UNCSA documentary on Berlin exchange program will air on UNC-TV

“Berlin and Back Again,” a nine-minute film documenting an exchange program between the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Germany’s Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, will be aired next week on two channels of UNC-TV, the state’s public television network.

The film will premiere as the lead segment for the arts program “MUSE” at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9 on UNC-TV’s NC Channel, where it will be rebroadcast at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 12. It will also air at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11 on UNC-TV.

“Berlin and Back Again” was produced by third-year students in UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking as a behind-the-scenes documentary of the inaugural international exchange program. In February 2017, students from the school located just outside Berlin traveled to Winston-Salem to film their project, “Somewhere Home.” Then, in May, 13 UNCSA students traveled to Berlin to film their project, “Cassiopeia.”

Between the film shoots, the American and German students collaborated on production aspects such as locations, casting, and scheduling, and logistics such as housing and transportation. Each school provided crew members, equipment and production support for the other school’s project.

UNCSA faculty members Tim McCann (directing) and Bob Gosse (producing) spearheaded the exchange program after Film Dean Susan Ruskin met a colleague from the noted German university, proposed the exchange and visited the school. “Tim McCann and I went to Berlin in May 2016 to set up the parameters of what the exchange program might look like,” Gosse said, adding the program will continue this year.

“The success of the exchange has led us to make this a yearly trip offered to our third-year students wishing to participate,” he added. “We are expecting two teams of Konrad Wolf students this time around in February and we will be sending two teams over to Berlin in May.”

UNCSA students who participated in the program recorded behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with both their American classmates and German peers. Students who collaborated on the documentary include Shamus Sass of The Villages, Fla.; Jack Layer of Cary; Abe Bengio of Quebec, Canada; and Kevin Cutrara of Charlottte.

by Lauren Whitaker