Being in Common (working title)

“Have we lost all of what we have in common with communism? We have to come back to this “common”: common in the sense of what we all have in common, what we all share, what is banal, so to speak. But also in the sense of what connects us. Has any aspect of the communitarian idea survived? And what does being together actually mean today?” (Jean-Luc Nancy, in conversation with me, 2007, orig. French)

What does it mean to be together today?

Inspired by Nancy’s question, our film seeks out human and non-human contexts in which we encounter different dimensions of this idea: in memories of the lost community in the GDR, in the mycelium of fungi, in the practice of commoning and collectives as well as in current efforts to legally establish common goods. It is in this network that Nancy’s thoughts on being together take root.

Jean-Luc Nancy died on August 23, 2021. Our first meeting took place in 2007, in his flat in Strasbourg. We were in regular contact and dialogue until his death. We’d planned to meet again in July 2021, but Jean-Luc Nancy postponed the meeting due to illness. I never saw him again. This was another reason why I picked up the threads of this film project again in 2022, after leaving it dormant for several years.

Funding & Awards

• 2022 Stoffentwicklungsförderung, MV-Filmförderung
• 2016 Bremer Dokumentarfilm Förderpreis