Munich is a film city. Even people from other cities like Berlin, which also call themselves film cities, know this. But opinions in Munich differ as to what exactly this label means: while some rave about the many films and series that are made here or about film companies like Arri or Constantin Film, others think of Bavaria Filmstadt in Geiselgasteig. There you can still climb through “Das Boot” or look into the magic mirror from “Chantal in Fairytale Land”.
There is only one film city, Munich, at least according to the title. Since its foundation in 1984, the association has been an umbrella organization for a whole series of Munich film initiatives: It takes care of municipal film work and coordinates film series such as Underdox, Bimovie or Judoks as well as festivals such as the Dok-Fest, Kino Asyl, Bunter Hund, Turkish Film Days or the Queer Film Festival. With their 16 member clubs The film city of Munich provides a cinematic diversity that is unrivalled even in Germany. Around 400 events take place throughout the year, reaching a total of around 100,000 visitors. “It’s a unique success story,” says Munich’s Deputy Mayor Dominik Krause in the birthday brochure.
Krause, who had originally been announced, was absent from the ceremony for the Film City’s anniversary in mid-September at the Film Museum, but the celebrations were held nonetheless. 40 years of Film City: That’s a lot of faces and stories, the vast majority of people work voluntarily and have been working for their festivals or series for many years. Monika Haas has also been there for a long time, taking over the management of Film City in 2016. The city council approved a second position in the anniversary year, and since then she has been supported by Franziska Viehbacher, who many people know from the Dok-Fest or the Latin American Film Days. This is noticeable at the ceremony anyway: although the events are so different, their organizers know each other very well. This is also a credit to Film City.
The panel discussion, which was attended by SPD city councillor Lars Mentrup and Konstantinos Mitsis from the Greek Film Week, among others, brought up topics that have long been a concern for the film city. For example, the calls for a film house of its own date back to the 1970s: a place to meet and exchange ideas, to show films and discuss them. In a city of temporary use like Munich, it is difficult to find suitable (and affordable) space, said Mitsis. Everyone thinks a film house would be a good idea – but it is rather unrealistic that one will ever be built. “The budget situation is worse than ever,” said Mentrup. The most one can do is think about how to tackle it when the money for it becomes available again at some point.
The demand for better financial support for individual events has unfortunately been heard far too often: Organizing a festival is often accompanied by tendencies toward self-exploitation. This made cinema operator Matthias Helwig all the more surprising when he recently announced before the start of the Five Lakes Film Festival he was organizing that he would not be able to continue if there was no longer sufficient financial support. “You just have to say when it’s no longer possible,” said Monika Haas on the podium.
How things continue also depends on the member associations themselves: most of them are worried about recruiting new members and have to distribute the workload across too few shoulders. Festival employees can rave about their events as much as they like, but the prospect of long evenings and constantly empty coffers is not quite as attractive to outsiders.
The film city has also been moving outdoors for about a year now: the “Neighborhood Culture Project” is about bringing cinema to neighborhoods where there are no cinemas. The first events in Riem and Neuperlach were very well received, said Haas. It is therefore quite possible that the film city of Munich will become even bigger in the coming years.