Screening followed by a conversation with
Haytham El Wardany and Jumana Manna
Programmed by
Shapeshifting Collective
Saturday, 22 November 2025, 6.30pm
*Entry on donation basis*
Aktionshaus: Gottlieb-Dunkel-Str. 43/44, 12099 Berlin, 8th floor
Berlin: Normative and Counter Narratives
This programme brings together excerpts from several films, presented as archival fragments that trace recurring patterns of colonial violence within Europe’s own borders — through criminalisation, silencing, and the complicity of collective inaction. These fragments illuminate the parallels between historical and contemporary repression of political dissent, preparing the ground for a conversation after the screening between Jumana Manna and Haytham El Wardany, which will address ongoing developments that continue to mirror these repeating patterns of colonial violence, especially regarding the violent repression of solidarity with Palestine, particularly in Germany.
This programme was first shown during the Shapeshifting Film Festival and is now presented in a revised version with new guest speakers.
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The Shapeshifting Film Festival began to take shape in 2023 within the Raumerweiterungshalle community in Berlin, out of a collective reflection on how to sustain a space for cinema and dialogue in a time marked by political repression and censorship, especially towards those standing in solidarity with Palestinian liberation. Building on the idea of transformation, we explore how the moving image can carve out new spaces for political expression when established tools and methods are obstructed or suppressed.
The first edition of the festival took place in September 2024 at Raumerweiterungshalle, Berlin, bringing together eight curated programmes with films from invited filmmakers and open-call participants.
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THE SOCIAL LIFE OF FILM is an annual congress which brings together independent screening initiatives to further the communal potential of the moving image.
shapeshifting collective
Berlin: Normative and Counter Narratives, 2025
The Social Life of Film is self-organised and a community effort. Running without funding, it relies on the volunteer labour of its participants.