University cinema
As Unikinos be film clubs at universities designated. Other common terms are: campus cinema, university cinema and student cinema. Volunteers organize film screenings on campus and thus make a contribution to the cultural offerings of the respective university, TU or FH .
History and organization
The first organized film clubs in the FRG were brought into being by the occupying powers after 1945. The goal was to democratize Germany . When the Allies withdrew in 1949, many film clubs in the FRG became non-profit associations or looked for an educational or cultural institution to support them. In the GDR , too , where the film club movement emerged later than in the FRG, the film club operators had to look for a sponsor, since it was not easy to establish autonomous associations in the SED state. These are the reasons why many film clubs in both parts of Germany settled in the vicinity of universities. Even today, the active film clubs exist primarily as cultural institutions of the universities. The principle of voluntarily organized film screenings quickly found supporters and so in the 1950s a film club movement emerged in both the FRG and the GDR, which was characterized by a rapid increase in the number of film clubs. University cinemas at German universities developed especially during this heyday of the film club movement. One of the oldest university cinemas is Pupille eV in Frankfurt am Main, which was launched on November 12, 1951 as a film studio. Three years later the film group at TU Darmstadt and the academic film group at KIT Karlsruhe were founded . The aka film club of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in the FRG and the university film club of the TH Ilmenau in the GDR are also among the oldest university cinemas. Both started playing in 1957.
The end of the film club movement in Germany came about with the dissolution of the Association of German Film Clubs on December 31, 1970. This umbrella organization was founded to coordinate the work of the film clubs and to represent the interests of the film club operators. The reasons for the dissolution of the association are the spread of television in households and the lack of a central film archive. The association, which is organized without state influence, has now been replaced by two federal associations: On the one hand, the Federal Association of Communal Film Work , the u. a. The Pupille eV, the Filmkreis of the TU Darmstadt, the AStA Kino Konstanz and the aka Filmclub Freiburg eV belong, on the other hand the Federal Association for Student Cultural Work, which includes the Studio for Film Art of the TU Braunschweig and the AFK Film Studio of the University of Karlsruhe.
The university cinemas themselves are now generally organized through volunteer work on the part of the students. Many are registered as associations, others are organized as student groups and are partially supported by the AStA. According to a study by the Film Funding Agency (FFA) from 2008, university cinemas are among the special types of cinema. These special forms, to which z. B. also touring or municipal cinemas belong together, together make up about 12% of the cinemas in Germany. University cinemas are combined with cinemas in schools and clinics. Despite a decrease in numbers in 2008 compared to the previous year, the number of visitors and sales of the university, school and clinic cinemas increased by around 10% in the same year.
Program structure
Unlike in commercial cinemas, the films in university cinemas are often only shown once. The film screenings have the character of an exclusive event. The typical university cinema program includes mainstream films as well as art-house productions and film art. Some university cinemas show retrospectives where guest speakers have their say. Other organizers offer their viewers editorially prepared theme evenings, sometimes in cooperation with other student initiatives. To ensure the greatest possible authenticity, many films are shown in the original language with subtitles. The program can be rounded off by supporting films before the actual main films. Often it is a matter of directing work by students from film schools, so the supporting films have a "by students - for students" character.
financing
A ticket for a performance in the university cinema usually costs significantly less than entry in privately operated cinemas. This is possible because the makers of the university cinemas usually do volunteer work. The rooms and technology are usually provided by the universities. The AStA partially subsidizes cinema operations.
literature
- Wieland Becker and Volker Petzold: Tarkowski meets King Kong. History of the film club movement in the GDR, Berlin 2001.
- Stefanie Strauch: Cinema special forms. Results from 2004 to 2008, Berlin 2009.
- Pascal Meißner: From students for students , in: Kinema Kommunal 2/2012, Frankfurt am Main 2012 (PDF; 315 kB)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ingeborg Schultz: Special forms of cinema. Filmförderungsanstalt, July 2008, accessed on December 14, 2019 .