VIDEO WORKSHOP I speak so you don’t speak for me – The Cinema of Me

VIDEO WORKSHOP I speak so you don’t speak for me – The Cinema of Me

Britta Wandaogo

WORKSHOP ORGANISER: BRITTA WANDAOGO
PROJECT MANAGER: BETTY SCHIEL

Paradise Park started in 2017. It uses an outside broadcast truck owned by the Faculty of Design at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf – Peter Behrens School of Arts, gathering information but also conducting research in the city, involving members of the public and staging media events. With various cameras, a drone, an editing suite, a live broadcasting unit, live video transmission and access to the internet, the vehicle is equipped for flexible communication between the university and the city.
The outside broadcast truck will be part of a two-day workshop out in the streets of Cologne with film-maker Britta Wandaogo. Under the slogan »I speak so you don’t speak for me«, participants will shoot a video to be presented at the IFFF Dortmund | Cologne as part of the ABOUT GERMANY programme.
Where do I stand? Who am I? What is real? What holds my world together? Who’s in charge of my life? We all seek different ways to express ourselves. When the world outside collapses or the most unbelievable things happen, the question arises: What part of it all can (not) matter  to me? What do I have to say? Experimenting with ourselves in front of and behind the camera is a bold step and an adventure.
Workshop participants aged 18 to 30 are also recruited with the help of the DAKO e.V. association, collaboration partner to the project. DAKO e.V. was founded in 2004 to forge links between Germany and Africa in the fields of education, medicine, economy, environmental protection, women’s and children’s rights and culture. The association also actively supports the interests of African citizens in Cologne. This includes providing advice on integration issues, holding seminars as part of the project »African Parents of German Children«, and organising regular meetings and activities in the »caféfamilia« in the Alte Feuerwache socio-cultural centre. These activities focus on constructively raising awareness and educating. This enables traditional African knowledge to be preserved despite the adoption of Western technologies and cultural aspects, and an enrichment of the relationship between the continents.

In cooperation with: Hochschule Düsseldorf, Peter Behrens School of Arts, Paradise Park, ZAK NRW, DAKO e. V. und Alte Feuerwache Köln

Portrait of Britta Wandaogo

Britta Wandaogo

Born 1965 in Unna, Germany, the documentary film-maker Britta Wandaogo is a communication designer. She first studied at the Bergisch University of Wuppertal from 1986 to 1992. Her debut documentary film Den Affen töten (approx. »Kill the Cold Turkey«) was made in 1994, her brother its subject too. In 1998, she obtained a further degree in documentary film from the faculty of audio-visual media at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts. The year 2000 saw her start up her own film company: wandaogo productions. In 2003, she was a founder member of the documentary film network known as LaDOC. Her awardwinning film work is complemented by music videos, installations and audio-visual contributions to various exhibitions. Following teaching assignments in the departments of design and documentary film at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, Britta Wandaogo was appointed Professor of Audio-Visual Media there in 2010.


Films by Britta Wandaogo (Selection)
Ohne mein viertes Kind 2009 | Halbschwarz geht nicht 2009 | 1200 brutto 2007 | Die Krokodile der Familie Wandaogo 2003 | Liebe Weiss Schwarz 2003 | Liebe Schwarz Weiss 2001 | Bifou Biga 1998 | Une Image d’Ambition 1997 | Eigentlich geht’s ja um nichts 1996 | With a Big Monster 1995 | Den Affen töten 1994