Arsenal

Potsdamer Straße 2, 10785 Berlin

Founded in 1970 by Erika and Ulrich Gregor, the Arsenal -- Institut fuer Film und Videokunst is one of Germany's most important institutions for film as a living art form. Now housed in the Deutsche Kinemathek building at Potsdamer Platz, its two screens are devoted to retrospectives, experimental work and international cinema that rarely finds commercial distribution. As co-organizer of the Berlinale Forum, the Arsenal has shaped decades of discourse around what cinema can be when freed from market pressures. Its archive holds thousands of prints, many of which surface in carefully researched thematic programmes throughout the year. Visiting the Arsenal is less like going to the movies and more like entering a research library that happens to project its holdings onto a screen. For anyone serious about the history and future of the moving image, there is no more essential address in Berlin.