Bambule: The Script

<p>What is printed in this notebook is film material, if not in the physical sense of celluloid, chemicals, video cassettes. For me, film material is everything that accumulates during a film project and accompanies it. That includes rejects or what was merely thought of and remained notes.</p> <p>Many things shape a film, not just the script but also the working environment and production processes, self-censorship and prohibitions. Certain of one’s aims remain unfulfilled, falling victim to constraints, or only in post production is the right tone found.</p> <p>The script is the working template for director, cameraman, and actors during shooting. Why was this script, excerpts of which are reprinted here, not thrown into the trash can when the film was finished? Why did the director donate it to the Berlin Academy of Arts, where I came across it last year while conducting research for a dOCUMENTA (13) project?</p> <p>Although produced with public funds, the film <em>Bambule, Fürsorge— Sorge für wen?</em> was not broadcast until twenty-four years after it was made. That was in 1994. The film, in 1994, was like a time machine, because between its being produced and broadcast the RAF happened, the 1980s changed the face of society, and the GDR was disbanded…</p>