photo: Michael Lange
A bit more than 10 years ago film makers Igor Paasch and Frank Künster premiered their documentation Let It Rock! about Berlin’s most controversial district Mitte at the Berlinale 2003 and showed their film at several festivals over the course of the following 7 years. Now, 11 years later they finally released the film online for everyone to see.
Several Berlin personalities who the younger ones of us might not even know anymore but who were somehow famous and involved in the Berlin scene at the time are talking about Mitte and its nightlife, some praise it, some complain about it, but everyone has their own unique perspective on it. We recognize a few people that are still quite involved today, such as Johann from Circle Culture Gallery, Cookie, Sasha from Jahcoozi, Mieze from Mia., Miss Kittin and Ellen Alien.
It’s quite interesting what parts of Mitte’s scene this documentary is showing. I was already living in Berlin and going out at the time, but somehow nothing seems familiar what I see in the film which proves once more how many microcosm coexist in Berlin next to each other. What’s interesting is that all this was filmed before places such as Bar 25, Berghain and Renate even openen. Tresor was still in its previous space at Leipziger Platz and Weekend, WMF and Watergate where the hip new clubs everyone in their 20s went to. For me personaly back than there was no district that was particularily cool or better than the other. The places you went to were all over the city, some even in the (geographical) West of Berlin.
Today everything is quite different in that respect. Depending on the person who is talking some districts have a bad reputation for the one or other reason. That’s a bit sad in a way because ultimately every district is going through the same kind of developement, just in a different time and speed. Ultimately they all make up the Berlin that we know and love and sometimes it’s also important to acknowledge the past of one area to understand and appreciate the present of another. Enjoy the film after the jump.
