Bernd Lützeler
bangaloREsident@Experimenta

bangaloREsidency 2017 wasn't my first trip to India at all, in fact I've been coming to Mumbai repeatedly for more than 15 years, which has had has a great influence on my artistic work in films. Since it is a film metropolis, Mumbai is a very commercial place, which is one of the reasons why filming and filmmaking is extremely difficult over there. The moment you take out a camera, you will be either charged money, of told to put the camera down, or both. Over the years quite a few projects and ideas have piled up, which are impossible to realized in Mumbai. On the other hand Bangalore turns out to be an ideal place for such kinds of projects, since it unites the modernity of an Indian metropolis with a liberal atmosphere that is open for art and culture. So for me the bangaloREsidency looked like a great opportunity to apply with one of those projects.


 
The city scapes of Indian metropoles are dominated by thousands of small shops that are filled with products galore. For my short experimental film "_galore", I was planning to shoot slow tracking shots with a 16mm film camera in as many small, jam-packed shops as possible. Since I only had five weeks time between other assignments, I had to gather a film crew before coming to Bangalore. Maureen Gonsalves of Goethe Institut and Shai Heredia of my hosting institution Experimenta India helped me a lot with that. The Goethe Institut even got a flyer designed to search for crew members, and within a couple of days, I had found three guys for me team: Siddharth Govindan, Poornabodh Nadavatti and Vishnu Nambiar.


 
All 12 artists in residence arrived with the same flight in Bangalore after midnight. I was put up with two other artists, Felix Deufel and Thomas Heidtmann in a spacious flat with five (!) balconies in a neighbourhood called Malleshwaram. The next morning we were taken on a bus tour to give us an overview over the city and its art scene. On day two I met my crew members and after a few days of technical preparations, we started hunting for shooting locations in the market areas of the city. Even though Bangalore has wide roads, large bridges, subways, parks, army compounds and high tech campuses, its city center still remains one huge area, with millions of people, goods, carts, animals, rickshaws and vehicles congesting the streets and alleys. From now on we threw ourselves into this turmoil every day, first with notepad and pen, later with cameras, rigs and lights. I can only thank my team for staying the course, walking with heavy backpacks, through the crowds and the jams, through the heat and the rains, and through the mud and the waste.
 
After two weeks of running around we had permissions to shoot in 68 shops. This number rapidly decreased when it came to making concrete appointments with the owners. Finally we shot in 25 shops, which is more than I had ever hoped for. Since the film was still in postproduction by the end of the residency, the idea occurred that I could use the material of the film, and edit a trailer for the Experimenta film festival, taking place by end of November, which would open every film block. Since I am also earning money as a trailer editor in my second life, I saw it as a great challenge, to try to merge art and marketing, using my own footage. I think I can take pride in claiming that the trailer earned a good dose of applause at most of the shows, which is not very usual for festival trailers in general.


 
In retrospect I can say that I had a really fantastic time in Bangalore, it was a great experience to be able to fully concentrate on shooting the film, without having to bother about anything else. The Goethe Institut also backed the project financially, which allowed me to work with amazing people. Great friendships and connections have emerged from this: Right now I have hired Siddharth Govindan for my current film shoot in Mumbai. During Experimenta I volunteered as the projectionist for 16mm films. When the idea to found an artist-run filmlab came up amongst a group of enthusiasts, I was able to help with words and deeds. I am sure that I will come back to Bangalore sooner or later, to realize another project.
 
Finally I also have to admit that my project was very ambitious and extensive, especially considering the very limited time frame. As a result I hardly had the time to see other corners of the city, explore the local art scene or see the final presentations of my fellow resident artists. If I had the opportunity to repeat my bangaloREsidency, I would definitely come with more time for other activities.
 
I want to thank the Goethe Institut Bangalore, Dr. Claus Heimes and Maureen Gonsalves for the invitation and the great support, to Shai Heredia of Experimenta India, who was an amazing host and resource of information and help, my crew Siddharth Govindan, Poornabodh Nadavatti and Vishnu Nambiar, who went through thick and thin with me, and without whom not a single frame of this film would have been exposed, the buddies of Goethe Institut Nora Duchêne, Agnes Ziegler, Anna Hofer and Sarah Denzinger, as well as Aditi Rajeev, who were always there when needed, Yashas Shetty of Indian Sonic Research Organisation, who kindly let us use his studio for one week, and last but not least Kunal Deshpande and Aliasger Dhariwala, who repeatedly visited us and kept filming us filming. I had a fantastic time and I will come back again!