Cinema of Commoning

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Cinema of Commoning

Kontaktinformationen, Karte und Wegbeschreibungen, Kontaktformulare, Öffnungszeiten, Dienstleistungen, Bewertungen, Fotos, Videos und Ankündigungen von Cinema of Commoning, Kino, Berlin.

Cinema of Commoning is a project by bi’bak and various international partners which brings together a network of alternative cinema initiatives from around the world to share knowledge and ideas.

27/11/2025

This week, we’re closing the cycle of our CoC2 commissioned texts with a piece by filmmaker Rami el Sabagh: Death on VHS.

Rooted in a West Beirut neighbourhood of the 1980s, the essay revisits a boarded-up video store — once a portal of taped dreams, monsters, and early cinematic longing. El Sabagh reflects on how VHS shaped forms of community and masculine performance, and how those memories continue to inform his filmmaking today.

It’s an intimate meditation on growing up with images, on what we inherit, and on the fragments we carry forward.

As we wrap up this chapter of CoC2, we’ll be taking a short pause before sharing what comes next.
Until then, you can read the full text at cinemaofcommoning.com (link in bio).

09/10/2025

Have you ever carried a word with you, one that speaks to a feeling too vast to translate?

In his essay, writer, curator, and educator Iskandar Abdalla reflects on ghurba, an Arabic word that evokes exile, estrangement, and the ache of being away from home.

Through the lens of Egyptian cinema, Abdalla traces this sensation in the stories of three tragic heroines, where longing, escape, and reinvention spill across borders and generations, from demolished buildings in Alexandria to the wintry streets of Berlin.

Written with the intimacy of a diary and the openness of lived experience, this piece is both a cinematic reflection and a deeply personal meditation on belonging and displacement.

Read the full essay now on our editorial platform cinemaofcommoning.com

Credited movies:

Al-Laila al-Akhira (The Last Night, 1963) by Kamal El Sheikh

Al-Nadaha (For Whom the Wind Calls, 1975) by Hussein Kamal

Ah ya Lail ya Zaman (Oh night, oh time, 1977) by Ali Reda

20/05/2025

We’re excited to return with a beautiful reflection by ,tracing their journey from the Mira River banks to collective film gatherings across Alentejo and beyond.

In this text, Sílvia das Fadas shares how Cinema Fulgor's work with film inhabits the margins, not as isolation, but as a practice of freedom, hospitality, and rooted resistance. It’s a gesture toward living otherwise, where cinema becomes a site for connection, care, and imagination.

We’re especially happy to share this now, as Cinema Fulgor is currently in Berlin for their series "The Land is Whispering: Imagine Otherwise!" co-curated together with Nafis Fathollahzadeh from IRGAC, which brings together films and conversations around memory, land, and communal living.

The next screening is this Wednesday, 22 May 2025, from 19:00–22:00, titled "Once There Were Commons" at Spore Initiative (.initiative), and it’s free and open to all.

.initiative

23/01/2025

Start the new year with us by catching up on everything you might have missed!

We’re starting 2025 with a fresh perspective and inviting you to revisit the conversations that shaped our editorial platform last year. If you didn’t get a chance to explore all the content we shared, now’s the perfect time to join the journey. From thought-provoking panels to insightful essays and engaging podcasts, there’s so much to discover.

🎬 Engage
Revisit the symposium panel: *The Embodied Cinema: Why Do We (Still) Need the Physical Space of Cinema?*
A reflective dive into the enduring importance of communal, physical spaces for experiencing film.

🎧 Listen
Catch up on *Foyer Conversations #5: Cinema, Memory, and Demolition.*
This episode unpacks how cinema preserves the ghosts of demolished spaces, offering stories of resistance and memory.

📚 Read
Rediscover Abisola Oni’s spirited text: *Coconut Head Generation: The Agonists of the Undercommons.*
A bold manifesto for rethinking collective filmmaking as a space of care, creativity, and radical collaboration.

Whether you’re revisiting familiar ground or discovering it for the first time, we’re thrilled to have you with us as we continue to shape an alternative cinematic future.

Find it all at cinemaofcommoning.com or via the link in bio.

17/12/2024

Save Sinema Transtopia!

Our beloved Sinema Transtopia, a vital space for transnational narratives in film and cultural exchange in Berlin, is at risk. Despite its undeniable role in fostering cultural community in Wedding, amplifying underrepresented voices, and creating critical dialogues in cinema, the Berlin Senate has cut 100% of its funding.

Over the years, Sinema Transtopia has welcomed filmmakers, curators, and audiences from around the globe and Cinema of Commoning Symposium is one of them. We need more places building bridges across cultures and redefining what cinema can be rather than losing the ones we already have. In this campaign, we share reflections from our cherished collaborators who highlight why this space must not disappear.

We brought together couple of them here, they are few of many voices standing in solidarity with Sinema.

We need your support now more than ever to keep this home for inclusive cinema alive! 🙌 Join us in standing up for Sinema Transtopia, and the whole cultural scene in Berlin.

How you can help:
Share this post to spread the word.

Advocate for independent cultural spaces in Berlin.

🔗 Link in bio to learn more and contribute to the Save Sinema campaign.

Together, we can keep this space alive for future stories to be shared, seen, and heard. 💛

13/12/2024

Cinema as a Participatory Space for Progressive Filmmaking and Aesthetic Film Education✨🎥

How do we inspire the next generation of filmmakers, artists, and cinema mediators while challenging industry norms? This panel that took place in July 2024 as part of Cinema of Commoning Symposium brought together Ibee Ndaw, Dina Pokrajac, Alejandro Bachmann, and Agnès Salson, moderated by Malve Lippmann, to explore progressive approaches in film education.

From reimagining knowledge-sharing networks to forging collaborations between cinemas and film practitioners, the discussion emphasized the need for unconventional thinking to sustain cinema as a cultural practice. How can we create sustainable models of film education that transcend traditional frameworks and foster a new wave of cinematic innovation?

🔗 Read the conversation to discover fresh ideas and visions for the future of film education.

06/12/2024

🎥✨ *Archives in Motion: Rethinking Cinema and Memory* ✨🎥

This week, we explore cinema as a public space where archives become tools for artistic and cultural memory. Archival work extends beyond preservation to challenge dominant narratives, spotlight underrepresented voices, and foster transnational dialogues.

Inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s “critical fabulation,” the panel examined storytelling, collective authorship, and the intersections of memory cultures. Panelists Deniz Tortum, Mosa Mpetha, Can Sungu, and Jesse Gerard Mpango, moderated by Lisabona Rahman, shared insights on creating inclusive, non-institutional approaches to film archiving.

🔗 Discover how archives can transform cinema into a space for diverse and shared remembrance.

30/11/2024

Recent news of devastating funding cuts to Berlin’s cultural and social scene has deeply affected us. SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, a vital hub for diasporic voices and marginalised perspectives, is among those directly impacted, facing a 100% cut to structural funding. This decision threatens not just the physical space of the cinema but also the rich community and collaborative practices it nurtures, including projects such as Cinema of Commoning.

Earlier this year, during Cinema of Commoning 2, we reflected on why physical spaces like this are crucial. They are places where inclusion, diversity, and anti-discrimination take tangible form, offering room for dialogue, creativity, and solidarity.
It’s heartbreaking to witness the erasure of spaces that foster these values in the city. This isn’t just about today—it’s about the long-term loss of Berlin’s cultural and social fabric. We can’t let this happen.

We urge all international partners, friends, and allies to stand with us.

Please sign our open letter and help us amplify this fight by sharing widely. You can also share what the cinema means to you via our form – your testimonials will help us advocate for our future.

You can find both the letter and the form on SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA’s (link in bio),

Thank you for your support. Together, we can push back against this bleak vision for the city’s future.

26/11/2024

Cinema as Public Culture: The Other Way of Commoning ✨🎥

On July 7, 2024, filmmaker and curator Madhusree Dutta delivered a keynote at the Cinema of Commoning Symposium, reflecting on Bombay as a cinema city, Dutta explored how cinema shapes shared perceptions of space, time, and community.

Through the magnified images of cinema screens, everyday locations are transformed into universal symbols, weaving a collectivity that transcends physical proximity. Yet, as Dutta highlighted, while cinema once thrived as a public culture, rooted in communal viewing and shared spaces, the rise of streaming has fragmented audiences and disrupted the social fabric of cinematic experiences.

Dutta’s reflections also illuminated the resilience of informal cinematic spaces—makeshift theaters that serve as hubs of community, labor exchange, and cultural connection, particularly for migrant workers in urban peripheries. These hidden spaces challenge the dominant narrative of cinema’s decline, reminding us of its capacity to adapt and endure.

Durra asks us to consider whether the essence of cinema lies not in racing ahead, but in staying grounded, creating spaces where communities can gather, share, and imagine together.

🔗 Dive into Dutta’s keynote on our platform to explore cinema’s role in shaping public culture.

20/11/2024

New Reads on Our Editorial Platform! ✨🌐

Dive into our latest essays and panels exploring the transformative power of cinema, community, and collective action. From Stavros Stavrides' keynote on Emancipatory Commoning as a Process of Collective Inventiveness to in-depth panels like The Embodied Cinema and Exploring Cinema as Social Space, these pieces question the very role of cinema in our lives.

Also featured: Gawan Fagard’s essay, Towards a Film Community Where Everyone Does the Dishes Together, reflecting on the spirit of collaboration within film collectives.

Whether it’s redefining the physical space of cinema or building a culture of inclusivity, there’s something here to spark curiosity and inspire action.

🔗 Click the link in our bio to read now and join the conversation on the future of cinema and community!

08/11/2024

New essay allert: Cinema Without Walls

Our latest essay by programmer and film researcher Lennart Soberon opens the vanishing legacy of Ghent’s neighborhood cinemas into question, exploring whether cinema today truly serves communities—or is simply absorbed by capital interests.

In Ghent’s outskirts, where over 40 theaters once thrived, almost all have disappeared, casualties of television, multiplexes, and surging property prices. City planners, picking up where the free market left off, transformed these beloved spaces into shopping malls, supermarkets, and apartment buildings. Remnants of art-deco movie palaces now hide among discount shelves, while graffiti across a once-bustling cinema’s old bar declares, “Everything is about money.”

Through these lost spaces, Soberon contemplates the ghosts of cinema past, and what it might mean to imagine a “cinema without walls”—one that resists erasure and redefines public space, purpose, and accessibility for future generations.

🔗 Read on as we uncover the delicate balance between cultural spaces and capital.

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