IFS-BEGEGNUNG: FILM mit »BECOMING BLACK« und INES JOHNSON-SPAIN

In the organizer's words:

ifs Encounter: Film with "Becoming Black"

Wednesday, March 05, 2025 | 7 pm
Free admission
Filmforum NRW | Cinema at the Museum Ludwig
Bischofsgartenstr. 1 | 50667 Cologne

ON THE BIG SCREEN:
"Becoming Black"
(Documentary film, D 2019, 91 min., original German, director: Ines Johnson-Spain, editor: Yana Höhnerbach)

Followed by a film talk with director Ines Johnson-Spain and editor Yana Höhnerbach, moderated by filmmaker Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye

Growing up in East Berlin in the 1960s, Ines learns as a teenager that, contrary to what her white parents claim, her dark skin color is no "coincidence", but that her biological father is a student from Togo. Long since grown up, as director and protagonist she now explores the taboo of her childhood, which overshadows everything, in emotional and open conversations with her stepfather and other relatives.
The film makes the atmosphere of silence and repression impressively palpable and reveals structural racism in the GDR in an exemplary manner.

Traveling to her family in Togo and Benin, BECOMING BLACK becomes a reflection on identity, family concepts and social norms. From the 1960s in East Berlin to the present day, previously unwritten German history unfolds in this intimate self-portrait.
Funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the documentary premiered at the IDFA documentary film festival in Amsterdam in 2019 and screened at numerous festivals worldwide.

Ines Johnson-Spain is an independent, German-Togolese filmmaker and author who grew up in East Berlin. For many years she worked as a set painter for national and international film and theater productions. Since 2003, she has been writing and directing her own films, which have won numerous awards. She serves on juries and gives workshops and seminars on autobiographical film at universities in Germany and abroad.

Editor Yana Höhnerbach has worked as a freelance editor since graduating from the ifs and has received numerous awards, including the German Camera Award in the editing category for "Drei Frauen - Ein Krieg" (directed by Luzia Schmid). In addition to her work as an editor, she regularly works as a lecturer and tutor in the field of editing.
Following the screening, director Ines Johnson-Spain and editor Yana Höhnerbach will talk about the film and their work, moderated by director and ifs graduate Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye (e.g. "Echt Friends", "Wir", "Homeshopper's Paradise").