Festival-Theatre

Werkstattkino
Fraunhoferstraße 9
80469 Munich
www.werkstattkino.de

Special thanks to Wolfi and his team for their friendly support.

The Werkstattkino was a bowling alley. At that time, 1974, when half of the Bunter Hund team wasn’t even born, bowling just wasn't hip anymore and the cellar of the Fraunhofer suddenly became vacant. But then someone brought these old projectors of the 30’s from one of the urban hinterland cinemas, dislocated the door and officially opened the cinema to the public 1976, on April 4th, where at that time films had already been presented for a year. So now the curtain is drawn where once the pins fell.

Nobody really knows why it was named Werkstattkino which literally translates to workshop cinema. Was it because viewing movies is hard work? Especially those which nobody is interested in, which nobody really wants to see? Or the ones not shown in other cinemas as nobody will come. Forgotten films. Business killers. But finally there is an audience for it.

During the last decades Wolfi, Waco, Dolly, Bernd and Thomas have shown nearly ten thousand movies. Films across all topics and times, walking across the whole life. Monday till Sunday, two films a day. There is no day off at the Werkstattkino. It is hard work, not only because a 35mm reel must be changed every 15 minutes. "We are an extincting species."

The Werkstattkino has an exceptional concept. There is no consensus about the program, each of the five operators has his or her own program. However, they fit together somehow. There are handouts for each program, real prints you can hold in your real hand. Even in times of iPad. The Werkstattkino is a museum, a preserving agent. It's maybe the tiniest cinema in Munich and definitely the smallest basement cinema.

The films have been collected since decades, the cinema is a film archive as well. And its team never runs out of ideas for next week, next month, or even next year. Ideas about what to show, about what you'll never see elsewhere.

How did the Bunter Hund, the "coloured dog", get into the Werkstattkino? Nobody really remembers it. But there it is now, having a cosy time, roaming the projection room, sleeping below the table. Each year in March it appears and then dissapears until next year.

The team of Bunter Hund wishes Wolfi and the Werkstattkino many years of further inspiring film business. And maybe sometime with a program about the world of bowling ...