LaborBerlin is pleased to present a programme with films by members of our fellow filmlab Harkat Lab from Mumbai. Harkat Lab was founded three years ago as part of Harkat Studios, a production company who turn their space into an off-space on several evenings a week, showing a diverse program of theater plays and concerts. Based on this existing community, Harkat Lab have evolved over the past three years in terms of personnel, technology and space, and established international connections.

In spite of claims of its obsolescence, analog film is still alive. It continues to exist as an inimitable artistic medium, put to use in myriad forms around the world. Nonetheless, in the context of our ever-expanding digital landscape, analog film faces new challenges that have forced it into a process of deep transformation. What steps do we need to take to guarantee that analog film will remain as a living-breathing medium? What are the alternatives to the idea of film as an obsolete, historical object?

PAF - Festival of Film Animation's section Film Labor presents contemporary experimental productions and activities by filmmakers from so-called artist-run film labs (film laboratories run by the artists themselves). There are more than fifty such groups all over the world dealing with film, in the sense of working with film material. Thanks to the technological and institutional transformation of cinematographic infrastructure, independent artists may now use industrial equipment and instruments that were previously only available in institutions. The aim of the cycle is to reflect their activities, which significantly change the options for film production and are often referred to as “experimental film.” Film Labor will introduce artists from film labs in Grenoble, Barcelona and Berlin.