Libraries: Places (not just) for films

Public libraries and their ten film favourites on filmfriend!

"I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library." The Media and Information Center (MIZ) in Bergen on the island of Rügen recalled this quote from Jorge Luis Borges: "It captures the essence of what a library can be - a multifaceted place that serves to promote education, culture, community and innovation and make it accessible to all." It's only fitting that filmfriend, the libraries' streaming platform, echoes this, as well as another MIZ statement: "Libraries provide access to many resources, including books, journals, digital materials and expert knowledge, that enable people to learn new things and expand their knowledge. They are places for lifelong learning. They are a place for entertainment." In our collection, we present a few libraries - representative of all those other public spaces that help to ensure people's coexistence and quality of life day in, day out: places of conversation and encounters, of encounters with strangeness and diversity. The libraries could hardly be more different on the outside: sometimes they are small, even very small, sometimes large, sometimes they shine thanks to visionary architecture, sometimes their rooms breathe centuries of history. But they have much in common in terms of their aspirations, ideas and hopes for good social coexistence. We asked each library to name ten films from the filmfriend range, but did not specify the criteria: they could be cinematically ambitious or primarily entertaining titles, they could be the films most used in their own library, the personal favorite films of a librarian or ten films that they would like as many users as possible to see. In any case, we hope to be able to convey a little more about the "library experience" in this way - and that we will all get to know each other better through films. We would like to thank the participating libraries and will continue to expand our series step by step.

It's only fitting that filmfriend, the libraries' streaming platform, echoes this, as well as another MIZ statement: "Libraries provide access to many resources, including books, journals, digital materials and expert knowledge, that enable people to learn new things and expand their knowledge. They are places for lifelong learning. They are a place for entertainment."

In our collection, we present a few libraries - representative of all those other public spaces that help to ensure people's coexistence and quality of life day in, day out: places of conversation and encounters, of encounters with strangeness and diversity. The libraries could hardly be more different on the outside: sometimes they are small, even very small, sometimes large, sometimes they shine thanks to visionary architecture, sometimes their rooms breathe centuries of history. But they have much in common in terms of their aspirations, ideas and hopes for good social coexistence.

We asked each library to name ten films from the filmfriend range, but did not specify the criteria: they could be cinematically ambitious or primarily entertaining titles, they could be the films most used in their own library, the personal favorite films of a librarian or ten films that they would like as many users as possible to see.

In any case, we hope to be able to convey a little more about the "library experience" in this way - and that we will all get to know each other better through films.

We would like to thank the participating libraries and will continue to expand our series step by step.

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