Review: ‘People of Colour’ and the Metropolis: Politicizing Berliner Farben (2017-2018)

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the review:

In an interview, filmmaker Poliana Baumgarten provides the reasons for which she started the web-series Berliner Farben (2017-2018), which is freely available on Youtube and depicts the lives of racial and sexual minorities living in Berlin, Germany. In Baumgarten’s words, “I started Berliner Farben out of desperation. As a teenager, I realized that in Germany PoC [People of Colour] are rarely presented in the media. And if they are then it is done in a very stereotypical way. That’s why I wanted to create a platform where PoC [People of Colour] are portrayed and their individual stories and voices count” (Interview). Baumgarten’s project, thus, purports to render greater representation to ‘people of colour’ by embracing “the diversity of Berlin” (Description, Trailer). With nine episodes that resemble the format of a documentary but are equally ethnographic in nature, Baumgarten’s lens meets an activist, poet, journalist, rapper/singer, and female disk jockeys in order to capture their efforts towards visibility in Germany. While each episode stands out on its own, they remain disconnected given the scope of the project itself, which although ambitious, remains unclear.