This year we attended Berlinale in search of transmedia hints, debates and fresh projects.
The first talk to attend was “The Indie Filmmakers’ Guide to Cross Media II”, an open panel leaded by Katerina Cizek (Canadian documentarian, part of the National Film Board of Canada team) and moderated by Liz Rosenthal (Power to the Pixel).
The debate’s aim is to explore the way cross-media-ness transformed the documentary grammar: “Documentarian Katerina Cizek retraces her tracks in interventionist media-making through the digital age and goes under the hood of her multi-award winning projects. With clips and behind-the-scenes stories, Cizek charts her personal, political and technological transformations from her early independent days to the Webby and Emmy winning Highrise project, a multi-platform interactive project that explores the human condition of vertical living around the globe.“
The open talk regarding interactivity in digital storytelling is a highly complex modus operandi. Up until now, artists and participants seemed to oscillate between two systems: a platform-centric belief and a user-centric belief. If in the past the platform seemed the cornerstone of each concept, now every story seems to be deigned for a multi-layered user-centric system. User-centricity becomes unconsciously the most effective contemporary approach.
Having this premise as a driving force, Katerina Cizek pleaded for a platform agnosticism – an attitude that motivates storytellers to expand their stories, without being restricted by a certain frame. Regarding the status of contemporary cinema, Cizek genuinely argued that : “Film is not dead, is very much alive. This is just another tool.”
Of course, there are stories that match exclusively a classic-oriented approach. But in the same time there are stories that can be told in a much revealing way by using the digital language. Researching her stories with an unbeatable persistency, Katerina Cizek underlines the importance of expanding the documentary boundaries.
When asked about the evolution of a story, Katerina Cizek replied “the story comes from the material“. Research seems to be the focal point of every digital documentarist. And from this immense archive of live footage the storyteller then builds an artistic statement.
Another important layer of a digital oeuvres is user-testing. This practice, which unfortunately is not used enough in the cinema world, seems a fundamental stage in any digital experiment. In cinema, development seems a vacuum, without any user-testing. It’s a process that isolates the artist, instead of connecting him with his participants.
By analyzing in detail outstanding projects like “Out my window”, “Highrise”, “A Short History of the Highrise” ( a collaboration with The New York Times), Katerina Cizek defines digitalness and interactivity as a challenging tools for any contemporary documentarist.
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Written by Ioana Mischie – Berlinale Correspondent
Ioana Mischie is an emerging Romanian storyteller. Graduated Screenwriting MA program at UNATC, where she is currently enrolled in her first year of the PhD degree focussing on transmedia storytelling. Her portfolio is an eclectic apprentissage of filmmaking, creative writing and envisioning the world as a neo-creative playground. Her work was so far selected to more than 50 film festivals and script development programs like: Berlinale Talents – Script Station, Locarno Academy Meetings, GoEast Young Professionals, Cannes- Romanian Short Waves.
STORYSCAPES | the first Romanian association focussing transmedia storytelling and interactive narratives 