Wiesbaden Film Circle
The Wiesbaden Film Circle has been in existence since 1963 and meets weekly in the movie theaters of the FilmClub Leibniz. The focus is on the exchange of experience and knowledge among amateur filmmakers. For five years - until 2011 - the film circle organized the Federal Film Festival of the Federal Association of German Film Authors in Wiesbaden.
It all began in the back room of the Patrizierkeller, a small cellar restaurant in Dotzheimer Straße. The first 21 members of the Wiesbadener Filmkreis (WFK) met there, which was founded on September 12, 1963 and became a member of the Bundesverband Deutscher Film-Autoren e.V. (BDFA), the German umbrella organization for film amateurs, in January 1964.
In the early days, filming was done with normal 8 celluloid material, later with Super 8, some with 16 mm, until finally video technology was introduced: VHS, S-VHS, Hi8, SD through to today's digital HD and AVCHD. The members always share their knowledge and experience of filming with each other: Recording technology, film editing, soundtracks and commentary, but also theory on film, technology and image design. These topics not only concern the new members, but also the long-standing amateur filmmakers of the association due to the further development of the film medium. The creation of slide shows with soundtracks using analog and now digital images has also been an integral part of club life since the 1980s.
Annual club excursions characterize club life and the friendly bond between members and their families, including two joint vacations on the MS Maestral on the former Yugoslavian Mediterranean coast in 1986 and 1990, as well as a week-long cycle tour along the Danube from Linz to Vienna in 1994.
From 2007 to 2011, the WFK organized the BDFA Federal Film Festival Feature Film, first in the rooms of the Film Rating Agency (German Film and Media Rating) in Biebrich Castle, later in the cinema rooms of the FilmClub Leibniz of the Leibniz School in Wiesbaden. These cinema rooms have also been available to the WFK for its club evenings since 2000 thanks to the willingness of the Leibniz School and FilmClub Leibniz to cooperate. Before that, the club evenings were held in the Hansa Hotel in Rheinstraße, the Haus der Heimat in Friedrichstraße and for 27 years in the Hotel Oranien in Wiesbaden. Since the WFK was founded, the number of members has been around 30 with an average membership duration of around 20 years. And many of these filmmakers were and are represented at the state and national level of film competitions up to the German Film Festival of the BDFA as jurors and jury leaders and above all with their own films.