus. The recordings of the circumstances of the incident, shot by a Super8 filmmaker, were used by Gegenlicht for a counter-statement with 15 copies, as the images allowed reconstructions that contradicted the most widespread press reports.
In accordance with the concept and the grassroots democratic structure of "more than 20 film groups and amateur producers", Gegenlicht not only lent political films , but also regularly included artistic productions in its program. Above all, the distributor reacted to the development of the music scene , in which the musicians not only made filmic concert recordings , but also produced contemporary video clips . So in 1982 a program package of the so-called New Wave films with the title Traumatic Encounters was created .
The temporary second distribution office in the Ruhr area, which replaced the Berlin office in 1983, brought new Super 8 films from the social areas and the world of work into the program, which were presented in a special program of the West German Short Film Festival in Oberhausen on April 17, 1983.
Dissolution of the lending
With the 'waning' of the social movements that began in 1984 - the squatters in Berlin had mostly started legalization negotiations , the anti-nuclear movement had not been able to stop the German nuclear program, but was able to decisively 'slow it down' - at the same time In Berlin and in Germany, the activities of the initiatives after the election successes of the Greens were often taken over or continued by parliamentary work - the independent counter-public with its rather 'combative' films lost its basis.
In addition, in the mid-1980s, video formats, which were now also attractive in the mass market, emerged and replaced the Super 8 film in use. The sponsoring group of Gegenlicht declined commercial exploitation of its film program - offers came from the new private TV channels because they needed to fill airtime. The entire Gegenlicht program was 'handled' - the authors received the copies back - and the films almost without exception disappeared in the private archives.
Since the 2010s there has been a tendency to rework - an overview of the most important former productions and the distribution program is documented on the Internet.