We are a community of film-loving volunteers and patrons. We strive to help emerging filmmakers make their movies, despite all the roadblocks newcomers face.
The Berlin Movie Booster Club (e.V., i.Gr.) is (going to be) a
Why such?
Of course one can make movies steadily with a profit. But many of those productions are not the ones that excite us.
And many interesting films do not turn a profit. Many don’t even break even.
So it seems more than reasonable to operate a not-for-profit studio – every tentative profit shall simply be put into new projects.
We want to be the ones who believe in people, in their potential, in the power of enthusiasm. We want to gamble on new perspectives and new viewpoints. Being new, these are by definition those of emerging artists.
With the digital revolution in the 2000’s, filmmaking (among other things) got democratized. Today it seems almost "easy" to make a film – all the knowledge is there, and many people interested in that – but almost impossible to be recognized with an existing film. There are so many creators, so many creatives, so many channels and posts and media outlets that it is impossible to keep an overview. And a single work gets almost drowned in the mass of others.
The films of our filmmakers need attention. But the filmmakers shall be able to work on their film, and not spend half the time and money on marketing. So we are going to take that over. Our volunteers accompany our productions as media and marketing staff, we raise the low amount of money we give to the filmmakers, and we connect the films and filmmakers to the film industry, to have the films released publicly. This is an area we feel is important, because so few emerging filmmakers have the resources to do it.
Berlin-based, meaning to be produced mostly in Berlin, so that we, residing in Berlin, can make stuff happen with local actors – companies that might donate services and similar. "Act locally".
Micro-budget, because we believe we can regularly raise these "10,000 €" needed to make a certain type of feature film. It still means self-exploitation for the creatives, but many of them would do that anyway. We only try to support them so that it is a tiny bit easier for them to get filming, and to also make sure their efforts are recognized when they have finished the film.
Feature films, because they are still something that is taken seriously as a sample of work, both by audiences and the film industry. They tend to have a wider reach and are a bit easier to distribute, and also offer the slight chance of making their money back (which is important for the filmmakers’ careers).