Schools

Costumes and props, photographs, film scripts, sketches and designs of sets and models, cameras and film footage – film history is brought to life by a wide range of objects in the Permanent Exhibition. In twelve rooms, the museum recounts the beginnings of German cinema, of early film stars and classics (e.g., Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari and Metropolis), of the golden era of German cinema during the Weimar Republic, and its misuse under National Socialism. The exhibition portrays the situation of German filmmakers and artists living in exile, and on their return after World War II. Two rooms are devoted to German film from the postwar period to the present. A central theme of the exhibition is dedicated to Marlene Dietrich’s estate.

Duration: 90 / 120 minutes

Groups: Price: 80 / 100 euros (plus a 3 euro admission fee per person)
Group size: max. 20
School Classes: Price: 65 / 85 euros (plus a 2 euro admission fee per person)
Group size: max. average class size

You may also book tours at any time on the following subjects, among others:

• Early History of German Film – Pioneers and Classics
• The Weimar Republic and National Socialism – Film in Historical Context
• Film As an Instrument of Propaganda
• The Icon Marlene Dietrich
• Berlin as a “Film City”

Duration: 60 / 90 / 120 minutes

Groups: Price: 60 / 80 / 100 euros (plus a 3 euro admission fee per person)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 45 / 65 / 85 euros (plus a 2 euro admission fee per person)
Group size: max. average class size

What makes images on television and in the cinema move? When did images start talking and what animation techniques were first used? During a guided tour through the permanent exhibition, young visitors are given the answers to these and countless other questions related to cartoons and animation techniques.
The tour begins with the pioneers of German film. It then moves through the early years of German cinema, and explains the beginnings of sound film. How images are manually and individually animated is demonstrated by silent film classics like Metropolis.


Duration: 60 minutes, Age: 8+

Groups: Price: 60 euros (plus 2 euros admission per child, 3 euros per adult)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 45 euros (plus 2 euros admission per child, 3 euros per adult)
Group size: max. average class size

This blend of walking tour and the permanent exhibits at the Museum of Film and Television brings visitors on a fascinating journey through the past and present of "Film City Berlin."

During their visit to the exhibition, participants will learn more about the origins of German cinema, Berlin's film palaces, early stars and film classics such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. We will explore the Golden Age of German film during the Weimar Republic as well as its takeover during the Nazi reign. 

The tour visits locations seminal to the early history of film production and cinematic presentation in Berlin as well as shooting locations for major modern films that feature Berlin, either as itself or as a stand-in for other metropolises such as Moscow, New York or even Kabul. At the same time, the tour provides glimpses of the current state of the film industry in the German capital, which has taken a major international star turn since the fall of the Wall.

Alter: ab 16 Jahren, Duration: 180 Minuten

Groups: Price: 150 euros (plus a 3 euro admission fee per person)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price:125 euros
Group size: max. average class size

The use of mobile multimedia devices, such as smart phones and tablets, are part of everyday life for many people. These devices provide access to more than just communication and multimedia entertainment, however. In addition, they also place a pocket-sized, but complete set of film equipment at your fingertips, making experimentation with basic techniques of filming and producing creative-artistic work with audiovisual media quite simple.
In the context of the workshop, participants unlock the hidden potential of smart phones, etc., guided by a film professional’s expert instructions. First, a film team is organized, then a cinematic idea is jointly developed and a shooting schedule is laid out. This preparation is followed by putting the plans into action, using cinematic aesthetic tools to produce film and sound recordings that are subsequently assembled into a finished clip. The structure of the workshop can be coordinated to meet the interests and prior knowledge of the participants. The following themes are examples of offers available for booking:

•  Portrait – Who am I and What Makes Me Who I Am?
•  Berlin, the Metropolis – Staging the Aesthetic of the Big City
•  Black-and-White – An Homage to Silent Films
•  Breaking News

Duration: approx. 4 hours, Age: 12+

Groups: Price: 180 euros (10 participants) / 360 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 165 euros (10 participants) / 325 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20

This workshop can be organized for larger groups on request.

Photography and film are closely related – they are suited to documentation and staging, and they can be used to enlighten or manipulate. Aesthetics and image design often play a decisive role in the process, and they make use of a broad palette of imagery between art and reportage. Since the beginning of film history, photographs have accompanied the medium of film and taken on important functions: Still photographs represent film scenes contextually and aesthetically, work photos document the filming and production processes, portrait photographs of stars and film professionals serve advertising purposes or self-promotion. These pictures often manage to capture everyday life or a certain zeitgeist.

This workshop explores photographic image design. Using the diverse holdings in the permanent exhibition as a starting point, attention is drawn to the poses, situations and places on display, which raise a number of related questions: In addition to rituals and familiar gestures, do the photos also convey role models? Can relationships be recognized between the locations, the people depicted and their surroundings? Where are photographs staged or documented, and where are they interpreted? Participants’ own photographic experimentations with staging and representation, realized with a digital single-lens reflex camera (SRL), will be presented at the conclusion of the workshop.

Duration: approx. 3 hours, Age: 12+

Groups: Price: 150 euros (10 participants) / 300 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 125 euros (10 participants) / 245 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 30

The cameraman or the camerawoman is often a true artist with the camera. Great directors like Wim Wenders or Jim Jarmusch value their work, because it is only with a good cameraman – today the title Director of Photography is also common – and his team that a film can become a masterpiece. Important aesthetic decisions are made in collaboration with the director. Creativity and expertise are required if the perfect image is to be provided – by means of lighting, field of view or camera movements, for example.
Inspired by the work of renowned cinematographers and led by a young film professional, the participants in the workshop address the basic techniques of filming and the artistic and creative possibilities of working with digital camera technology. Cinematic language plays as great a role here as the selection of motifs and the play of light. First the team for the shoot is organized, then the participants develop their own way of approaching the work, finding their own motifs, and developing creative cinematic forms of design. This is followed by implementation, in which the cinematic impressions and camera movements are adopted and finally mounted into a clip.

Duration: approx. 4 hours, Age: 16+

Groups: Price: 180 euros (10 participants) / 360 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 165 euros (10 participants) / 325 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20

This workshop can be organized for larger groups on request.

Film is a powerfully effective medium. Its potential for manipulation was recognized in the early days of film and has since been exploited by a number of governments, parties and institutions. One of the best known examples of this practice is the film propaganda used by the National Socialists.
However, ideological messages and propagandistic intentions can be detected even in current German and international productions. Entertainment, particularly in the genres of action films, war dramas and history films, tends to convey moral concepts, philosophies of life and recommended actions that often go unnoticed by viewers, although they deserve to be critically scrutinized.
In a combined exhibition tour, screening of film clips and a moderated discussion, participants pursue questions concerning which ideological or propagandistic messages contemporary film and television productions convey, and which means they employ for these messages to come across.

Duration: approx. 3 hours, Age: suitable for teens and young adults, 14+

Groups: Price: 150 euros
Group size:  max. 25
School classes: Price: 125 euros
Group size:  max. average class size
 

In the tradition of the German special effects pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981) and other animators working in this field, participants produce a richly imaginative story under the expert guidance of animation specialists. The workshop begins with a review of film history, in which select design options are presented and individual ideas are developed. Afterwards, participants create their own short cinematic narrations in the style of silhouette animation.
To make animated films from silhouettes or cutouts, black silhouettes of self-made figures - plants, animals and imaginary creatures – and other materials are brought to life on a backlit glass surface. The images are montaged into an animated film using the stop motion technique and digital software. Professional animators lead the workshop.

Duration: approx. 3 hours, Age: 8+

Groups: Price: 150 euros (10 participants) / 300 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 125 euros (12 participants) / 245 euros (24 participants) / 365 euros (30 participants)
Group size: max. 30

Making your own animated film doesn’t have to be difficult! After a short introduction into how moving images and different animation techniques work, participants develop their own storyboard for a cartoon and turn it into a short film. They create it frame by frame using a two-dimensional technique called cutout animation, as well as a Trickbox and a digital camera. This workshop can be combined with the “Animated Films and Techniques” tour.

Duration: approx. 3 hours, Age: 8+

Groups: Price: 150 euros (10 participants) / 300 euros (20 participants)
Group size: max. 20
School classes: Price: 125 euros (12 participants) / 245 euros (24 participants) / 365 euros (30 participants)
Group size: max. 30

Films are an essential component of our daily lives. We encounter them every day in movie theaters, on television, on DVD or on the Internet. The social importance of motion pictures is becoming greater and greater. As a consequence, it is all the more important to be able to classify a film and its various facets – thematically, historically, and also aesthetically. The film courses at the Museum für Film und Fernsehen offer a unique opportunity to do that. Participants are trained to deal with the medium of film through selected works of German film history. Both classics of film history and contemporary movies are put to use. Depending on the chosen main focus, the three-hour courses can consist of the following components: viewing film clips; guided discussions about film; research on the original formative contexts and reception history by using exhibitions, archival and source materials; comparison of a film with other cinematic and photographic works; and much more.
 
We offer film courses for the following films and themes:
 
Gegen die Wand (Head-on)  /
Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear eats the Soul)
Theme: Migration and Identity

Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear eats the Soul)
Theme: Film Talk

Duration: approx. 3 hours, Age: 15+

Groups: Price: 150 euros
Group size: max. 25
School classes: Price: 125 euros
Group size: max. average class size

Young Berlin filmmakers provide insights into their works based on one of their films, a series or another audiovisual work that will be jointly screened. These talks introduce a filmmaker’s personal working methods and delve into the process of filmmaking - ranging from finding a subject and developing the material, to the work’s actual staging and production. Moreover, the various cinematic trades, including directing, cinematography and film editing will be explained. Programs can be booked with a focus on documentaries, animation, children’s movies or feature films, etc., as well as in diverse formats such as series or video art. The content and scope of the programs are coordinated individually.

Duration: approx. 2 hours

Groups: Price: 150 euros
Group size: max. 25
School classes: Price: 125 euros
Group size: max. average class size

Movies and magic are closely related to one another. Both make the most extraorinary things possible: Inanimate objects come alive, moving as if directed by a magic wand, and supernatural forces seem to manifest before our eyes. All kinds of special effects have been used since the earliest days of cinema and have developed with the times. Creating magic with images has always been at the very heart of filmmaking. “Hocus Pocus!” guides participants through the history of cinematic special effects. They will learn the fundamentals of film techniques and about early methods of producing special effects on a brief thematic tour through the permanent exhibition. A film program with examples from over 100 years of motion picture history provides the basis for a subsequent joint discussion.

Duration: approx. 2 hrs.

Groups: Price: starting at 100 euros
Max. participants: 20
School Classes: Price: starting at 85 euros
Max. participants: class size

The Deutsche Kinemathek offers film talks on a variety of German and international film classics, but also on contemporary productions. These group bookings combine introductions presented by museum staff, digital film screenings and moderated film assessments and discussions. A film can be analyzed, interpreted and discussed in terms of its contents, aesthetics or ideological aspects, for example.

Film talks can be organized on the following films, among others:

• Angst essen Seele auf (Fear eats the Soul)
• Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
• Im Westen nichts Neues (All quiet on the Western Front)
• Nosferatu
• Berlin: Symphony of a great City (Berlin - Die Sinfonie der Großstadt)

Contact and further information: bildung@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Duration: approx. 2-3 hrs.

Groups: Price: starting at 150 euros
Max. participants: 20
School Classes: Price: starting at 125 euros
Max. participants: class size