Since 1973, video has been an integral, indispensable part of the International Forum of Young Film. Initially presented on monitors, it has for some years now been shown as large-format projection at our cinema Arsenal. Documentary and artistic videos have been equally represented in our programmes; it was here, for instance, that the American 13-hour series AN AMERICAN FAMILY had its European premiere, that artists such as Steina Vasulka, Dimitri Devyatkin, and Robert Ashley (world premiere of PERFECT LIVES) came to Berlin, or, in the past year, David Larcher, who showed EETC publicly for the first time – highlights of a wide-ranging programme. Video is a medium that accommodates extremes: long-duration observations, sculptures (DIE FETTECKE by Bielicky/Peredo, for which the monitor must be tilted on its side, Forum 1985), or the monologues of Hans Jürgen Syberberg/Edith Clever would be difficult or impossible to realise by other means. This year, too, there is such a work: 9 UHR AB WIEN WESTBAHNHOF by the Viennese architecture group 'Die Spur' – seven and a half hours of the view from a locomotive, a journey through Austria from a thoroughly unfamiliar perspective. For several years now, MedienOperative Berlin has served as a second venue for our video selection. This year again, the (predominantly long) video works shown at Arsenal and invited by the Forum will be repeated there. In addition, MedienOperative has independently assembled a programme that can only be seen at MedienOperative. Several initiatives concerned with the production and distribution of video (Medienwerkstatt Freiburg, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie, among others) have the opportunity to present themselves and their work – something that would be impossible at any other Forum venue, if only for reasons of space, but also of scheduling. Performances and multimedia events are also coming into their own here in a way not previously seen. At a time when there is constant talk of the 'new media', it seems to us essential that the International Forum of Young Film take part in this discussion, offer impulses, and present new works. We thank MedienOperative for having, in a short space of time, realised a programme that can lay claim to considerable interest.

Alf Bold

MedienOperative Program Selection, Micky Kwella Program Organization, Hartmut Horst, Micky Kwella VideoFilmFest Organization, Jörg Himstedt, Antje Ascheid, Gila Schmitt, Oliver Thiele Assistants, Gert Rahn Technical Support

Berliner Filmfestspiele, Dialog Video, internationales forum des jungen films, MedienOperative e.V. Berlin, VIDEOVox