B-Movie
The B-Movie theatre, A Wall is a Screen and ajabu ajabu have been working together since 2022. All three initiatives offer low-threshold cultural events based on alternative film and cinema work and have similar organisational structures. This has resulted in intuitive and synergetic research, intensive discourse and joint projects in Hamburg and Dar es Salaam.
This participatory curatorial work has led to a lively exchange. The focus was, for example, on film heritage, performance dispositives, questions of representation and visibility, as well as spaces and approaches. Of course, the shared history of Hamburg and Dar es Salaam is always present.
To date, several film programmes and exchange formats have already taken place, some of which were funded and some of which were self-financed. Several members of ajaub ajabu have visited Hamburg several times and the B-Movie and A Wall is a Screen have also been in Dar es Salaam with workshops and film programmes. In February 2023, October 2023, May 2024 and September 2024, ajabu ajabu presented and contextualised film programmes at B-Movie. In autumn 2024, Habibu Ramadhani Diliwa and Bernard Laulian Ntahondi were guests at the B-Movie for an artistic research project as part of the Open Monument Day. The focus was on the city’s colonial heritage carved in stone and Hamburg’s relationship to it.
The B-Movie is a collectively and voluntarily run cinema in St. Pauli that stands out due to its special thematic focus and collaborations. The programme is contextualised by guests, lectures and introductions. It is important to the B-Movie team to present, communicate and promote a variety of artistic forms and approaches. Free of commerce and with a socially acceptable admission price of 4.00 euros, barrier-free rooms and films in different languages, we celebrate diversity and inclusion in front of and behind the screen. The B-Movie sees itself as a low-threshold and open space in which encounters can take place and discussions can be held in a protected environment.
ajabu ajabu is more than just a cultural and cinema space in Dar es Salaam. The ajabu ajabu collective is made up of art practitioners working on the preservation, production and presentation of audiovisual cultures. Their practice focuses on curatorial research, promoting underrepresented narratives and supporting amateur forms and experimental approaches to storytelling. In addition to their curatorial work, many members of Ajabu Ajabu are also filmmakers, artists and cultural mediators.
