Italian Guest Workers in Berlin - Screening

19.10.2023 / 19:00 – 21:00

Lottando la vita – Lavoratori italiani a Berlino(1975, 99 min. OV with English subtitles)
by Videobase (Anna Lajolo, Alfredo Leonardi, Guido Lombardi)

Videobase came to Berlin for a three-month residency in 1975 on a grant from the Artists-in-Berlin Program. Prior to this, the Italian collective had produced a series of activist documentaries on the self-organization of women in the working-class districts of Rome, a factory occupation, everyday life in prison, or neighborhood resistance against forced evictions. Their focus in Berlin: documenting the circumstances of Italian “guest workers” in Germany and using video “as an instrument for social analysis, (…) but also as an active medium for changing the consciousness of those impacted.” Produced was a unique document featuring a plurality of voices on migrant work in Berlin. Videobase interviewed workers in bars, on the streets, in housing facilities, and restaurants. The emergence of video technology at the time made it possible to screen recorded material on location together with the protagonists, offering an opportunity to directly critique and respond to the footage.

In cooperation with the CSC – Cineteca Nazionale, Rome

The screening is part of the collaborative project If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag. Art and Internationalism before the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Admission free

daadgalerie, Oranienstr. 161, 10969 Berlin