Berlin Film Festival 2024
WRITTEN BY NICOLE MEEHAN
This year I decided to attend the berlin film festival to get out of my comfort zone and encounter a new city and be in a creative space to experience new cinema that I wouldn’t have watched on my own. As a disabled person with physical access needs this was very daunting as I had to travel via train not knowing any German and going to major event where you will need to rely on people that you can’t communicate that effectively with.
Even though I had many valid reservations about the new experience travelling out of the country using an electric wheelchair and being surrounded by a whole other culture for the first time. It became a very compelling adventure.
I got into the beautiful city of Berlin on the evening of the 14th of February All I did so far is travel here and spend a day in the vibrant city getting my bearings and working out everything and take a day to just adjust to everything before everyone else got there. I had a lot of anxiety about accessibility as far as communicating with people who can’t speak English when you need specific types of help such as ramps and need to find accessible routes to places can get complicated. I went to get my accreditation badge which is a badge that gets my access to press screenings and into as many screenings as I want. This is the only way for me to book access tickets as a disabled person through their system, but staff were very accommodating. Walking there past the river I saw them setting up the festival the glitz and glimmer is slowly taking over the city. Setting up all the press for the event and seeing red carpets and how much work really goes into the event. The city is not difficult to get around with tubes and buses being very regular and attached to every part of the city. Compared to London there is a lift in every tube station and most tubes are fully step free and if not, they have a ramp for each one that the driver puts down for you.
The main problem I faced was getting into screenings and being able to go watch the films as there is a huge demand for these new screenings, I've only been able to get into a few as I'm booking through accessibility. I can’t book last minute screening so I chose all films from the program before I got here, and the Staff booked the ones they could and that was that. It makes me feel a bit out of control as i don’t get to be spontaious and change my day or get any new last-minute seats which seems to be a big part of the experience it's a tiny thing but it's a reminder of the little moments that seem to be stolen from disabled people at these types of events. This wasn't the easiest process and it led to a lot of problems in being able to speak to any film makers whilst there because of the levels of extra planning I was having to do. I often had to choose between spending my whole watching films, seeing sites or socialising doing all of the Above in one day seemed too often be too difficult to navigate. As getting to your seat with a wheelchair and getting through people requires a lot of planning and I must make sure I can get there its time so the staff can help me as best they can.
The city of Berlin has many different historical places you can go to soak up the creative side of the city. There are many different museums you can view at to gain inspiration as a filmmaker. and different historical places you can go to soak up the creative side of the city. Such as the East side gallery of the berlin wall and The Jewish Museum which has a lot of art from Jewish creatives from all over the world this was especially moving as it showed modern day art and art from the holocaust showing that art really does survive no matter what giving insight into the creativity of a culture I did not know much about before I went. The culture of the city and seeing the creativity around every corner with many streets having graffiti and public works of art and seeing what problems other parts of the world are struggling with I found inspiring as it showed again how art really is what survives not matter what happens around the world.
Another great part of this trip was obviously networking with other people on my course, as we made our way around in the city to get from screening to screening. As an introverted person I often keep to myself a lot of the time. Going to this festival pushed me in a positive sense to speak to people on my course that I didn’t know previously. This has already helped professionally and personally for me as I'm hoping to be producer in the future and will need to be confident and be good a network to further my career and to be better at that job overall.
The films you get to see while your there as these films are not released yet it lets you experience a lot of films that are even still trying to get distributed or brought which means a lot of up-and-coming directors and filmmakers. This is great for any young person starting out in the film industry as it helps them better understand the distribution process and how that process works and seeing the way the industry is going in terms of trends. For instance, they had a whole section of films that were just for up-and-coming filmmakers this was interesting to see what kind of films are getting into the festival circuit currently. Travelling is also great it lets you just escape to a completely different space and almost become a different person because the space is so contrasting.
I got to see about 5 films over the week. Granted, this was not as many as I would have liked to have seen.
The 5 film films I saw were Small Things Like These, Cuckoo, Treasure, A different man and Love lies bleeding. I Have various feelings about each one with my two favourites being Treasure and love lies Bleeding two very different films but both showing insist differently in their respective genres. Small things like these Tim Mielants - This film starring Cillian Murphy is about a man struggling with in con in 80s Ireland when he sees girls being abused by convent nuns. For me this film fell a bit flat on its message and was far too centred around Cillian's character being a white night and less on the actual story of the girls that went through these things and the ending felt very flat and didn’t show the full weight of the man's choices. Cuckoo Tilman Singer - This film follows a girl who is forced to move to a small resort in Germany with her dad, stepmother and stepsister when she starts working there late, she Shes people doing things that don’t add up. Visually this film is a great watch and Hunter Schafer does well with a bit of dull confusing script and none of the jump scares really do much and you can’t really tell what the point to this horror is. It feels like even the people who wrote don’t understand how to tie up the plot holes so just left them in the air and it felt unfinished and a bit lazy.
Treasure Julia von Heinz - This film follows a grieving daughter played by Lena Dunham and her dad Stephen fry as they travel to Warsaw Poland in the 1990s to try and understand her dad by seeing what the life that was torn away from him as a consequence of the nazi occupation and try to understand why he is the way he is For me this film was funny in a dark, loveable way making light of some really tricky subjects. Great Proformance's from all the cast and really showed great chemistry between Duham and Fry. One of the best movies I saw, and I hope it gets a wide release. A different man Aaron Schimberg - This movie follows a man called Edward who has facial disfigurement who is struggling to be an actor when he gets a treatment to take the disfigurement away, he finds out the girl he loved as made a play based on him. This film was a waste of two hours and sad attempt at inspiration porn. Giving the message to disabled people that if we just ignored the systematic ablism that we would be perfectly happy and if we can’t we are just choosing to be miserable.
Love lies bleeding Rose Glass – The last film that I saw follows a gym manager Lou as she meets an aspiring bodybuilder Jackie and soon both get mixed up in revenge and murder that keeps unravelling. It shows women's power in a new way that we don’t often see, very much takes the women scorch to new levels. This movie was a fun thriller about strength, love and revenge. Stunning ProFormance by Katy o Brain in her largest role to date. The best film I saw the whole week.
Also getting to hear directors and filmmakers talk about their films was very interesting and seeing a crowd of people seeing art for the first time is a very enlighten experience.
As everyone was laughing together at something new and with the stars of the film is something quite unique it reminded me of how simple and small the industry really is at its core. For someone who wants to make films it’s compelling to see how people first reactions to something. Getting to see the history and lovely sites on Berlin and be involved in film culture overall it was a positive experience, and I will hopefully be returning for the 75th annual festival next year.