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Classics, documentaries and much more: film archive offers research perspectives
The digital database holdings of the Film and Media Archive currently include around 7,000 cinema films, TV films and series as well as film documentaries from the fields of literature, theater, art, media as well as other cultural contexts. The collection focuses on German-language film and television history, early film up to the 1960s, with an emphasis on German-language film and classics of international film. The collection also includes literary adaptations, especially of German-language literary classics, but also complex films with narratively unusual structures, as well as TV recordings of theater productions and theater projects documented on film. The collection also includes digitized material with a special connection to Kassel - , for example, films from the avant-garde Kassel Film Collective, which existed from 1968 to 1972. These are based on a cooperation with Prof. Jan Peters (Kunsthochschule Kassel, Film and Moving Image class). Also collected since 2018 are documentaries of the Grimm Poetics Professorships and the accompanying film series (since 2021).
The film and media archive is scientifically supervised by Prof. Dr. Stefanie Kreuzer (Modern German Literature/Media Studies, Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies). Through a cooperation with Saarland University (Saarbrücken), the digitized holdings of the film archive there (founded by Anke-Marie Lohmeier) could be merged with the Kassel holdings (founded by Peter Seibert). According to Kreuzer, the archive is constantly being expanded: "A focus on early film is planned for the near future. Moreover, in the future, filmic-artistic final projects by students of the Kassel Art Academy as well as films of the Kassel Dock Festival could be systematically collected. In addition, film questions are welcome to be submitted to the archive in the context of research and teaching!"
Research is possible directly via the Filmarchiv database from the University of Kassel intranet as well as via the database information system of the Kassel University Library(DBIS). For reasons of copyright protection, film viewings - of films that are currently still available for purchase - are, until further notice, only possible on-site at the Film and Media Archive for university members in case of academic interest. Please make an appointment in advance by e-mail to Filmarchiv[at]uni-kassel.de. The Film and Media Archive is located in the Institute for German Studies, Kurt-Wolters-Straße 5.
Approximately 8,500 other audio-video media (film DVDs, audio books, etc.) are also in the holdings of the University Library, where they can be researched via the KARLA catalog portal and most can also be borrowed.
Contact:
Film and Media Archive at the University of Kassel
in FB 02 Humanities and Cultural Studies
Fachgebiet' Neuere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft/Medienwissenschaft
Kurt-Wolters-Straße 5, 34125 Kassel
E-Mail: Filmarchiv[at]uni-kassel.de
Fon: +49 (0)561 / 804-3330