‘90s rave and acid house documentaries to be screened in Berlin for short film festival
The retrospective will celebrate music and imagery from the era while exploring moral panics and long-term impact
Documentaries focused on Britain's acid house and rave scenes of the 1990s are due to be shown in Berlin later this month as part of the 17th British Shorts Film Festival, which runs Thursday 18th to Wednesday 24th January at various venues across the city.
Retrospective: Weekender - Memories of Acid House & 90s Rave Scenes will take place at Gretchen on Tuesday 23rd January. From 8PM onwards, titles including Rave, Techno Babes, and the divisive World In Action: A Trip Around Acid House, an investigative ITV report from 1992, will be shown. Alongside non-fiction films, a number of iconic music videos are on the bill, such as Flowered Up's 17-minute epic 'Weekender', 'Blind Faith' by Chase & Status, and Bicep's 'Glue'.
According to the programme, the event will showcase "immersive depictions of the music and associated lifestyles" while diving into "social aspects such as the moral panic created by the tabloid press and the illegalisation of raves by the Conservative government." Communities from the nomadic Freetekno crew to queer party collectives will be celebrated, with connections drawn between the formative underground and today's wider pop culture.
In addition, Retrospective is set to feature the video to Orbital's 'The Box', directed by Jes Benstock and Luke Losey of Technobabble.
The clip is also being screened in London as part of a similar showcase of rave-related footage at the ICA this month. Meanwhile, home viewers can still enjoy brand new streaming documentaries about hip house ('In Our DNA', available on Xfinity) and disco ('Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution' via BBC iPlayer).
