Dr. Rainer Rother, the Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin, has played a pivotal role in preserving and promoting film heritage for decades.
Under his leadership, the institution has navigated the complex challenges of archiving, digitization, and public engagement, all 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 to a new temporary building, the evolving role of film archives in a digital age, and his vision for ensuring the legacy of cinema remains relevant for future generations.
He also shares insights into his work with the Berlinale, the Werner Herzog Foundation, and the broader context of global film preservation efforts.
Excerpts
Q. With the upcoming move to a new building, what long-term goals do you have for Deutsche Kinemathek? How do you see the institution evolving in the next decade?
A. The new temporary building, a former transformer station, with its 600m2 hall, offers the opportunity to try out a variety of formats and presentations in view of the planned new museum building. A new museum will only be feasible in a few years’ time. The demands placed on museums as well as expectations of visitors are constantly changing. The work in our interim quarters therefore gives us a chance to test appropriate offers for our visitors.
Educational work will also be intensified. As before, we will provide many inclusion programmes; we will provide offers for people of different age groups, different levels of education and social backgrounds. This will also give us a lot of positive ideas in order to prepare for the new museum.
Unfortunately, we will no longer be able to offer a permanent exhibition due to a lack of space. However, we will be able to realize larger projects. This is guaranteed by our national and international network – the majority of our exhibitions have already been taken on by international museums and cinematheques in the past.
Q. What are the main challenges you face in preserving and archiving films in an increasingly digital world? How do you balance the preservation of physical film with the demands of modern digital formats?
A. This is a major challenge indeed. With the closure of many copying plants, film archives have been confronted with the responsibility to preserve large quantities of analogue films. This process is far from complete and storage facilities have not been expanded accordingly. Nevertheless, we are giving our best to preserve the materials in our collection or those that will be added to it in the best possible way. However, the complete digitization of the distribution of moving images also means that we have to digitize analogue materials in order to guarantee their visibility. Only a few cinemas can still project 35 mm film, but TV, streaming, DVDE and BluRay only work with digital films. We use various programmes to implement a curatorial digitization strategy.
The preservation of digital copies and ‘digitally born’ titles continues to be a major challenge. We are in constant dialogue with other film heritage institutions and secure our films in redundant backup structures.
Q. As the in charge for Berlinale Classics and the Homage film series, what criteria do you use to select films, and how do you ensure they remain relevant to contemporary audiences?
A. There is always one theme for the Retrospective – be it a period or genre in film history, an aesthetic or technical development or even the complete works of filmmakers. This defines the curatorial line and we then select films from many titles for the section programme.. The Retrospective doesn’t just show ‘old’ films – it presents good, outstanding productions. This also applies to the Berlinale Classics. Films are submitted to us and we select a number for the programme. We try to cover a range as wide as possible in terms of time, geography and style. The films in this section are world premieres or international premieres and are always new digitalizations
Q. Over the years, how have you seen Berlinale evolve, particularly in its approach to celebrating film heritage? What role does the festival play in the broader context of film preservation?
A. The Berlinale is the only major festival to have had a film history programme, the Retrospective, from its beginning, added by the Classics programme, which is very similar to those in Cannes and Venice. Screenings at international festivals are always associated with a particularly high level of attention: this gives the films great visibility and the chance to be shown again on other occasions. This is precisely how we reach a younger audience, the next generation, so to speak, whom we want to make aware of film heritage. However, the budget restrictions of the Berlinale, for example, also have an impact on the Retrospective – we have to adapt our programme: possibly show fewer films, do without analogue projection and make sure that subtitles are already available in the selection.
Q. 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. Almost all of Werner Herzog’s films have already been digitized and the analogue negatives have been well preserved. The foundation is particularly committed to producing accessible versions of Werner Herzog’s films, which is a great initiative.
Q. How do you view the role of global film archives and museums in preserving cultural heritage? What steps are being taken to make the Deutsche Kinemathek’s collections more accessible to the public, both physically and digitally?
A. Without museums and archives, without film heritage institutions, preservation of the art of the moving image would never have been possible. We have a great responsibility in this respect, as only a few production companies are still prepared to invest in the preservation of cultural film heritage. The Deutsche Kinemathek continuously makes its stocks visible. Not only through exhibitions and film screenings. Moreover, we are working on making even larger parts of our collections and archives – both the moving image and the accompanying objects – searchable on our website. We also offer a new, thematically defined streaming programme, ‘Selects,’ on a quarterly basis and we regularly publish publications based on our collections and release many of our rental films.