"Film off" was the motto of the Kerpen "Feast of Cultures"

Severin Hoensbroech knows whether this goose is Michel or Angelo, who invited to the café of the Türnicher Schloss for apple pie in the "funniest video" of the festival.

Live stream from a Horremer cellar

"Film off" was the motto of the "1st virtual festival of cultures" on the red sofa with Annette Seiche and Martin Sagel several times.Just in time for the Day of German Unity, they presented for the first time a live stream of more than 30 videos on the video platform "You Tube".

The two are experienced on stage. Otherwise, the integration officer of Kolpingstadt and the chairman of the Association Diversity of Cultures in Kerpen will moderate the lively events for the Festival of Cultures on the stage of the European School "live".

At the microphone, they talk to dancers and musicians, to clergy of all religions represented in Kerpen, as well as to presidents of the local carnival clubs, to politically engaged people and prizewinners such as winners of the integration prize.On stage, the two of course experience a direct echo of the colourful contributions from the audience.

A little different than usual

This time, for the ninth Festival of Cultures, everything was a little different, because of the coronavirus. The members of the Association Diversity of Cultures in Kerpen e. V. did not want to let it fail either. For a digital format, the association had collected videos.It turned out that some of the participants had been about to rehearse something for the stage anyway. Others created their own contributions in the delightful game with the aesthetic possibilities of the medium video.

Of course, treasurer Wolfgang Pfeil missed the scents and treats of culinary delicacies in the corridors of the Europagymnasium, presented by a variety of cultural circles represented in Kerpen.People from 130 different nations live here, so was the resolution of an online puzzle during the show.It is not uncommon in recent years for the live program in the auditorium and the market of possibilities in the foyer to more than 1000 people.But the second chairwoman Betül Ulker was sure at the latest after viewing the first video clips: "We will experience a diverse program again."

Fast-paced camera ride

According to Martin Sagel, there are a number of contributions that stood out, for example as true masterpieces of video editing technology, such as the "Corona Dance" of the ballet group of the Kerpen Sports and Swimming Association.As definitely "the funniest video" he recommended an encounter with the greedy geese Michel and Angelo and the landlord of Schloss Türnich, Severin Hoensbroech.He had filmed it with his smartphone in a single rapid camera ride out of his hand.Apart from that, in all these years at the castle, they actually celebrated the Thanksgiving with a large market, this time Hoensbroech invited those who stayed at home to the castle café for a cake dinner. 

Colorful program

From the very beginning, Sagel showed a great sense of the differentness and peculiarity of the first virtual cultural festival: "The participants of this festival take their spectators with them in their video clips to their home, to their club houses, to their regular pub or to the places of worship."

The Open Mosque Day also falls into the water in four mosque communities in Kolpingstadt because of the pandemic, at least there are motifs from the Sindorf "Eyup Sultan Mosque" of the DiTiB to see, Seiche said.But also in the Evangelical church in Stiftsstraße, in "Das Klümpchen" school pastor Ralf Herbertz led the spectators of the stream.It is one of the oldest Protestant churches, built in 1854 in the then purely Catholic area around Cologne.The conditions for the construction of the church allowed many parallels to the planning of today's mosques, Seiche said, because the lump at that time could only be erected away from the center in a side street and without a church tower.

Pastor Dagmar Bilstein gave an insight into the Catholicof the parish of Kerpen South-West and the Mödrather Parish Church. The Buddhist pagoda "Khmer" showed itself with a religious ceremonial, according to Seiche, as "noise in gold and colors".Anis Samandari informed about the Bahai in Germany and the importance of the ellipse and diamond in the faith of the rarely encountered religion.

Moderation between chat and recording

The moderators received a lot of praise in the stream's chat. It was only with their gaze at the beginning of the show that some were dissatisfied. They often pointed it down at a monitor on the ground. But they soon discovered the right view into the audience as the direct look into the camera lens of the "Dolly".Dolly?This meant the main camera in the darkened basement of the single-family house of filmmaker Andreas Bierwirth.

Like a boat in gentle sea simmering, the camera moves back and forth in front of a collection of glasses. And that's on a sledge, a "dolly" as the mobile base of a film camera is also called.During the shooting, Andreas Bierwirth (photo) provided a fuzzy, steady movement at the bottom of the image with the effect. The same view of the red sofa should be a little more lively. 

In general, Bierwirth, who otherwise likes to use cinematic means to implement company portraits, had conjured up plenty of atmosphere between a number of black scarves. Had paper lanterns on the ceiling, lava light and a rocket placed in the background, in allusion to his AB company logo.A seating group with comfortable armchairs was waiting for the award ceremony of the integration prize.For so much effort he received from Sagel the badge of the cultural association. 

Book recommendation

Annette Seiche completed the decorative ensemble on the red sofa with a garden gnome. It was also a symbol of German bourgeoisie in the midst of cultural diversity, Corona-Distance-Mahner to the moderation partner Sagel and the bearer of the 70-page bestseller by former Bundestag President Norbert Lammert "Democracy needs democrats".

And, Seiche had brought two large boxes of hats, for the appropriate moderation of the videos, collected in attics and out of cupboards. There was the knautsch-fest church hat of the father just as the melon of the aunt Sophie or her pointed hat with purple feather, which the mother made especially at her child's desire, but once in the carnival to go out as a "musketeer".The cowboy hat with vuvuzela and scarf in the national colors black, red, gold could not be missing. She had already stowed it in her office, and there were no opportunities to pull him out, the integration commissioner said.

Integration Award

At the very end of the Festival of Cultures, there was also the honour of the Buir mosaic artist Michael Müller. He was awarded the integration prize by Mayor Dieter Spürck and the Chairman of the Integration Council Tamer Kandemir.They had both come to the studio, except for the artist himself. Michael Müller, who was travelling at the weekend, thanked him in a self-made video. He introduces children and young people from Iraq to the art of mosaic laying.

Here you can still see the stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ado4Lyg778E

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