Day 5: Work
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!!! ATTENTION Change of venue !!!
We will NOT be at Potsdamer Platz today, but invite everyone to the BALZ Atelier
Beusselstraße 35, 10553 Berlin-Moabit, Directions: S-Bahnhof Beusselstraße
Map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/6946228678
There is barrier-free access. If you are unable to climb stairs, please register by phone:
+49 176 58 87 37 70
Sunday, 16 February 2025, 7:00 - 09:30 pm
Supporting films
Passenger Princess (Great Britain) [1]
Patrick Brontë, Worker (USA)
Don’t Come Back, Kid (China)
Main film
Corsa Abusiva (Italy)
The concept of ‘work’
What does a taxi driver’s work consist of?
In Passenger Princess we see the work of a people-chauffeur as it is carried out by millions of colleagues worldwide. The film implicitly asks what a taxi is. Can a vehicle and its driver, who do not belong to the legendary London black cabs, be called a taxi or taxi driver? How do they differ from the perfect connoisseurs of London, who are considered the best taxi drivers in the world?
Patrick Brontë, Worker is about the future of the taxi industry in the form of a look into the past. The profession and the qualification of the taxi driver are often compared to that of weavers or blacksmiths, who had to give way to industrialisation. The mechanical loom would have been for the weavers what the navigation apps are for the taxi drivers today, it is said. Regardless of whether this is true or not, both old professions have found their place in modern society. The millions of impoverished artisans have disappeared and the bulk of fabrics are industrially manufactured. The modern descendants of the old artisans are educated people who know how to give their craftsmanship a new social role. Their example is a stimulus for a new form of the profession of taxi driving.
The main character in Don’t Come Back, Kid is looking for a way out of the plight into which the ancient craft of jade carving has been pushed by the fully automated production of the jade objects so prized in China. Unlike the coral merchant in Joseph Roth’s Leviathan, he tries not to lose his own identity and ultimately perish through the loss of the spirituality of ‘real’ materials. After completing his studies, he decides to use all his knowledge to successfully lead craftsmanship and family tradition into the modern age.
In the main film Corsa Abusiva, we experience what it means to be on the road with an illegal tax’. At first, everything looks quite normal, only the missing taxi sign on the roof distinguishes the car and its work from ‘real’ taxis. The absence of rules, the brutal competition without regulation gradually reveals consequences that no working person would want to experience. This film is a warning to anyone tempted to get behind the wheel of an illegal Uber rental car.
[1] Replacement screening. During the screening at Potsdamer Platz, the cold and technical problems prevented us from showing Passenger Princess. We will make up for it today in the warmth. Coffee, snacks and cold drinks from the refrigerator will be available in the BALZ studio.
