A shoemaker who nowadays just does repairs. A neighbourhood carpenter who must vacate his workshop so it can be turned into office space. A typesetter with very little work but a great deal of passion.
A generation, who had pursued the same trade for decades. They began their apprenticeship at the age of 14, then opened their own business and remained independent in their own realm, always pursuing the same profession. Through the ages and yet constant. Now in the process of saying goodbye.
“These few years” captures this for a moment.
CREW
Director: Silke Schissler
Cinematography: Mireia Guzman
Editing: Simona Caranica
Production: Silke Schissler; filmArche e.V.
Sound-Recording: Franziska Anz
Sound Design: Han van Acoleyen
Post Production Supervisor: Alex Töchterle
Material: HD-DSLR
Video: color, H.264 fullHD
Audio: PCM Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Screening formats: DCP, BluRay, HD-File (h264)
Silke Schissler, born 1979, studied Political Sciences in Münster and Berlin. Her passion for film began in a Berlin video collective working on social movements and unconventional personalities. She has led numerous film workshops for young people. From 2012-2016 she studied documentary filmmaking at the filmArche in Berlin.
Filmography (selection):
2016 – FIFTEEN ROOMS | Short-Documentary | Director, Producer
2016 – THESE FEW YEARS | Short-Documentary | Director, Producer
2015 – AS ALWAYS | Short-Documentary |Director, DOP
2014 – TWO | Short-Documentary| Director, Script, DOP, Editor
I’ve lived Berlin-Kreuzkölln for many years now, which has become an internationally hip neighbourhood with bars, cafés, restaurants, flea markets, galleries and so on. The population is now very young. Not so long ago, two housese away, Videoland sweetened the evenings with rented DVDs and small businesses made their crafts and repair skills available to the neighbourhood. It had been a working-class neighbourhood.
More and more often, these businesses closed down and for a short time a note remained on the shop window with a mostly personal farewell message, as the neighbourhood had been a community for many years, if not decades.
Two things became clear: rents became less affordable and a generation and way of working also left. The businesses were often given up by people who were now over 70 years old and could no longer find or didn’t want a successor when they retired. Age, labour and generational change and urban planning went hand in hand.
I was interested in this generation, who had pursued the same trade for decades. They began their apprenticeship at the age of 14, then opened their own business and remained independent in their own realm, always pursuing the same profession. Through the ages and yet constant. Now in the process of saying goodbye.
I wanted to capture this for a moment with “These few years”.
PRESSE
FESTIVALS
AWARDS