Multimedia Guide

The multimedia guide, created by young people for young people and families, was the result of a three-year pilot project. One goal was to learn from the young participants how they perceived the museum and its contents – the results were incorporated into the museum’s educational work.

The idea of the first part of the educational project was for the students to discover for themselves what a museum is, what departments it has, and who works there. To this end, a number of museum staff spent a great deal of time with the 21 fourth-grade students from the Gallus district. The young researchers took a close look at the museum team and conducted in-depth interviews with the employees – for example, about how the cinema program is put together or what their daily work is like – and filmed the interviews themselves. Every Friday for half a year, they swapped their classroom for the museum.

Between January and July 2016, the second group of teenagers, aged 16 to 18, was active in the museum. They focused on the second part of the permanent exhibition, which is dedicated to “Cinematic Storytelling”. They participated in workshops on acting, image, sound, and editing, and watched, discussed, and analyzed films on the big screen. Through research in the DFF archives and conversations with experts, the teens deepened their knowledge of selected exhibits in the museum. One of the highlights was an interview with actor David Bennent (THE TIN DRUM, FRG/FR 1979, dir. Volker Schlöndorff), who traveled from Berlin for the event. Three of the teenagers were so impressed by the cinematography in Wolfgang Petersen’s DAS BOOT (FRG 1981) that they traveled to Munich to talk with Jost Vacano, the film’s cinematographer. This group completed their work in mid-July by producing their contributions (video, audio, photo, or text) for the multimedia guide.

A third group, consisting of participants between the ages of twelve and fourteen, focused intensively on the first part of the permanent exhibition on “Cinematic Perception.” This group also participated in in-depth workshops on the exhibition’s themes and independently researched background information on their selected favorite exhibits. For example, they participated in a workshop with Academy Award-winning animator Thomas Stellmach, attended a laterna magica performance by the illuminago ensemble in the DFF cinema, and performed live soundtracks for three early silent films in front of a large audience at the end of a two-day “Music and Silent Film Workshop.” In April 2017, the teenagers of this group also created their own audio contributions in the sound studio of the Frankfurt Opera.

The finished multimedia guide, which includes the children’s and teenagers’ contributions as well as additional in-depth information, photos, film clips, and an interactive photo game, has been available to our interested visitors since September 2017 and can be borrowed free of charge at the DFF box office.