TaxiFilmFest press review from 19 February 2024

Actually, there is no time for such things. Curating, organising, discussing, the daily construction and dismantling of the TaxiFilmFestTaxi, welcoming our friends, talking to the press, radio, television and internet media leaves hardly any time for accompaniment, documentation and retrospect. That’s why there is only a small link list here and now.

Assemblies in the state of Berlin
https://www.berlin.de/polizei/service/versammlungsbehoerde/versammlungen-aufzuege/
Our entry:

18.02.2024 17:00 22:00 The taxi as part of public transport (ÖPNV) and urban culture is threatened. In 2024, the Berlinale management is taking a stand against taxis for the second time, offering the main sponsor an advertising space as the biggest enemy of good work, of taxi and film culture. Together with the supporters of Taxi Deutschland, Taxiinnung, Ver.di, the Evangelischer Kirchenkreise Kundgebung unemployment centre and others, I am organising the TaxiFilmFest rally against this. We want to talk to filmmakers and the Berlinale audience. (from 15.02. to 25.02.2024 - daily) 10785 Potsdamer Str. 7

That’s how it is.

Kristian Ronneburg (@k_ronneburg)...
https://twitter.com/k_ronneburg/status/1757338050005238080
<https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGNRkYh...>

#Taxi can #Berlinale! The signal that the Berlinale management is sending with the sponsorship of Uber is disastrous. @LinksfraktionB
is calling on the CDU/SPD Senate to give taxis right of way at one of the world’s most important film festivals in the future!

Thanks for mentioning us, but why on X, which is made by the same kind of people as Uber? Isn’t that what https://linke.social/ is for?

Free in Berlin
https://www.gratis-in-berlin.de/component/flexicontent/13-festivals/2064802-berlinale-2024-mit-spannendem-kostenlosen-rahmenprogramm

Berlinale 2024 - with an exciting (free) supporting programme
The Taxifilmfest (bold text = link) is sure to be one of the most exciting fringe events.

Cool, thanks, but we’re not really ‘free’. The #TXFF wants participation and support from its visitors, because we only want to and are allowed to let in our friends and people who have or want to develop a ‘personal relationship’ with us.

Berlinale: The little taxi film festival (Deutschlandfunk Kultur)
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/berlinale-das-kleine-taxifilmfest-dlf-kultur-8992c6d7-100.html
Listen here:
https://download.deutschlandfunk.de/file/dradio/2024/02/18/berlinale_das_kleine_taxifilmfest_drk_20240218_1722_8992c6d7.mp3

Soon to be offline:
Not only the Berlinale – the ‘TaxiFilmFest’ also begins on Thursday
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/Y3JpZDovL3JiYl9mNmNmMjQ3Ny03Njc0LTQwMGMtYTE2ZC1iNDk3NDFkZWI5YTdfcHVibGljYXRpb24
Once again, many thanks to Petra Gute for the nice article.

For the Berliner Morgenpost, we fit in with the 50 Berlin secrets.
https://www.morgenpost.de/themen/berliner-geheimnisse/
We are honoured by this and, thanks to the coverage, we hope that this will soon change – I mean the part about the TaxiFilmFest being a secret and an insider tip.

Taxi drivers demonstrate against Berlinale sponsor Uber
https://www.morgenpost.de/berlin/article241696598/Taxifahrer-demonstrieren-gegen-Berlinale-Sponsor-Uber.html
17.02.2024, by Andreas Gandzior
Quote:

This year, Uber is once again the main sponsor of the Berlinale for the second time. ‘The taxi as part of public transport and urban culture is under threat. In 2024, the management of the Berlinale is positioning itself against the taxi for the second time and offering the biggest enemy of good work, taxi and film culture, an advertising space as main sponsor,’ according to the announcement by the Berlin assembly authority.

Meier, together with the supporters of Taxi Deutschland, the taxi guild, ver.di and the unemployment centre of the Protestant church districts, is opposing this. They want to talk to filmmakers and the Berlinale audience at the ‘TaxiFilmFest’. The rallies, that is, the film festival, will take place daily from 5 to 10 p.m. until Sunday, 25 February.

Thanks also for this article in the Berliner Morgenpost!

Tiffany Taxi dedicated a whole hour to us.
https://hearthis.at/pi-radio/set/taxi-berlin/
Listen here:
https://hearthis.at/pi-radio/2024-02-01-19-00-taxi-berlin-hier-spricht-tiffany-taxi-taxifilmfest-92/

Unfortunately, the Tagesspiegel is already hiding its report behind a paywall:
Uber is a partner of the Berlinale: why taxi drivers are starting their own film festival during the Berlinale
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/festival-der-ausgeschlossenen-warum-taxifahrer-wahrend-der-berlinale-ihr-eigenes-filmfest-starten-11222416.html
At least there is a teaser:

Uber is a partner of the Berlinale: Why taxi drivers are starting their own film festival during the Berlinale
The Berlinale has been cooperating with Uber for a year. Taxi drivers see this as a further symbol of their displacement. In protest, they have organised their own film festival.
By Marlon Saadi
16.02.2024, 3:11 pm
While the film world and Berlin celebrities are gathering at the Berlinale, Klaus Meier is standing in a worn leather jacket on the central reservation of Potsdamer Strasse. Here on the ‘Boulevard of Stars’, the former taxi driver has organised the Taxi Film Festival with friends and colleagues. A festival for the excluded, because a few...

‘Excluded’, well, we weren’t born yesterday. Here, our step forward in the spirit of a young person who grew up with Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, the infamous #GAFAM, becomes a gathering of the excluded. What a misunderstanding. We are the defenders of your jobs and social achievements. It is saddening to see how much the idea of solidarity and joint action against the threat to the living and working conditions of journalists, from the poison of Uber-propaganda, has already been eroded from the young, talented minds.

Berliner Zeitung: Taxi drivers stage anti-Berlinale protest against Uber with their own film festival
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/berlin-taxifahrer-veranstalten-anti-berlinale-protest-gegen-uber-mit-eigenem-filmfestival-li.2187765

Once again, the Berlinale is being sponsored by the US car-sharing company Uber. Berlin taxi drivers are protesting against this – with their own film festival.
16.02.2024, Author - José-Luis Amsler

Wolf Siegert’s DayByDay is dedicating a day entry to the TaxiFIlmFest:
The black-and-yellow Berlinale taxi cinema insider tip
https://www.daybyday.press/article8548.html
https://www.daybyday.press/IMG/jpg/taxifilmfest_interview.jpg

A glance at the calendar of Berlin film festivals will show that the idea of setting up a film programme separate from the Berlinale has a history of its own. It goes all the way back to the founding of the Video Film Fest in 1986 (renamed VideoFest in 1989) as a side programme to the International Forum of New Cinema, held during the Berlinale. The founder of this new format and current taxi driver guru Klaus Meier was one of the early collaborators of this festival, which is still active today as transmediale.

Question: is the yellow colour, as is still the case in Hong Kong, also the local signal colour of encouragement in opposition to the Uber mafia, which this year, after the absence of the major German car brand manufacturers, has been able to establish itself as a Berlinale partner for the second time?

The TAZ is also playing a role:
title: Politically beyond the screen
https://taz.de/Konflikte-um-die-Berlinale/!5988921/
An excerpt:

Taxis against Uber
The fact that Berlin’s traditional film festival is sponsored by Uber, of all things, its unpopular competitor from Silicon Valley, is a thorn in the side of many taxi drivers. Last year, they protested in front of the red carpet against wage dumping and systematic violations of labour law at the US company. This year, the taxi drivers are taking a more creative approach and are organising their own film festival. In a large taxi at Potsdamer Platz, films will be shown throughout the week, including classics such as ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Taxi, Taxi’ and ‘The Fifth Element’.

War in Gaza
The war between Israel and Hamas could also become a focus of the film festival. On Monday, an association of Berlinale employees called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages. In the statement, the signatories lament the ‘inertia of the cultural industry’ in Germany and call on institutions such as the Berlinale to take a clearer stance. The Berlinale should also be a space for an open discussion of the conflict.

We at TaxiFilmFest sympathise with the victims of this conflict. That is why on Sunday we watched the moving Lebanese film ‘Sous les bombes’ by Philippe Aractingi, which shows the odyssey of a taxi driver and a mother through southern Lebanon, destroyed by Israel in 2006, in search of their child.

That’s it for today (19 February 2024). I’m sure a few more contributions will be added. They will be added after the TaxiFilmFest has ended. It’s half past nine. Now the preparations for the fifth day of the festival begin.