FILM EDUCATION IN A MIGRATION SOCIETY
The Department of Film Education and Outreach at the DFF actively works to make social diversity visible in its own work and throughout the institution. To achieve this, the team questions existing structures and offerings at the DFF, engages in dialog with experts to deepen its knowledge, and develops new projects.
This page provides an overview of the department’s projects and collects texts, interviews and additional resources on the topics of film, migration and interculture.
Germany is a country of immigration, and Frankfurt is considered a super diverse city: 72% of children under the age of seven in our city have a family history of migration. However, this diversity is not yet reflected in the cultural institutions. The DFF and its Department of Film Education and Outreach have a long way to go and many tasks to accomplish, and the team is constantly learning. These tasks include working on an anti-discriminatory critical stance, questioning entrenched structures, and constantly evaluating the DFF’s offerings – including diversifying the team and attracting a more diverse audience.
The film education department embarked on this path in 2015 with the founding of the “Blickwechsel Jetzt” film club. The question of power imbalances, which the team was increasingly confronted with in this context, led the DFF to organize a public forum in 2016 in cooperation with the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) (Federal Agency for Civic Education) entitled “Film, Flight and Interculture”. During this event, a first guideline and later an independent project on intercultural film education were developed.
In 2019, on the department’s initiative two new staff members were hired with the support of the Federal Cultural Foundation’s 360° – Fund for Cultures of the New Urban Society program: Aida Ben Achour as outreach manager and Rabih El-Khoury as diversity manager. They were tasked with advancing the diversification of the house and initiating sustainable changes to keep it relevant for the future. The film education and outreach team worked closely with them and also opened up to critical reflections on their own work – detours and setbacks included. Since the summer of 2023, Andrea Hartmann and Valentine Jerke have continued this work.
Despite the pandemic, a significant and important project for intercultural openness, “Our DFF”, was successfully implemented in 2021 under the leadership of Barbara Dierksen.
Other texts
Technical documents and publications often highlight ongoing discussions and provide opportunities for critical self-reflection on one’s own project work. Below is a collection of publications resulting from education and outreach initiatives.
Blickwechsel Migration – Considerations for an Anti-Racist Film Mediation
Aurora Rodonò examines intercultural film education through the lens of critical migration studies, contributing perspectives that address discrimination, racism, and the migrant experience to the ongoing discourse.
A decade in movement in contemporary Arab Cinema (long version)
Rabih El-Khoury offers a comprehensive look at the state of modern Arab cinema, with particular emphasis on the circumstances of production and reception within the Arabic-speaking world. He also discusses the negative and positive effects of the Arab Spring on Arab cinema and its key figures. An abridged version of this text has already been made available as part of the Intercultural Film Education project.
Our DFF – Creating New Spaces
The publication “Our DFF: Creating New Spaces” contains texts and photos of the participants in the project of the same name, as well as helpful reports from the project team about the intercultural encounter format.
Interviews
Different perspectives are brought into the conversation, creating an opportunity for a diverse exchange of ideas. As a result, discussions, debates, and similar formats related to the field of film education and outreach are regularly held. A number of these discussions are available here.
Reading list
As part of our exploration of diversity perspectives and in the course of our project work over the past years, the Film Education and Outreach Department has compiled a list of literature. It can serve as a starting point to engage with the topics of film, migration, and interculturalism through academic texts or working materials, or to further deepen one’s individual knowledge in these areas.
