Yvonne Rainer: Journeys from Berlin/1971

Journeys from Berlin/1971 is a caustic, at times humorous film about state power, oppression, violence and revolution. The idea was developed by the American choreographer and dancer Yvonne Rainer during a stay in Berlin in 1976/1977.


The film alternates between aerial shots of British landscapes, intertitles, fragments from Rainer's diary from his youth and the discussion of an invisible couple (voiced by Amy Taubin and Vito Acconci) about the decline of the RAF.

The art and film critic Annette Michelson plays a psychoanalysis patient, the filmmaker Cynthia Beatt appears in the Berlin sequences.


As part of Arsenal on Location, the restored version of Journeys from Berlin/1971 will be shown in the cinema.


Film: 124 min, English original version


The Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art is a research and educational center, archive, distributor, festival and cinema all in one. With its move from Potsdamer Platz to the silent green cultural quarter, the Arsenal will not have its own cinema until the new cinema is completed in early 2026. The collaboration with Berlin cultural institutions such as the Gropius Bau, arthouse cinemas and partners of the Arsenal on Location project helps to continue and further expand the cinematic dialogue, especially at this time.


Sabeth Buchmann (Berlin/Vienna), art historian and professor of modern and postmodern art history at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is co-editor of PoLYpen – a series on art criticism and political theory. Most recently published: Art as Infrastructure (2023), Broken Relations: Infrastructure, Aesthetic, and Critique (2022, co-ed.).


(IN ENGLISH)