Directors Lounge has proven to be a consistent factor in the mediascape of Berlin. From 8 through 18 February 2007 a crowd of international and Berlin artists, filmmakers and people interested in media arts gathered at the temporary location on Karl-Marx-Allee for the third Directors Lounge festival.
The new venue was very close to the place of last year's Directors Lounge. The search for a location happened to be more difficult than expected, so the team was lucky to find this beautiful ample space with a readily installed bar and a separated space ideal for the screenings. Having the former Cinema Kosmos in the neighbourhood made for a prominent space.
Artist curators from Chicago, Nantes, Schwäbisch Hall, Poznan, Berlin and many artists came to Berlin to present their work or selection, all of which were very well received by the audience.
The Directors Lounge trailer was shown on big video billboards across the city, many flyers spread out at Berlinale, thousands of emails sent and a new website has presented the whole programme. Still, what made Directors Lounge happen was the help of many hands who all volunteered, as DL did not receive any public funding, again. It is these people, including the artists who have got the event going for a third year.
Again, the advantages of the programme concept, a festival of many curators, showed in the exceptional, wide and brilliant choices offered to the audience. DL 2007 saw special themed programmes like Focus AIC Sao Paulo (curated by Ram Devineni), Animate Locate (Kim Collmer), Asia Europe Mediations, Australian Gothic (Shaun Wilson), China Doc (Marina Foxley), Wolf Kahlen (Longest F. Stein), LiveBox Chicago (Catherine Forster), Urban Research (Klaus W. Eisenlohr), and Zebra Poetry Awards (Thomas Zandegiacomo). A contribution to sadly departed Emmett Williams became another highlight in the media fest.
Another big success of the festival was to see how the artists, filmmakers and curators met and build new networks, facilitated by the warm, relaxed and welcoming atmosphere to be found between the bar, lounge and screen. After 10 days of 4 programme every day, and on demand of audience and crewmembers, the time of Directors Lounge was extended and the bar stayed open for another week of special screenings and parties.
As result of the 2007 festival, the Team Directors Lounge already started to plan for a new summer screening series 2007 with a weekly presentation of visiting artist solo programmes, among other coming activities. So, please check the DL website regularly and subscribe to the connected blog of Placebokatz for news and info about upcoming events.
Please find a selection of images from Directors Lounge 2007 at
 http://www.richfilm.de/archive/framesDL2007px.html
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