This column hosts portraits of cinemas in Europe and the rest of the world which are quite different from one another but have in common the fact that they have all adopted digital projection.

In this issue, the column ALL DIFFERENT ALL DIGITAL is again devoted to the German capital: following focuses on the cinemas hosting the Berlinale screenings and on Kino International, comes the turn of an overview of Kiez Kinos, i.e. the nearby cinemas that mark various neighbourhoods in Berlin.    

Kilometre Zero: Kiez Kinos in Berlin
by Patricia Hampton

Let's be clear, this is not a survey but a personal impression of the city's specific local cinema-going experience (the so-called Kiez Kinos or neighbourhood cinemas). "Neighbourhood" is the key-word. The Kiez Kinos are typically single-auditorium enterprises, seating no more than about 100 spectators (often far fewer) and offering varied and independent programming with several screening slots throughout the day for a mainly local audience. Some slightly bigger, independent cinemas may also feel like they belong to the category.

The area explored here is roughly limited to Kreuzberg / Neukoelln, where a vast choice of cinemas is available, from the big, popcorn-and-coke Cineplex Neukoelln in the Arcaden shopping mall (9 theatres, 2553 seats) to the tiny IL KINO with its small wine bar and very decent food (52 seats) on the corner of Nansenstrasse, but options also embrace the independent, no-frills FSK Kreuzberg in Oranienplatz, a glass and industrial steel art-house venue with two smallish auditoriums, as well as a number of mainstream multiplexes. The huge Cineplex is popular with my grandson who is an Avengers fan and likes popcorn but perhaps hasn't forgotten that his first experience of the big screen was when he was five, at a tiny, nearby cinema called Sputnik Kino, on the top (fifth) floor at the back of a block of flats near Suedstern, to watch a beautifully made cartoon called Zarafa about a giraffe, where we chatted to another family sitting next to us. There were old sofas and armchairs as seats and a nice little bar with tin sculptures scattered around. Sputnik has two small auditoriums now, one seating 77 and the other 20. It still counts as a Kiez Kino!

They're my favourites, one of their great virtues being that they always show films in the original language with subtitles - but that's not all! They're close to home (most neighbourhoods have them), so you can make up your mind to go out at the last minute without needing public transport; they're informal and inclusive; they have a personalized offer of food and drink, typically reasonably-priced (but decent) wine or beer and hot ‘snacks' but some do popcorn, too; the décor is warm, personal, creative and conducive to chatting with your fellow spectators, making it a community experience; most program throughout the day and the offer is varied and interesting, from specific-interest to arthouse, to the quality mainstream of the moment. There are film weeks or little festivals and some space is given to local filmmakers. Apart from IL KINO and Sputnik, another ‘local' venue that embraces all of these advantages is Wolf Kino. I watched the popular La Favorita there one evening but there are also mother-and-baby mornings and opportunities to view arthouse and independent films. Another favourite is the Moviemento (around 90 seats I'd guess and I believe Berlin's oldest cinema) in Kottbusser Strasse, offering varied and imaginative programming and catering not only for little kids or adults but also for pre-teens. Or the Neues Off in Hermannplatz (187 seats), a lovely little theatre that started up in the late ‘Twenties and was renovated in ‘Fifties style when it became part of the Yorck Cinemas group in 1979. Smaller and slightly further away in Friedrichshain is the b-ware Ladenkino, where grandson (then aged 8) and friends went to watch a film on their own as a birthday present.

Many of the smaller cinemas use creative tactics to keep afloat, from the all-day programming for targeted audiences and attractive foyer bars to special-offer vouchers and selling their own products, ranging from T-shirts and baby-jumpsuits to shopping bags, to books and DVDs of lesser-known films. For the better-off and design-conscious, at 500 euros Wolf Kino will even sell you a personalized cinema seat- the traditional wood and red-plush armchair- with your personal tag on it. At the moment of writing, like their cousins in other countries, they are temporarily closed as a precaution against Covid-19. The question is, will they be able to re-open and stay open, when social distancing will mean selling fewer seats? Some, like Moviemento, are already struggling, in the latter case because of the building being sold as a result of gentrification in Neukoelln/Kreuzberg. But they're doing their best: IL KINO offers takeaway wine beer and food with a cinema poster… there is a crowd-funding appeal.

"Smaller and local" (kilometre zero) is increasingly seen as an answer to some of the downsides of globalization and the neighbourhood cinemas put this into practice. My impression is that they're fighting hard because they mostly come into being not out of purely commercial interests but out of a passion for the cinema. Quality before quantity. I'd say they deserve support for this and for their social and community value alone- cinema literally "from the cradle to the tomb".

(Per leggere il testo in italiano cliccare qui)

IL KINO

One of the next issues of the dgt will focus on IL KINO

FSK Kreuzberg

Sputnik Kino

Wolf Kino

Moviemento

Neues Off

b-ware Ladenkino

Cineplex Neukölln