Category – Lecture & Discusion

Capturing Film Business with Botho & Ubuntu

Event with Tsitsi Dangarembga and Gabriele Sindler

Tsitsi Dangarembga and Gabriele Sindler present their African-European collaboration in the fields of story & script development and creation of films. The aim of their cooperation is to bring relevant and artistically well-presented content to broad film audiences all over the world.

21.03.2023 | 17:00 Uhr
Hadley’s | Beim Schlump 84a | 20144 Hamburg

Further inforamtion @ Website HIAS (Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study).
RSVP: event@hias-hamburg.de

Tsitsi Dangarembga & Gabriele C. Sindler @ EFM | AfroBerlin

The first edition of AfroBerlin, organised by Yanibes, is a platform for participants to discuss issues with key players in the African film industry and so gather valuable information about the market potential of content by African and Afro-diasporic filmmakers.

>>Learn more about AfroBerlin…

On February 17th 2024 Tsitsi Dangarembga and Gabriele C. Sindler speak about

Pan-African Story | Script | Film Development for a Global Audience

Aspects of intercontinental and intercultural training for experienced filmmakers.

The world is in desperate need of ideas how we can progress as humanity. So far, African films have contributed little to this discourse. We will all benefit from engaging with non-dominant imaginaries embedded in their narratives.

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA Trust) has been committed to the improvement of the film industry on the African continent since 2009. Supporting women in the film business is just as important as the promotion of African stories and their authentic storytelling on big screens around the world.

In 2023, Dangarembga’s Harare-based ICAPA Trust launched a pan-African training series for female-dominated creative teams. The kick-off workshop in Lagos, Nigeria, was facilitated by leading script analysts, story & script writing teachers from DFK FILMS | dfk*script*service, led by Gabriele Sindler. The participants and their projects came from Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, São Tomé and Príncipe, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Tanzania and Nigeria.

The workshop series focuses on:
– Development of Stories & Characters
– Analysis of Screenplays & Films
– Exposé | Treatment & Script Writing
– From screenplay to film production & distribution.

The goal of the further training of film professionals is the successful production and international distribution of feature films and documentaries. Furthermore, the participants are enabled to support each other professionally during the development and production of future projects. The aim is to narrate local stories in a way that they will be watched, understood, and discussed by as many people as possible across the globe.

Tstisi Dangarembga and Gabriele Sindler reflect on their practical efforts in the development of globally appealing African stories, scripts and films by systematically and methodically analyzing their intercultural African-European cooperation.

ICAPA TRUST (ZIMBABWE) PROMOTES GENDER EQUALITY IN THE AFRICAN FILM INDUSTRY

The Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust is set to hold a two-week script development workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. Running from the end of October, to mid-November, the workshop is facilitated by Donat Keusch and Gabriele Sindler of DFK FILMS | dfk*script*service.

The workshop is a training program in story-telling for the screen aimed at African women screen writers who have a compelling project in late development. This training session is partly funded by The Hawthorne Foundation. Gabriele Sindler and Donat Keusch are amongst Europe’s leading script analysts. In a few weeks time, sixteen screenwriters from Africa will benefit from their expertise.

Tsitsi Dangarembga, the founder of ICAPA Trust

 

Tsitsi Dangarembga, the founder of ICAPA Trust and one of the pioneers of black women’s filmmaking on the continent, met Donat Keusch back in the 1990s while a student at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Keusch had been approached to mentor Dangarembga on a script she was writing at the time. The two reconnected recently and are now collaborating on several projects together with Sindler. In addition to a number of feature films, these projects include capacity building initiatives on the African continent. The programmes target women who live in an African country, a group traditionally marginalised in the African film and television industries.

Industry practitioners on the African continent often short change story development due to lack of funding and education opportunities for the process. Yet, script development is arguably the most important part of motion picture development. Keusch advises that a working treatment can easily be 80 or more pages long, with each action vividly imagined and described using all five senses. At the end of the working process the final version of a professional treatment for a normal feature length film will be some 30 to 50 pages, written in prose with no dialogue or at best with indirect speech. Writing the screenplay is faster when the stories and characters have been well-developed and when most of the cinematic solutions are designed. Other aspects of screen writing such as scene building and dialogue follow much more readily.

ICAPA’S call for the Lagos workshop received 93 applications from 24 countries. This response testifies to a widespread market and a deep need for such training activities on the African continent. Stories received ranged from Ugandan sci-fi to Tanzanian experimental coming-of-age. ICAPA Trust expects several films from this year’s workshop to proceed to production, as the Trust is setting up a special vehicle for productions that come out of its training activities.

With a five figure workshop budget and production budgets ranging between a quarter of a million and four million United States Dollars, this kind of work needs supporting. ICAPA Trust is currently fundraising for its other capacity building activities. The Trust has 501 (c) (3) status through its two fundraising partners, Chapel and York and CAF America.

Gifts via Chapel and York may be made by following this link, citing the following details – Account Name: Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust, Account No: CHAPEL906, Service: US Foundation Affiliate

To give via CAF America please download and complete the form here. When completed mail the form, with your gift, to the address on the form, citing The Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust as the organisation you suggest your gift should support.

ICAPA Trust and its many beneficiaries are most grateful for your gift. For more information about the Trust’s African capacity building and production initiatives please email info@icapatrust.com.

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL OmU

Film&Discussion |25.04.2023 |20:30

Bundesplatzkino | Berlin

PSYCHE & FILM
Cooperation of the C.G. Jung Society Berlin with the Bundesplatz-Kino and dfk*films
Chair: Edith Rosin | Speaker: Donat Keusch * Gabriele Sindler

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL OmU

USA, Kanada 2007 | 106`| script Nancy Oliver | directed by Craig Gillespie
with Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelly Garner, Patricia Clarkson…

Lars is shy, lives a secluded life and has never had a woman as he rejects all social contact. A colleague’s flirtation stresses the young man out and triggers an unusual development.

Inspired by a colleague, Lars orders a sex doll and introduces it to his confused brother and his brother’s wife as his girlfriend Bianca, a missionary from Brazil. The brother wants to put him in a psychiatric clinic, but is persuaded by the family doctor to play along and even to involve the whole village. After initial resistance, everyone joins in. Bianca is invited to dinner, participates in community work and reads to the children on a tape recorder. The family doctor calls Lars and his girlfriend in every week, claiming that Bianca is weak from the long journey and needs medical care. In reality, Lars’ trauma is being dealt with: the loss of his mother at birth and growing up without a bond to his father, who is frozen in his grief.

A wonderfully funny film with a great Ryan Gosling, showing a healing process that helps a person into life, a life of social relationships.

 

About the speakers:

Edith Rosin studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin, trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Berlin, has worked in her own practice since 1996, and has been a lecturer in Active Imagination at the Lindau Psychotherapy Days since 2012.

Donat Keusch studied psychology and journalism. Experience in film distribution, world sales, production and as a lecturer. Most successful film: “YOL” (Golden Palm). Script analyst/consultant/writer under pseudonym for 30 years. “The script is the film!”

Gabriele Sindler Political Scientist | Screenplay Expert | Lecturer

Location: Bundesplatz-Kino | Bundesplatz 14 | 10715 Berlin
Fee: 10,50 € | reduced 9 €

dfk*script*service supports the Scriptwriting Competition of the SR Socially Relevant™ Film Festival New York 2023

We are happy to support the SR Socially Relevant™ Film Festival New York 2023 as jury member of the of the scriptwriting competition.

The 10th Anniversary Edition of the SR Socially Relevant™ Film Festival New York is celebrated March 16-31, 2023.

SRFF is a film festival that focuses on socially relevant film content, and human interest stories that raise awareness to social problems and offer positive solutions through the powerful medium of cinema. SRFF believes that through raised awareness, expanded knowledge about diverse cultures, and the human condition as a whole, it is possible to create a better world free of violence, hate, and crime.

SRFF is a non-profit film festival that showcases socially relevant films with human interest stories as a response to the proliferation of violence and violent forms of storytelling. SR™ believes in promoting positive social change through the powerful medium of cinema.

PANE E TULIPANI | OmU

Film&Discussion |28.02.2023 |20:30
Bundesplatz Kino | Berlin

Series PSYCHE & FILM
Cooperation of the C.G. Jung Society Berlin with the Bundesplatz-Kino and dfk*films
Chair: Edith Rosin | Speaker: Donat Keusch * Gabriele Sindler

BREAD AND TULIPS | PANE E TULIPANI | OmU

IT, CH 2000 | 114′ | Screenplay by Doriana Leondeff | Directed by Silvio Soldini |
with Licia Maglietta. Bruno Ganz, Giuseppe Battiston, Antonio Catania, Marina Massironi…

The Italian mum who always does everything for everyone is left behind by her family at a motorway service station. She ends up penniless in Venice, where she finds work, new friends and self-confidence. The quirky and world-weary waiter (Bruno Ganz), with whom she feels a kindred spirit, accommodates her. He falls in love with her. When she is tracked down and returns to her family, she finally understands…

Melancholic, upbeat comedy that focuses on ordinary people and portrays them lovingly. Precisely observed details, wonderful dialogue, a clear visual language and the excellent actors* make the film an amusing excursion about the coincidences of life, self-determination and love.

About the speakers:

Edith Rosin studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin, trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Berlin, has worked in her own practice since 1996, and has been a lecturer in Active Imagination at the Lindau Psychotherapy Days since 2012.

Donat Keusch studied psychology and journalism. Experience in film distribution, world sales, production and as a lecturer. Most successful film: “YOL” (Golden Palm). Script analyst/consultant/writer under pseudonym for 30 years. “The script is the film!”

Gabriele Sindler Political Scientist | Screenplay Expert | Lecturer

Location: Bundesplatz-Kino | Bundesplatz 14 | 10715 Berlin
Fee: 10,50 € | reduced 9 €

LA FAMILLE BÉLIER | OmU

Film&Discussion | 20.12.2022 | 20:30
Bundesplatz Cinema | Berlin

Series PSYCHE & FILM
Cooperation of the C.G. Jung Society Berlin with Bundesplatz-Kino and dfk*films
Chair: Edith Rosin | Speaker: Donat Keusch * Gabriele Sindler

 

LA FAMILLE BÉLIER | OmU

FR 2014 | 105′ | Screenplay Victoria Bedos, Stanislas Carré de Malberg, Thomas Bidegain | Director Éric Lartigau
with Louane Emera, Karin Viard, François Damiens, Éric Elmosnino, Luca Gelberg

Wonderful French coming-of-age drama with subtle humour and the successful fulfilment of young Paula’s dream.

In everyday life, the deaf farmer’s family Bélier is dependent on the help of their hearing daughter. When Paula is supposed to go to Paris on a singing scholarship, her dependence becomes a problem. Paula’s deaf parents, to whom music is foreign, are confused and worried about these ambitions. Paula is confronted with her parents’ lack of understanding, her doubts about her musical vocation, her duty to her family and her affair with a boy. And howsoever is her deaf father supposed to run against the slimy and incompetent mayor without her help?

Multi-award winning film, whose American remake (CODA) won the Oscar for Best Picture.

 

About the speakers:

Edith Rosin studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin, trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Berlin, has worked in her own practice since 1996, and has been a lecturer in Active Imagination at the Lindau Psychotherapy Days since 2012.

Donat Keusch studied psychology and journalism. Experience in film distribution, world sales, production and as a lecturer. Most successful film: “YOL” (Golden Palm). For 30 years script analyst/consultant/writer under pseudonym or unnamed. “The script is the film!”

Gabriele Sindler Political Scientist | Screenplay Expert | Lecturer

 

Location: Bundesplatz-Kino | Bundesplatz 14 | 10715 Berlin
Fee: 10,50 € | reduced 9 €

ERIN BROCKOVICH | OmU

Film&Discussion | 29.11.2022 | 20:30
Bundesplatz Cinema | Berlin

Series PSYCHE & FILM
Cooperation of the C.G. Jung Society Berlin with Bundesplatz-Kino and dfk*films
Chair: Edith Rosin | Speaker: Donat Keusch * Gabriele Sindler

 

ERIN BROCKOVICH | OmU

USA 2000 | 131′ | Screenplay Susannah Grant | Director Steven Soderbergh |
with Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger, Peter Coyote, Scarlett Pomers, Tracey Walter, Erin Brockovich-Ellis

An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California energy company accused of polluting a town’s water supply. Her photographic memory and dogged persistence drives her opponents to despair and allows her to win.

Screenwriter Susannah Grant dramatised the true story of Erin Brockovich. The single mother’s investigation revealed that Pacific Gas and Electric had knowingly contaminated the groundwater of Hinkley, California, with highly toxic Chromium VI for decades. In 1996, the corporation was ordered to pay the largest amount of damages in US history to that time: $333 million.

 

About the speakers:

Edith Rosin studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin, trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Berlin, has worked in her own practice since 1996, and has been a lecturer for Active Imagination at the Lindau Psychotherapy Days since 2012.

Donat Keusch studied psychology and journalism. Experience in film distribution, world sales, production and as a lecturer. Most successful film: “YOL” (Golden Palm). For 30 years script analyst/consultant/writer under pseudonym or unnamed. “The script is the film!”

Gabriele Sindler Political Scientist | Screenplay Expert | Lecturer

 

Location: Bundesplatz-Kino | Bundesplatz 14 | 10715 Berlin
Fee: 10,50 € | reduced 9 €

THELMA & LOUISE | OmU

Film&Discussion | 25.10.2022 | 20:30
Bundesplatz Cinema | Berlin

Series PSYCHE & FILM
Cooperation of the C.G. Jung Society Berlin with Bundesplatz-Kino and dfk*films
Chair: Edith Rosin | Speaker: Donat Keusch * Gabriele Sindler

 

THELMA & LOUISE | OmU

USA 1991 | 130′ | Screenplay Callie Khouri | Director Ridley Scott | Music Hans Zimmer
with Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Brad Pitt

This classic fits perfectly as the opening of our series “Strong Women”. Women were already of crucial importance in the development of the project: THELMA & LOUISE was produced by Mimi Polk Gittin, who hired Ridley Scott to direct the film and set up the financing. Today, thirty years later, directing would probably be offered to a woman. Callie Khouri’s screenplay won an Oscar.

Louise (Susan Sarandon) prevents the rape of her friend Thelma (Geena Davis). In the process she shoots the attacker. The carefree weekend trip of the different girlfriends turns into a flight from the police. The girlish Thelma has to rise above herself and Louise has to face up to her past. Both end their escape from themselves and decide autonomously about life and death.

The most unusual film by the English star director Ridley Scott.

 

About the speakers:

Edith Rosin studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin, trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Berlin, has worked in her own practice since 1996, and has been a lecturer in Active Imagination at the Lindau Psychotherapy Days since 2012.

Donat Keusch studied psychology and journalism. Experience in film distribution, world sales, production and as a lecturer. Most successful film: “YOL” (Golden Palm). For 30 years script analyst/consultant/writer under pseudonym or unnamed. “The script is the film!”

Gabriele Sindler Political Scientist | Screenplay Expert | Lecturer

 

Location: Bundesplatz-Kino | Bundesplatz 14 | 10715 Berlin
Fee: 10,50 € | reduced 9 €