Dr. Rainer Rother, artistic director of the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin, has played a key role in preserving and promoting film heritage for decades.
Under his leadership, the Institute has navigated the complex challenges of archiving, digitization and public engagement, while expanding its global reach through collaborations and exhibitions.
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Guardian, Dr. Rother discusses the future of the Deutsche Kinemathek as it moves into a new temporary building, the development of film archives in the digital age, and the relevance of his vision for ensuring cinema's legacy. For future generations.
He shares insights into his work with the Berlinale, the Werner Herzog Foundation, and the broader context of global film preservation efforts.
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K. With the upcoming move to a new building, what long-term goals do you have for the Deutsche Kinemathek? How do you see the company evolving over the next decade?
A. The new temporary building, a former transformer station, with its 600m2 hall offers the opportunity to try out different forms and presentations in view of the planned new museum building. A new museum is only possible in a few years. Demands on museums and expectations of visitors are constantly changing. Working in our interim quarters gives us the opportunity to test relevant offers to our audience.
Educational work will also be intensified. As before, we will be offering several add-on plans; We offer benefits to people of different age groups, different educational levels and social backgrounds. It will give us a lot of positive ideas to prepare for the new museum.
Unfortunately, due to lack of space, the permanent exhibition can no longer be presented. However, larger projects can be implemented. This is guaranteed by our national and international network – most of our exhibitions have already been taken up by international museums and cinematheques in the past.
K. What are the main challenges you face in preserving and archiving films in an increasingly digital world? How do you balance the security of physical film with the demands of modern digital formats?
A. It is indeed a big challenge. As many copying plants closed down, film archives were faced with the responsibility of preserving large amounts of analog images. This process is incomplete and storage facilities are not expanded accordingly. However, we do our best to protect the items in our collection or items added to it. However, the complete digitization of the distribution of moving images means that analog objects must be digitized to guarantee their visibility. Only a few theaters can still project 35mm film, but TV, streaming, DVD and Blu-ray only work with digital images. We use a variety of projects to implement a curatorial digitization strategy.
Preservation of digital copies and 'born digital' titles continues to be a major challenge. We are in constant dialogue with other film heritage organizations and preserve our films in redundant backup systems.
K. As curator of the Berlinale Classics and Homage film series, what criteria do you use to select films and how do you ensure they are relevant to contemporary audiences?
A. A retrospective always has a theme – be it a period or genre in film history, an aesthetic or technological development, or the complete works of filmmakers. It defines the curatorial line, and then we select films from a range of titles for the section project.. The retrospective doesn't just show 'old' films – it presents good, great productions. The same goes for the Berlinale Classics. Movies are submitted to us and we select a number for the programme. We try to cover as wide a range as possible in terms of time, geography and style. Films in this category are world premieres or international premieres and are always new digitizations
K. Over the years, how have you seen the Berlinale evolve, particularly in its approach to celebrating film heritage? What role does the festival play in the wider context of film conservation?
A. The Berlinale Film History Retrospective, since its inception, is the only major festival to be included by the Classics Program, similar to those in Cannes and Venice. Screening at international festivals is always associated with particularly high attention: it gives films better visibility and the opportunity to be shown again on other occasions. This is how we reach younger audiences, the next generation, who want to know about film heritage. However, the budget constraints of the Berlinale, for example, had an impact on the retrospective – we had to adapt our plan: we could show some films, do without analogue projection and make sure that the selection already had subtitles.
K. Being on the board of the Werner Herzog Foundation, how do you approach the challenge of preserving Herzog's vast body of work for future generations?
A. As a member of the Foundation Board, I take a particularly positive view of the activities of Werner Herzog Film. All of Werner Herzog's films have already been digitized and the analogue negatives are well preserved. The Foundation is particularly committed to producing accessible versions of Werner Herzog's films, a noble endeavor.
K. How do you see the role of global film archives and museums in preserving cultural heritage? What steps are being taken to make the Deutsche Kinemathek's collections physically and digitally accessible to the public?
A. Without museums and archives, without film heritage institutions, it would be impossible to preserve the art of the moving image. We have a huge responsibility in this regard as only a few production houses are willing to invest in the preservation of cultural film heritage. The Deutsche Kinemathek continues to put its stock on display. Not just through exhibitions and film screenings. We are also working on making large parts of our collections and archives – moving image and accompanying material – searchable on our website. We offer a new, themed streaming program on a quarterly basis, 'Selects,' and we regularly release releases based on our collections and our rental films.
