Film Restored Visual
Katsakh: Mediterranean archives
Si̇nema Transtopia
Presentation and screening
Katsakh is a living archive of small-format non-fiction film reels spanning from the 1920s to the 1980s, focused primarily on the towns and villages of the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond. Initiated in 2020, the archive emerges from histories of exile, genocide and cultural loss. Rather than merely preserving the past, Katsakh reclaims suppressed narratives and activates forgotten images as raw material for artistic creation, political memory and speculative futures.
Through the recovery, repair and public dissemination of this footage, the archive becomes a site of narrative resistance and imaginative possibility. It invites communities and artists to co-create counter-histories, where grief, memory and futurity converge, and to reimagine the Mediterranean beyond imperial frames and erasures.
Presentation: Chantal Partamian (filmmaker and archivist) (preproduced video)
In English
Referenzveranstaltung
Zusatzinfos im Slider
Event details
Chantal Partamian
is an experimental filmmaker and archivist working primarily with Super 8 film and found footage. Her films, which have been screened and won prizes all over the world, explore themes of displacement, memory and fragmentation. She is the director of Katsakh: Mediterranean Archives, which preserves small-format films from the Eastern Mediterranean, and conducts research on archival practices in conflict zones. Her writings primarily appear in ‘Hors champ’, bridging cinema and archival activism to reclaim and reimagine suppressed histories through poetic and political engagement with the moving image.
About the festival
Film Restored
Under the motto “Action”, Film Restored 2025 throws a spotlight on agency and fast action in film and film history, and on the swift work of those who rescue film material. From 22 to 26 October, the film heritage festival is celebrating its tenth year. Attendees of the festival can look forward to digital restorations, workshops, talks and discussions. Films made in thirteen countries will be shown, from as early as the 1910s and up until 2000. The Prize of the Association of German Cinematheques will also be presented during the festival.