SECTION: Ralf Schuster

Ralf Schuster about Film as a Subcultural No-Budget Project

When I shot my first S8 film in 1980, video recording on magnetic tapes was still in its infancy. In the meantime, magnetic tapes have long since become obsolete, and cellphones can at least rudimentarily realize all the steps of filmmaking, from recording to uploading. But technology is only one part of filmmaking. At the beginning of every film is the creative will to communicate something. I had enough of the will, maybe even too much, and felt called not only to make films, but also to write music, art, texts and stories, and to publish a fanzine (editor's note: magazine made by fans for fans). Professional technology was too expensive, writing applications for funding was too tedious and not very promising, but there was always a way to reach the goal even with cheap methods. In the early 1980s, this strategy was called "ingenious dilettantism" and was very popular among Super8 activists. As technology evolved, however, this was no reason to make the films more cinematic. Instead, it offered the opportunity to create more films with less effort. Storytelling, working with dialogue and the beautiful experience of creating a film together with friends motivated me for 40 years to make films without sponsors and without budgets, in addition to my paid work as an artist.

Film Talk with Ralf Schuster: "Film as Subcultural NoBudget Product: Selected Works from 1987-2020"

10.11.22, 19:00, Obenkino