Berlinized

After the Wall fell, a lively and very motley scene of young people used the vacant houses and apartments in Berlin-Mitte as a stage for living and celebrating their sense of easy- going freedom. Long-term success was not an important category – people lived their lives from one event to the next experiment, playfully de-establishing art and its market imperatives.The film „Berlinized“ takes you on a tour to 1990s’ Berlin-Mitte, both capturing and reflecting on this very unique feeling at a certain place in time. Filmmaker Lucian Busse, an active protagonist of this era, took his camera everywhere to document the changing cityscape, the art scene, clubs, concerts, and also the many construction sites where free space was filled up with ever-new, ever-the-same, faceless office buildings.The protagonists: Jim Avignon, artists and musician, now lives in New York. Together with Patrick Zollinger, he initiated the artists’ group U-Kunst. The art group Honey Suckle Company – Hannes Romberg/Captain Space Sex, cyber Rock‘n‘ roller – Jan Edler, architect, former owner of the club “Kunst & Technik” – Howard Goldkrand/MC Verb and Beth Coleman/DJ M-Singe, media artists and makers of the Sound. lab party series in NYC – Vrederer Albrecht, musician and producer, co-founder of the gallery berlintokyo.Lucian Busse was born in Stuttgart in 1966 and moved to Berlin in 1987. Since 1995, he has been working as freelance editor, cinematographer, and director for the broadcasting stations ARD (WDR/RBB/NDR/ SWR), ZDF, Arte, as well as several independent production companies in Berlin. Since 2000, he has been focusing on documentaries and reportage. In the early 1990s, he began documenting music sub-cultures. Between 1997 and 2002, he toured with his live cinema concert show Alien TV#1 from Berlin to New York City.