Fanfic-Festival – Celebrating the Queer, the Strange and the Liberating Power of Fan Fiction

Collage: house of killing

When I met Frank, the founder of iHeartBerlin, 14 years ago he told me he had already written his own little series of books. I was super enthusiastic and asked him to borrow it to me. When he took one out of his bookshelf I was really surprised by what he gave me. It turned out to be a little self-printed booklet telling one self-written episode of The X Files. I knew the series from TV but didn’t understand what he was showing to me. Nowadays I know: He was writing fan fiction.

The idea of being such a fan of something that you dedicate your time and energy to write your own story happening in a certain fictional universe blew my mind. But also I have to admit that my surprise was followed by arrogance. This is not “real” literature I thought to myself. But why wasn’t it real? Because it was self-published? Because it wasn’t meant to be sold to anybody? Or because I did not appreciate the originality of it since the characters and the narrative-universe already existed?

Nowadays, I have a different perspective on fan fiction. I know that it is an authentic art form that is anti-capitalistic since it does not need to be financially successful. Also, it is often queer and feminist because many of the fans from the LGBTQ community create their own version of popular stories. A gay Harry Potter? A black Hermion Granger?  Why not! The main purpose is the pleasure the fan community experiences in sharing their material. Did I get you intrigued with my story by now? I hope so!

Hey Ma Ma 

This upcoming weekend there will be a special opportunity for you to learn and experience more about fan fiction. The Ballhaus Ost Theater is celebrating the art of fan fiction with the first theater festival only dedicated to this particular art form. Most of the pieces and performances will premiere at this festival so there is a bunch of excitement to be expected. Around the theater performances, the whole theater will become a fan fiction experience parcours with lots of little art installations and mini performances. One of them is about the Love to Jennifer Aniston, while another one is about Loving Angela Merkel. I mean, where in the world other then Berlin could you experience Fans of Aniston and Merkel in the same night? Only in Berlin 😉 

“My is Thomas Gonzalo and we have 60 min” Photo: Peter Empl

And I saved the most important news for the end. I will be involved in the festival and visit it day-by-day to get an outsider perspective. At the end of the three days, I have the honor to host a specific panel talk about the art of fan fiction where all the makers and creators of the festival will be sharing their own personal stories.

FanFic-Festival

14.3.2019 – 17.3. 2019  18.00-24.00

Daypasses: 15 | 10 (reduced) Euro

Festivalpass: 40 | (reduced) 25 Euro

BALLHAUS OST, Pappelallee 15, D-10437 Berlin

 

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<a href="https://www.iheartberlin.de/author/cr/" target="_self">Claudio</a>

Claudio

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