A cinematic interpretation of the world's largest round table gathering, PROBLEMA is a visually imaginative,
thought-provoking invitation to a world of global dilemmas. Spanning seventeen questions confronting who we
are and where we're going, the film follows the insights, perceptions, reflections and views of over 100 people
from more than 50 nations sat together in one circle.
'problema' from Latin problema (genitiveproblematis) 'problem', 'puzzle', 'enigma', 'question proposed for solution', from Ancient Greek πρόβλημα (problema, 'obstacle'), from προβάλλω (proballo, 'to throw or lay something in front of someone', 'to put forward'), from prefix προ- (pro-, 'in front of') + βάλλω (ballo, 'to throw', 'to cast', 'to hurl').
What is today's most important unreported story?
— Anonymous, USA
Should we have the right to choose where we live?
— Judy Twedt, 24, Denver, USA
What are the basic dignities that each human being deserves and why do we let so many people go without them?
— Claire Mackintosh, 25, Brisbane, Australia
What if all Chinese people want a car?
— Andrew, 22, Frankfurt, Germany
How does consumer culture actually influence the personalities, the ways people live, the way they think within a given culture? How does it become part of us and what does it mean to be able to resist that visual and verbal culture that seems to me is always reducing and simplifying reality into something that can be easily bought and sold?
— Siri Hustvedt, New York, USA
Does our wealth depend on the Third World being poor?
— Tom Henze, 30, Berlin, Germany
Is there a modern version of colonialism?
— Adrienn Meszaros, 30, Budapest, Hungary
Why do we still believe more in nationality than in humanity?
— Katharina, 24, Germany
How do we stop our governments from going to war?
— Glen, Capetown, South Africa
Why is there no peace in the Middle East yet?
— Moise Marabout, 23, Agades, Niger
Why is an Iranian nuclear bomb supposed to be more dangerous than an American, Israeli or French?
— Wolfgang Jost, 23, Berlin, Germany
Between non-violent resistance and armed struggle where do we go? What is effective? What is the right thing to do? Do we need a biodiversity of resistance?
— Arundhati Roy, New Delhi, India
What does courage mean now?
— Sara Francis, 35, Dublin, Ireland
What can I do, and tell others to do, to stop global warming?
— Nancy Clemons, 57, Cameron, Missouri, USA
Can a person be perceptive enough to see our planet in a way that tells them that they too are part of nature?
— Anonymous, USA
What is God's religion?
— Miraj Khaled, 30, Dhaka, Bangladesh
What are the myths that we need to create to change the world for the better?
— Kieth Dierkx, 48, Piedmont, California, USA
Hafsat Abiola
NIGERIA
Founder, The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy
Willem Dafoe
USA
Cofounder, The Wooster Group
Visual Archive (Film)
4 Elements (Jiska Rickels, courtesy of Fu Works) 500 Nations (W. T. Morgan, John Pohl, courtesy of Tig Productions) Algeria's Bloody Years (courtesy of Article Z) Die Alpen (courtesy of ORF) Amazon (courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films) Baraka (Ron Fricke, courtesy of Magidson Films, Inc.) Barefoot Gen (Keiji Nakazawa, courtesy of Keiji Nakazawa) Battle in Seattle (Stuart Townsend, courtesy of Insight Film Studios) Beautiful Palestine a dropping knowledge film Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt (Walter Ruttmann, courtesy of Eva Riehl) The Big Sellout (Florian Opitz, courtesy of Majestic Filmverleih-GmbH) Black Sea, Voyage of Healing (Peter Davis, courtesy of Villonfilms) Bosna! (Alain Ferrari, Bernard-Henri Lévy, courtesy of Bernard-Henri Lévy) The Charcoal People (Nigel Noble, courtesy of Magic Lantern Media) Die Chinesischen Schuhe (Tamara Wyss, courtesy of Mediopolis Berlin) Chocolate City by Dropping Knowledge Clown in Kabul (Enzo Ballesrieri and Stefano Moser) Consolation Service (Eija-Liisa Ahtila, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery) Crossover (Kip Konwiser, Kern Konwiser, courtesy of Eyes of the World Media) A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack, Reto Caduff, courtesy of Lava Productions) Dar Fur – War for Water (Tomo Križnar, courtesy of Bela Film) Darwin's Nightmare (Hubert Sauper, courtesy of Mille et Une Productions) The Devil Came On Horseback (Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg, courtesy of Break Thru Films) Devil's Miner (Keith Davidson, Richard Ladkani, courtesy of Doc & Film International) Dispatches: China's Stolen Children (courtesy of True Vision) Earthlings (Shaun Moson, courtesy of Earth Nation) Everest (courtesy of MacGillivray Freeman Films) The Eye of the Day (Leonard Retel Helmrich, courtesy of Scarabee Filmproducties Nederland) Extreme Engineering: Tokyo's Sky City (Peter Frumkin & Olympia Stone) Faraway, So Close! (Wim Wenders, copyright Reverse Angle Library) Fourth World War (Rick Rowley, courtesy of Big Noise Films) Flow: For Love of Water (Irena Salina, courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories and The Group Entertainment) Gambling, Gods and LSD (Peter Mettler, courtesy of Grimthorpe Film) The Heart of Jenin (Leon Geller, Marcus Vetter, courtesy of Eikon Media GmbH) Illicit: The Dark Trade (Helen Fitzwilliam, Moisés Naím, courtesy of Moisés Naím) Inside the Living Body (Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon, courtesy Pioneer Productions) Iraq in Fragments (James Longley, courtesy of Daylight Factory and Typecast Films) Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, courtesy of Mosfilm) Jakub (Jana Sevcikova, courtesy of LS Production) Jesus Camp (Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, courtesy of Loki Films) Dar Fur – War for Water (Tomo Križnar, courtesy of Bela Film) Dschungelburger (Peter Heller, courtesy of Filmkraft) Hommage À Noir (Ralf Schmerberg, courtesy of triggerhappyproductions) The Hour of Furnaces (Fernando Solanas, courtesy of Solanas Productions) Kandahar (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, courtesy of Makhmalbaf Productions) Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, courtesy of the Sante Fe Institute for Regional Education) Liberia: An Uncivil War (Jonathan Stack, courtesy of Gabriel Films) Life and Debt (Stephanie Black, courtesy of Stephanie Black) Logorama (H5, courtesy of Autour de Minuit, H5, Addcit Films and CNC) Die Macht der Gene (a Wall to Wall release Television Production) Make Me Normal (Jonathan Smith, courtesy of Century Films Ltd. and C4I) Manufactured Landscapes (Jennifer Baichwal, courtesy of Mercury Films Inc.) Marx und Eisenstein im Gleichen Haus (Alexander Kluge, courtesy of DCTP GmbH) Matheran: Eine Hillstation in Indien (Bernd Schmidt-Burbach, courtesy of Progress Film Verleih GmbH) Megacities (Michael Glawogger, courtesy of Paul Thiltges Distributions) Megastructures: Dubai's Dream Palace (courtesy of Darlow Smithson Productions) Metropolis (rights: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, sales: Transit Film GmbH) Milosevic on Trial (Michael Christoffersen, courtesy of Team Productions) The Miracle of Life (Mikael Agaton, Lennart Nilsson, courtesy of SVT Sales) ...More Than 1000 Words (Solo Avital, courtesy of MOOVIE the art of entertainment GmbH) My Country, My Country (Laura Poitras, courtesy of Praxis Films) Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, courtesy of the Flaherty/International Film Seminars, Inc.) Napoleon (Abel Gance, courtesy of Cinematheque Francais) Das Netz (Lutz Dammbeck, courtesy of Dammbeck Film Production Inc.) Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, courtesy of Argos Films) Nosferatu (rights: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, sales: Transit Film GmbH) Original Child Bomb (Carey McKenzie, Holly Becker, animation of child on horse by Emily Hubley & Jeremiah Dickey) Painting Reality (Akiz, courtesy of Iepe B.T. Rubingh) Poem (Ralf Schmerberg, courtesy of triggerhappyproductions) Powaqqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, courtesy of the Santa Fe Institute for Regional Education) Promises (Carlos Bolado, Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg, courtesy of Promises Film Project, aerial footage courtesy of Beni Mor) Proteus: A Nineteenth Century Vision (David Lebrun, courtesy of Lebrun Films) Die das Rentier tanzen (Michael Dürr, Erich Kasten, courtesy of Michael Dürr & Erich Kasten) The Road to Guantanamo (Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom, courtesy of Revolution Films) Sacrifice (Ellen Bruno, courtesy of Bruno Films) Sand and Sorrow (Paul Freedman, courtesy of Human Rights Watch) The Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord) Survival: The Plant That Cures Malaria (courtesy of Rockhopper TV) The Take (Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein, courtesy of Barna-Alper Productions Inc.) Trinity and Beyond (courtesy of VCE, Inc.) Trouble: Teatime in Heiligendamm a film by the Mindpirates Summer Camp Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin, courtesy of Other Cinema) Triumph des Willens (Bundesarchiv / Transit Film GmbH) Unreported World (courtesy of Quicksilver Media) Viktor and Rolf: Because We're Worth It! (Femke Wolting, courtesy of Viktor & Rolf) Visions of War: Hitler in His Own Words (courtesy of Demand Media & Alba Home Vision) Was macht Werner in Hongkong? (courtesy of Bernd Schmidt-Burbach) Water Wrackets by Peter Greenaway We Are Together (Paul Taylor, courtesy of Rise Films) We Feed the World (Erwin Wagenhofer, courtesy of Allegro Film) Why We Fight (Eugene Jarecki, courtesy of Charlotte Street Films) Workingman's Death (Michael Glawogger, courtesy of Paul Thiltges Distributions) A World of Conflict (Jeffrey Porter, footage of Iraq courtesy of Kevin Sites) W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, courtesy of Janus Films)
Visual Archive (Art & Photography)
2003.2.1 by Fang Lijun (courtesy of Sammlung Hoffmann) 2004-2006 by Fang Lijun (courtesy of Today Art Museum, Beijing) Abu Ghraib (Fernando Botero, courtesy of Marlborough Gallery) The Ancient of Days by William Blake Animal Locomotion by Eadward Muybridge Arte Sacro de Maracaibo by Fernando Bracho Bracho Pathway to Infinity (High Overview, Nazca, Peru) by Marilyn Bridges Ascending Stairs by Eadward Muybridge Assault Under Gas by Otto Dix The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Baloon Debate by Banksy Bloodlines: The Big Family by Zhang Xiaogang Blow Up by Oli Gerscht (courtesy of Mummery + Schnelle Gallery) Blut und Eisen by John Heartfield Bühnenentwurf für Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' by K. F. Schinkel Christ Giving His Blessing by Fernando Gallego Christ of Valles by Salvador Dali Circles Within A Circle by Vassily Kandinsky Collective Invention by René Magritte Dangerous garden by Luis Vidal Dante and The Divine Comedy by Domenico di Michelino Evening Landscape with Two Figures by Casper David Friedrich The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by John Martin Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio Drawings by Emma Kunz Earth Hour by Billy Ivy (courtesy of the World Wildlife Federation of Canada) The Execution of Emperor Maximilian by Édouard Manet Exploding Raphaelesque Head by Salvador Dali The False Mirror by René Magritte Faust by Rembrandt The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man by Salvador Dali Guernica by Pablo Picasso Home by Anthony Gormley Illustrations to The Divine Comedy by Gustave Doré In the Car by Roy Lichtenstein The Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David James and Other Apes by James Mollison (courtesy of Chris Boot Ltd.) The Book of Job: An Engraving by William Blake Krieg und Leichen: Die Letzte Hoffnung der Reichen by John Heartfield Kristall Kaleidoskop by Kage Mikrofotografie Lady Godiva by John Collier The Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix Das Lichtgebet von Fidus by Hugo Höppner The Little Deer by Frida Kahlo Crucifixion and Apotheosis of the Ten Thousand Martyrs by Vittore Carpaccio Massacre in Korea by Pablo Picasso McDonald's Nation by Chris Woods (courtesy of Gallery Jones) Milton, A Poem by William Blake Minuit by Miles Aldridge (courtesy of Steven Kasher Gallery) Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law by Gustave Doré Naissance d'une Galaxie by Max Ernst Nagasaki Bombing by Yosuke Yamahata (courtesy of Shogo Yamahata) No Title by Louise Bourgeois No. 1 by Yang Shaobin (courtesy of Alexander Ochs Galleries) OMO TRIBES by Hans Sylvester Orthodoxymoron by Robbie Conal Die Offenbarung by Henry de Waroquier Die Pest by Arnold Böcklin Portrait of Pope Innocent X. by Diego Velázquez Pygmy by Jean-Pierre Hallet P420083 by Kage Mikrofotografie Running Skeletons (After Muybridge) by Nick Veasey Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya Several Circles by Vassily Kandinsky Spatial Construction No. 9 (The Circle in the Circle) by Alexandro Rodchenko Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon Study of Clouds by Michael Wutky Sun and Life by Frida Kahlo Sun Hopes by Joseph Cory Sun Over The Park by J. F. Willumsen Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt Tank in Bratislava by Ladislav Bielik Tarifa by Daniel Richter (courtesy of Contemporary Fine Arts) The Tower of Babel by Pieter Breugel Untitled No. 2 by Fang Lijun Untitled by Yang Shaobin (courtesy of Ralf Schmerberg) Untitled by Banksy Untitled by Oliviero Toscani The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci Vesuvius from Portici by Joseph Wright of Derby The Widow I by Käthe Kollwitz Woman with Veil by Odilon Redon The Yellow Baron by Jonathan Meese
Visual Archive Courtesy of
ABC News Videosource
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Agenzia Fotograma
Agence VU
AKG Images
Aljazeera
Amnesty International
AP Archive
AP Images
Archive.org
BBC Motion Gallery
VG Bildkunst
Bureau du Tibet, Paris
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Chronos Media GmbH
Conus Archive
Corbis
ddp images/AP
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Wochenschau
Discovery Footage Source
DPA Picture-Alliance
Agencia EFE
EFE
European Space Agency (ESA)
Everett Collection
GandhiServe Stiftung
Getty Images
Getty Motion
Greenpeace UK
Heritage Images
Hessischer Rundfunk (HR)
Hoover Institution
The Laogai Research Foundation
The Library of Congress
NASA
The National Labor Committee
Panos Pictures
Reuters
Rue des Archives
Spiegel TV
Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
StormStock
Studio Hamburg Distribution & Marketing GmbH
Thought Equity Motion
Time Warner
United Nations
United States Air Force
United States Coast Guard
United States Customs and Border Protection
United States Department of Defense
United States Department of the Treasury
United States National Archives
UprisingArchive.org
Visual Concept Entertainment
WGBH Media Library and Archives
Wikimedia Commons
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Frank Griebe
Tom Henze
Robert Kummer
Franz Lustig Nicola Pecorini Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein Nana Yuriko
Edited by
Ralf Schmerberg
Contributing Editors
Martin Swann
Robert Kummer
Re-Recording Mixer
Martin Steyer
Sound Design by
Dirk Jacob
Post-Production Producer
Lars Karich
Post-Production Manager
Boris Mang
Visual Research Supervisors
Nora Colie
Pauline Doutreluingne
Assistant Editor
Laura Fong
Zeppelin Operator
Jürgen Hohmuth
Zeppelin Camera
Ralf Brauner
Assembly Editing, Translation & Subtitling
Eremipagamo Amabebe
Errol Bailey
Joana Bértholo
Elinore Burke Jeremy Cowie
Richard Davis
Manuel Dierkes
Lasse Jensen Brian Kiel
Judith Lange
Susana Leal
Irene Mogollon Megumi Nishikura
Annette Ochs
Hili Perlson
Tycho Pfäfflin Kareth Schaffer
Darwin Silva-Torres
Mariya Stoyanova
Yang Song Thomas Thistlethwaite
Ambika Thompson
Visual Research & Clearance
Göran-Adrian Bellin
Amel Bouksani
Rachel de Joode
Cecily Hamilton Baillie Fernanda Goriba
Kim June
Marlien Koch
Max Merz Judith Landkammer
Polly Robbins
Sofia Uguccioni
Martin Wenke
Assistant Researchers
Kevin Klein
Mariana Polke de Castro
Masa Loncaric
Nina Salzer
Yero Schutte
Special Clearance
Michael Konstabel
Online Editors
Stefan Klinker
Mathias Niepenberg
Assistant Online Editors
Tom Kaufhold
David Kuruc
Stage Mixing
ARRI Film & TV Berlin
Sound Editors
Benjamin Hörbe
Dominik Schleier
Sound Mix Technician
Michael Wolf
Post-production Facility
Das Werk
Producer at Das Werk
Wolf Bosse
Colorists
Nico Hauter
Philipp Orgassa
Post-production Coordinators
John Hansen
Matthias Knoefler
Music Supervisor
Peter Weiss
Title Design by
Ebon Heath
Easton West
Executive Assistant to Ralf Schmerberg
Christian Schmid
Production Assistants
Joanne Guillon
Kimberley Miller
I.T. Support
Roland Brehe
Production Accountant
Uta Abt
Mindpirates Project Manager
Felix Vogler
Communication
Bureau N, Silke Neumann & Moritz Estermann
Music
Downbeat
performed by Morpho Cinetose
written by Simon Brasset
courtesy of Morpho Cinetose
published by deepindub.org
Future Rock
Strategy
Paul Dickow
courtesy of Kranky
published by Kranky Records
Plan, Steel, Drive
Kinski
performed by Chris Martin & Kinski
courtesy of Subpop Records
published by Cargo Records
Spirit
Taurus
courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment GmbH
published by Universal Music/Rondor Music
Water (Part Two)
Steamhammer
performed by Steamhammer
published by Bellaphon Germany
Alte Frau
Mosermeyerdöring
performed by Mosermeyerdöring
courtesy of Mosermeyerdöring
published by Ballhaus Entertainment
Enter the Heretic
Badawi
performed by Raz Mesinai
courtesy of Asphodel Ltd.
pubished by Asphodel Records
Miracle of Love
Swans
Michael Gira
courtesy of Young God Records
published by Young God Records
Solitude
Black Sabbath
courtesy of Universal Music
published by Essex Music
Terre
Annette Vande Gorne
performed by Annette Vande Gorne
published by YMX MeDIA
Ti, Ki Izziva
performed by Laibach
courtesy of Cherry Red Records
published by Universal Music Ltd.
Evening
Mosermeyer
performed by Mosermeyer
courtesy of Mosermeyer
published by Ballhaus Entertainment
The Table of Free Voices
Bebelplatz, Berlin
Directed by
Ralf Schmerberg
Assistant Director
Sandra Schaede
Executive Producer
Jolanda Darbyshire
Logistics Director
Katrin Lewinsky
Assistant Director, Logistics
Christopher Trott
Script by
Joe Holden
Timekeeping by
Deborah Rogers
I.T. Director
Evan Schechtman
I.T. Operators
James Jenkins
Irene Mogollon
Production Assistant
Nina Klapproth
Logistics Assistant
Nico Blankenhorn
Still Photographers
Ali Ghandtschi
Justine
Steffen Roth
Donata Wenders
Julia Berg
Rachel de Joode
Adrienn Meszaros
Valerie Stahl von Stromberg
Writer-Editors
Joe Holden
Valdis Wish
Writers
Susanna Forrest
Hili Perlson
Johannes Thumfart
Marie Winfield
Print Managers
Alexander Müller
Cordula Sieckmann
Creative Producer
Sandra Schaede
Film Editor
Robert Kummer
Assistant Editor
Hendrik Löbbert
Post-production Supervisor
Jens Maier-Rothe
Web Developers
Oliver Berger
Marco Stahl
Web Designer
Christine Müller
Programmer
Sven Helemann
Flash Designer
David Loehr
Information Architect
Matthias Weitbrecht
Web Consultant
James Kalbach
Deputy Director, Communications
Thomas Reemer
Communications Managers
Astrid von Diechmann
Astrid Falter
Daniel Kruse
Lucie Menz
Martina Wagner
Communications Assistants
Svenja Hintz
Simone Schmidt
Felipe Ferrari
Communications Consultants
Annette Barner
Dagmar Seidel
I.T. Support
Alexander Marschall
Stephan Hantigk
Logistics Support
Sasha Horsley
Nina Hüskes
Catering
Martine Vernazobres
Daniel Ben-Sorge
Human Resources
Reinhard Böse
Legal Services
Hogan & Hartson Raue LLP
D.K.I. Director
Ceasar McDowell
Creative Director
Cindy Gantz
Creative Producer
Jackie Northway-Wallace
Project Consultant
Jacqui Lindsay
Co-director
Ellen Furnari
Project Associate
Ian Manheimer
Creative Consultants
Betsy Campbell
Adam Werbach
Participant Relations
Tara Kurland
Project Coordinators
Nadine Friedman
Patience Monroe
Project Developer
Dan Geiger
Communications Consultants
Colette Brooks
Melinda Ann Farrell
David Steuer
D.F.K.I. Chief Administrator
Stephan Busemann
Software Development Manager
Feiyu Xu
Software Development Administrator
Brigitte Jörg
Network Administrator
Markus Bolz
Transcription Supervisor
Jörg Steffen
Senior Software Engineer
Witold Drozdzynski
Software Engineers
Bernd Kiefer
Volker Morbach
Assistant Software Engineer
Robert Barbey
Assistant Content Developers
Elizabeth de Sousa Pinto
Christian Schreyer
Technical Consultants
Georg Demme
Rainer Jochem
Translation & Transcription by
Zaki Al Saadawi
Nadja Altabari
Nader Altabari
Urbain Atsague Tchino
Elisa Azevedo
Anja Borowski
Lina Cepurnaite
Yu Chen
Irina Chyzh
Olha Condor
Elizabeth de Sousa Pinto
Astrid Felsner
Anne Gorius
Esther Fränken
Hanno Gorius
Olga Grigorieva
Tina Hadamitzky
Christine Knauss
Ana Leiner Rivera
Dennis Leser
Michiko Masuch-Furukawa
Marcelo Matoso Silveira
Markus Mesmer
Heike Mißler
Kateryna Mysak
Kristina Ohr
Daniel Salariu
Bärbel Schlimbach
Oliver Schumacher
Judith Selig
Atsuko Shimada
Ryoko Shimizu
Yordanka Staab
Sascha Sudik
Min Ye
Chaoqun Zhu
The Table of Free Voices Volunteers
Max Adam
Mona Agbalaka
Rebecca Agbodjan
Sara Ahmed
Iman Al-Barwani
Christabelle Aranha
Asuka Ashida
Ulla Baylührssen
Dirk Beckmann
Ximena Benavente
Che Bergendahl
Moritz Bittner
Emily Bowden
Judith Brunk
Véronique Cabois
Benjamin Cantu
Pascal Casper
Bernhard Chwalka
Gita Cooper-van Ingen
Seumas Coutts
Eva-Maria Damm
Angela Dansie
Janine Deutsche
Mark Eberhardt
Arne Eichberg
Ludwig Engel
Miriam Faßbender
Marcus Entelmann
Jens Feddersen
Filine Fink
Mareike Franczak
Mario Garcia
Philipp Garra
Julian Gaynor
Juliana Gonzales
Seth Greenwald
Ruth Gugliemi
Korina Gutsche
Philipp Hartmann
Nicholas Hasko
Julius Hassemer
Joseph Heaven
Fabian Heuer
Tina Höfinghoff
Meredith Holmgren
Filiz Igret
Simon Ilse
Felix Ilse
Neela Jayaramann
Bernard Jungk
Lena Junker
Sebastian Kaul
Antje Klein
Johanna Kleinschrot
Katharina Knaus
Andrea Koc
Philipp Köhn
Astrid Kühne
Adrian Künzel
Carel Kuschke
Yosra Labidi
Merten Lagatz
Daniel Lange
Henri Laupmaa
Susana Leal
Anne-Sophie Levet
Deborah Ligorio
Lukas Mahr
Rachel Michael
Stefan Mixdorf
Alejandro Monges
Gal Mor
Julia Mussgnug
Lutz Neumann
Lev Nordstrom
Pascal Notz
Dorit Nuriel
Annette Ochs
Gülseren Ölcüm
Johanna Paul
Julia Persitzky
Inga Pfafferoth
Frederik Pferdt
Nadja Pietkowski
Burkhard Piller
Elisabeth Press
Christiane Reinstrom
Edina Ribic
Angelina Richter
Oliver Rizzi Carlson
Denoal Rouaud
Sylvia Ruß
Frédérique Rouault
Alejandra Santa
Judy Schlesinger
Astrid Schmidhuber
Daniel Schmutzler
Katja Sommer
Janina Sprenger
Sebastian Stache
Sven Stephani
Alexander Stetter
Jörg Suckow
Karumuttu Sundaram
Joni Taylor
Uwe Thomas
Dave Tinning
Alvin Tong
Tülin Üzsacan
Maarten Vermeiren
Christian Vogel
Christina Voigt
Arist von Hehn
Marius von Holleben
Juliane Wagner
Michael Weber
Philipp Weidemann
Mirjam Wenzel
Kaj Wibier
Marcin Wieczorek
Thorsten Wiesemann
Jonna Winger
Philipp Wittulsky
Alexander Wolf
Maria Elena Zayas
Crisjan Zöllner
Irena Akopjan
Paz Làzaro
Heike Lamm
Winfried Weiss
Guest Hospitality by
Humboldt University of Berlin
Hotel InterContinental Berlin
Hotel de Rome
Organizational Supporters
Aktion Weisses Friedensband
Ashoka BiG Imagination Group
The City of Berlin Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
Cinema for Peace The Club of Budapest
Creative Commons
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ)
Deutsche Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) The European Institute for the Media
The Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA International)
GhandiServe foundation
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) The Goethe-Institut (GI)
Greenpeace
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin
Internet Archive Link TV
Media Access Project n-tv
Outpost Digital Peace Women Across the Globe
People for the American Way Pleon GmbH
@radical.media Rainforest Action Network
Saarland University
Schmidt und Kaiser Kommunikationsberatung The Stewart R. Mott Foundation
Teen Talking Circles Tibet House
Tides Center triggerhappyproductions
TT30
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (ZKM)
Special Thanks
Allianz Group
The Mark and Sharon Bloome Foundation
The John M. O'Quinn Foundation
The Joy Family Foundation
The Wallace Global Fund
Volkswagen AG & everyone who ever gave us a donation
Sebastião Salgado
Siri Hustvedt
Qin Chuan
Tanya Scott
Naseem Salaam
Shanta Chatterji
Mara
Elliot Chikoma
Daryl Hannah
Arik W. Ascherman
Frederick Wedin
Juana Rodriguez
Najo
Laurie Anderson
Judy Twedt
Mikki Brammer
Tom Henze
Adrienn Meszaros
Moise Marabout
Arundhati Roy
Sara Francis
Nancy Clemons
Miraj Khaled
Kieth Dierkx & everyone who ever gave us a question
Very Special Thanks
Hafsat Abiola
Anthony Arnove
Joe Berlinger
Sabine Christiansen Robbie Conal
Ray Cooper
Brenda Coughlin
Willem Dafoe
Hans Peter-Dürr
Ute & Roland Emmerich
Fang Lijun
Giora Feidman
Dagmar Forelle
Ellen Furnari
Cindy Gantz
Susan George
Don Hazen
Allan Hunt-Badiner
Bianca Jagger
Matthias Hohlbach
Oliver Kaiser
Jon Kamen
Andreas & Justine Läufer
Lawrence Lessig
Yungchen Lhamo
Jacqui Lindsay
Angaangaq Lyberth
Vicky Malo
Jerry Mander
Alex & Vida Marashian
Ceasar McDowell
Jonathan Meese
Eva Meier-Schönung
Anuradha Mittal
Jackie Northway-Wallace
Alexander Ochs
Oscar Olivera
Sydney Possuelo
Peter Raue
Theo Reichert
Wolfgang Riehn
Felix Servas
Heinz Siepmann
Eva Stein
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Josh Taft
Nicolai Tewes
Robert Thurman
Hans Uszkoreit
Randall Wallace
Kurt Weidemann
Stephan Vens
Martine Vernazobres
Wim & Donata Wenders
Gordon Wojcickowski
Yang Shaobin
Joseph Zen Ze-kiun the City of Berlin
& all of our children
& all of our parents
One bright day in the early 21st Century, there was a gathering of human beings unlike any before.
In the historic heart of Berlin, Germany, over 100 people from all walks of life and all round the world joined in a single circle. Seated together at the world's largest round table, they had come to speak on behalf of themselves and others, to rediscover how much they don't know and how much they do.
THE GATHERING
(PHOTO: Donate Wenders)
On Saturday, September 9th, 2006, the Berlin square called 'the Bebelplatz' was spanned by a monolithic, architectural circle within circles, a vast round table at which 114 chairs faced 114 continuously recording cameras. Reflected within their collective lens, an unprecedented art event and political summit convened, a gathering dedicated to addressing 100 questions originally raised online by people on seven continents.
Voicing the questions aloud before the assembly were the event's co-moderators, human rights advocate Hafsat Abiola and actor Willem Dafoe. Over a six-hour mind-marathon spread over a nine-hour day, each question received up to 112 responses given face to face, directly to camera, by the participants of the Table of Free Voices. Captured additionally by roving film cameras streaming live online, this transparent, technologically enhanced, 21st Century conference enabled all voices to be raised simultaneously while also being individually heard.
Delivered collectively in as many as 20 languages, by 120 participants over the course of the event, the 11,200 individual responses filmed were all published the Internet within three days, under a 'Copyleft' license, at droppingknowledge.org. More than 1,000 hours of footage was ultimately recorded at perhaps the most comprehensively visually documented one-day gathering ever convened.
A vivid celebration of the symbolic power of cultural diversity and creative free expression, the Table of Free Voices marked the three-year culmination of the not-for-profit social media project, dropping knowledge. Founded in the summer of 2003 by filmmaker Ralf Schmerberg, artist and designer Cindy Gantz and philanthropist-activist Jackie Northway-Wallace, dropping knowledge combined Gantz and Northway-Wallace's ideas for an interactive web-platform based around people's questions with Schmerberg's vision of a one-day meeting in which wise people could freely share their knowledge with the world.
Based initially in Berlin and San Francisco, after two years of fundraising, administrative groundwork and research into possible Table participants, in September 2005 dropping knowledge announced a global call for questions relating to themes of social and conscious, individual and societal, change. Over the following year, tens of thousands of questions were submitted to the project's website by a global community of questioners. Hundreds of these were showcased in questions-based media created by the project's in-house team of editors, designers and visual researchers. Filmmakers traveled internationally for dropping knowledge, actively seeking questions to ensure an authentically global sample was dynamically visually represented online. At the climax of this 'Ask Yourself' campaign, a select 100 of the top 1,000 user-voted questions were chosen by the project's organizers and consultants to be asked at the Table of Free Voices.
Meanwhile, invitations had gone out to over 100 special individuals, all of whom were bold, brilliant, concerned or plain crazy enough to confirm their participation in an unprecedented experiment. Each had been approached on account of their life's work having had some creative, humanistic cultural impact. Each agreed to share their knowledge in response to people's questions — to reveal their passion, conviction, wisdom and vulnerability — on camera for one day.
THE TABLE
(PHOTO: Reiner Pfisterer, IMAGE by dropping knowledge)
Officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest round table ever made, the Table of Free Voices measured 38 meters in diameter and over 119 in circumference. Within and around it in the week leading up to the event, dropping knowledge's full and part-time staff expanded to encompass over 100 volunteers, come to Berlin to share in the project's open spirit of democratic inquiry and people-powered, cross-cultural exchange.
Financed primarily by thousands of online micro-donations, the gathering also received financial and advisory support from corporations, foundations, cultural institutions and non-governmental organizations. The United Nations Development Programme opened its contact book; the then Vice-Chancellor of Germany became the event's patron; future Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus saluted dropping knowledge as "a great initiative at the right time"; and the gathering received a personal blessing from Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong.
Though neither the participants sitting at the Table of Free Voices, nor those working behind the scenes to realize its success, really had a good idea beforehand of what would actually transpire on the day itself, the gathering was in the end favored by a profound atmosphere of communal inspiration (and aspiration), mutual encouragement (and empowerment) and, thankfully, decent weather. One member of the public, stood with the crowd of curious bystanders congregating beyond the Table's perimeter, seemed to speak for many when he described the experience as "an art performance of electrifying energy... I can't hear what the participants are saying and my back hurts, but I just can't leave. I am going to stand here all through this thing. This is so powerful... It really gets you."
IN BEBELPLATZ
(PHOTO: Aaron Siirila, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Amid the paving-stones of Berlin's Bebelplatz, there is a single glass pane, a window onto a blank white room, empty but for empty white bookshelves. The creation of sculptor Micha Ulman, this subsurface exhibit is a permanent memorial marking the spot where, on May 10, 1933, a bonfire was set ablaze.
That evening, in a speech broadcast live to the nation by radio from the square in central Berlin then called the Opernplatz, the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda proclaimed the destruction by fire of "Un-German" writings "a strong, great and symbolic deed." Over 25,000 books were burned that night in ceremonial gatherings across Nazi Germany. Among those cast to the flames was Heinrich Heine's play Almansor, in which it's written: Das war ein Vorspiel, nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen. ('This was just a prelude, where they burn books, in the end they also burn people.')
Where once these words were ritually incinerated, today, they are engraved in stone. Throughout the day of the Table of Free Voices, the gathering's focal center was this window onto empty silence, as the air above it reverberated with the collective hum of uncensored voices raised freely.
THE PRODUCTION
Angaangaq Lyberth with his qilaut drum. (PHOTO:Ali Ghandtschi)
Long before he made a film, Ralf Schmerberg was thinking about a meeting at which people could share the wisdom of their understanding, one that could be filmed to connect others with their words. This intention — to use cinema to re-vivify the oral tradition in which he'd found meaning when young — stayed with Schmerberg, from around the day he heard J. Krishnamurti speak until one day years later in Bebelplatz when the vision was real.
PROBLEMA is that gathering, lovingly rendered as imaginative, art cinema to be projected on the screen of the mind. Distilled from over 1,000 hours of footage, shaped out of individual monologue into rhythmic, multilingual 'multilogue', the panoply of perspectives recorded at the Table of Free Voices would eventually be overlayered with pictures in a process styled by Schmerberg 'editing into the subconscious'. Embedded with over 1,200 visual artefacts, PROBLEMA transports the words spoken in Bebelplatz into the larger world, amplifying their resonance by combining them with film, art and photography from humanity's collective cultural memory.
Dependent at every stage of its production on harnessing the democratizing potential of information technologies, PROBLEMA exists thanks to the generous contributions of many who influenced its creation: from those who gave permission to feature their footage and artwork, to those who volunteered their time and labor, to those who raised a question or made a micro-donation, to the participants who gave of their hearts and minds freely around the Table of Free Voices. In this sense, PROBLEMA is an authentically not-for-profit film, offered to audiences in the same spirit of giving that endlessly informed its realization.
READ the film's DIALOGUE SCRIPT.
READ screenwriter Joe Holden's original SYNOPSIS of PROBLEMA.
Experiential art cinema that talks with you face to face, created not to be sold but distributed freely, PROBLEMA is available in multiple formats at different resolutions.
The Problema DVD is packaged in a high quality, custom made card and paper DVD case with high quality offset printing. It features collage graphics from the film poster and gold foil stamped cover and spine. Limited copies available!
A three-weeks-in-the-making collage collaboration involving the printing, cutting, arranging (and rearranging) of over 350 images from the film. The PROBLEMA film poster is printed with extremely high standards featuring gold ink on quality paper. Limited copies available!
A human dialogue around the world's largest table.
An unprecedented philosophical art cinema experience, PROBLEMA is a film that looks at you as you watch it, that speaks to you in a multilingual mantra made of the voices of over 100 people from all around the world. Distilled from over 1,000 hours of footage and embedded with imagery from our collective cultural memory, the film is a not-for-profit production to be shared freely with audiences worldwide. Concerning seventeen questions for homo sapiens (the 'wise human'), PROBLEMA asks you to ask yourself...
TITLE: 'PROBLEMA'
DURATION: 95 minutes
LOCATION: Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany
LANGUAGES: English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Danish, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Bantu.
EUROPEAN PREMIERE: Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (September 2, 2010)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE: 46th International Chicago Film Festival (October 16, 2010)
SOUTH AMERICAN PREMIERE: Mostra — São Paolo International Film Festival (October 24, 2010)
WORLD RELEASE: December 6, 2010 @www.problema-thefilm.org
"defies categorization… astoundingly edited… this visceral, mind-blowing film is required viewing."—46th Chicago International Film Festival
"like a symphony of the world"— Ferdy on Films
"a Babel of talking heads"— Chicago Sun-Times
"hugely moving... an event documentary that demands to be seen on the big screen... it is the best film I have seen so far this year."—Cinefile.com
"one of the most thought-provoking and stimulating intellectual exercises ever recorded… a film that grabs the viewer in an emotional manner rarely seen in progressive cinema."—People's World
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