Summer Dok CCC Bonn Germany

Great news—Summer Dok and CCC alum Emily Harmon (2018) is bringing her powerful doc she made in Germany back to Columbia College’s Feminist Film Festival to screen on Thursday, Feb 28. ‘What Remains’ is about a climate heroine working tirelessly to save the last of an old growth forest from a massive coal mining operation.

Preparing for our trip to Berlin and absorbing as much German history as we can, we glided through the renovated history museum of Bonn, starting with the end of WWII, through the East-West German cold war, the Berlin airlift, reunification, then up to the current refugee immigration.

The Kölner Dom is even more impressive when there is more than one of you...

After settling in with their host families, this great group of students started the week with a tour of Bonn and the AIB facilities. Tuesday had us experiencing the darker side of German history with a visit to the only surviving Gestapo detention center in Cologne. As a balancing act, we soared above the city on a rooftop tour of the Kölner Dom.

That Werner Herzog night in the forest with torches where students started doubling...

After a long plane ride, we landed in various airports and made our way to Bonn, Germany. Before we could fully realize we hadn't slept for a long time, we rode through beautifully green countryside into the Eifel, a rocky region of western Germany known for its volcanic history and lush forests. What a better way to overcome jet lag than a early morning hike where we met a man chopping wood who survived WWII as a boy in a nearby tunnel, a delicious lunch, some introductions, a crazy Werner Herzog inspired torch hike, and a trip to one of the most beautiful cities of Europe (Monreal) and Manderscheid castle. Day 1-3, wow!

What a wonderful finish! Everyone summoned and brought their creative problem-solving skills to bear, collaborating with composers, supporting each other in a series of intense editing sessions. The final screening was well attended by host families, doc subjects, many AIB staffers and showcased an impressive range of projects: Annie Collick’s ‘Edukation Nation,’ Elizabeth Hoeksema’s doc about a Afro-German rapper ‘When Everything’s Okay—German is not a Skin Color,’ Ryan Kowalkowski’s doc about a cafe ‘Second Living Room,’ Artana Sherifi’s doc about refugees in Germany ‘A Place to Call Home,’ Eli Hutton’s doc about string theory ‘The Core, the Tao, and the Shoestring,’ and Jessica Siletzky’s personal doc about her son ‘Matthew Goes to Germany.’

It’s always an honor to help facilitate creative projects abroad while each student navigates European cultural differences—involving both delight and challenges. Stay tuned for screenings at home in Chicago and beyond while we celebrate the documentary projects marking each student’s set of experiences. Auf wiedersehen!

All the doc projects were shot (with some more pick ups planned), so what's good for the mind--a breathe of fresh air and our last excursion. Hello Hildegaard von Bingen, a Rhine cruise, and exploring a castle! Hildegaard von Bingen is one of the most fascinating figures from the middle ages--composer, naturalist, early medicine, spiritualist, and amazing character. Brother 'Jeremy,' the Academic Director of AIB leds us on a spirited tour. At the end is Olivia Schaefer--Program Director for Summer Dok.

AIB and Bonn has lots to offer our Summer Dok folks. Gatherings to meet other students--from other American programs, but many German students who work at AIB as peer guides, translators, even quasi-documentary producers while getting their degrees at the Universität Bonn or Köln. That first pic is some American professor with the Director of AIB, Rainer Zäck. There are also class workshops with instructor Andrew Hood, visiting interview subjects such as historian Herr Möser--and even actors role playing doc subjects. Music Cube Director, Matthias Wittwer, also joins in our journey by guiding his Composing for the Screen students as they create musical scores in collaboration with Summer Dok students. Never a dull moment! Everyone is taking flight! (okay cheesy image at the end, but we are on the Rhine river and Bonn is a beautiful place!).

Meanwhile...back in Bonn. Lots of activities, gatherings, classes, and documentary/media related trips. Like this one to Deutsche Welle, Germany's state sponsored media channel--both digital and broadcast--but broadcast is only available outside of Germany, similar to Voice of America. Good to see, a chance to pitch the emerging projects, which were well received by Kate, the American who is a naturalized German citizen and Deutsche Welle Producer who spent time with us. Deutsche Welle has lots to offer on their website--language classes at all levels, pop culture, news, but as a media company, they are a good place to learn about possible internships and jobs in the future.

And Berlin final round--lastly a visit to the first prototype of a concentration camp created prior to WWII, Sachsenhausen, that punctuates a rich trip filled with history and the vibrancy of an amazing city that still perseveres. Heavy history, yet part of the human saga and reminds us about the importance of sharing and learning about storytelling.