‘To most people, skateboarding and East Germany don’t go together’.
And that’s what we love about it. Make your own California lifestyle in whatever dank corner or rugged street you live in. With super slick docu-film ‘This Ain’t California’ it’s all in the name. Described as a ‘love letter to both skateboarding and to a long-lost friend’ the films trailer cuts up a fine mix of home videos, old skool super-8 visuals and stock footage which has left us wanting more…
And of course we’re going to get it! This Friday at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, Berlin Film Society present an exclusive screening of This Ain’t California along with beer, bratwurst and an after-party. You don’t have to tell us twice.
Following on from the Huck Magazine x COPSON ST‘Anywhere Road’ exhibition celebrating ‘real’ female skateboarders; this is the perfect cherry on our week-of-skateboarding cake.
[dir: Marten Persiel]
[German with English subtitles]
in partnership with HUCK Magazine
in-kind sponsorship by Herman ze German
£10 || £8 students [includes film, after party, & goodie bag]
ONLINE TICKETS
19:00 Beer & Bratwurst by HERMAN ZE GERMAN
20:30 Film
22:00 After Party
The Berlin Film Society is excited to be returning to London for its second international event, this time bringing over a very unique German documentary unlike anything you’ve seen before. ‘This Ain’t California’ is a fresh, intimate and dazzling documentary that is part tribute to the life story of an individual and part recollection of the country’s divided East/West past. Through the lens of the skating subculture of the 1980s, the documentary combines original film material obtained from the skaters themselves, animated sequences in black and white and present day recordings of the protagonists.
Masterly cinematography and music evocative of another era hint at the director’s diverse filmmaking pedigree, encompassing everything from feature films to music clips and commercials. The film won the Dialogue en perspective prize at the Berlin International Film Festival early in 2012 and had its UK premiere at this year’s Raindance Film Festival.
This event is aptly sandwiched in between the official Day of German Unity (3rd Oct.) and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (9th Nov.), whereby the East was finally reunified with the West after 40 years of political, ideological, and geographical segregation.
