Back and Forth 2015

How do young people from Israel see Berlin and how do young Germans view Israel? The “Back and Forth” documentary film project by the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) and Tel Aviv University (TAU) already sent off bilateral teams of students in search of the life in the other city in 2012 and 2013. In 2015, the journey now continues, with new participants expected to open up new contemporary perspectives and tell personal stories. What does the here and now mean in Berlin and Tel Aviv? What subjects do these up-and-coming filmmakers encounter along the way, which different faces and which daily realities? What are the concerns of the younger generation both here and there, what are their goals, and what are they willing to commit to?

Experienced filmmakers from both countries prepare the students for the task of putting together a specific theme based on such questions and using their own observations to create moving images, accompanying the students on their way from the initial idea to the finished film. The observational gaze here is not just trained on what’s happening in front of the camera: the participants also experience the familiar and the unknown whilst working together in mixed teams. The first phase involves developing a concept, before the film is shot and post-production then carried out at the respective universities. The special challenge this time round: all the directors must find their camera teams and producers in the other country. Grappling with another working culture thus comes to the fore alongside the exploration of a particular theme. How different or similar is everyday life (whilst filming)?  What influence does this have on the creative process and how does it bring about shifts in perspective? As different sections of the real world are documented, individual experience also makes its presence felt and is incorporated into the work. 

The final result is four portraits of how the project participants see reality from the outside, a reality which is also the very same one they themselves have experienced: two metropolises, four personal stories.  

“Back and Forth” is a project by the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) in collaboration with the Film & T.V. Department of the Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University (TAU) and takes place for the second time between March 16, 2015 and October 31, 2016. The project entails a total of 12 students from both universities producing four documentaries in mixed teams on location in the two cities, which are then to be shown at film festivals.