Deborah S. Phillips

Part 3 of the Bethanien Tetralogy.

Red light. Two cars. So I hit the brakes- PFFFHP TT! And can’t get up, can’t move… Acoustic collage: Ruth Wiesenfeld. (DSP)

Although this part of Neukölln (a district in Berlin) has a reputation as a dangerous place, I see it, through golden late summer light, as an inviting place. I have lived, for 10 years, on a side street of the Hermannstraße, first on the one side, then on the other. Gentrification has already commenced a few blocks north of where I live: there's a gradual progression heading south on Hermannstraße; closer to Hermannplatz, things get busier. North of the famous square is as trendy as in many other parts of town now. This multimedia project (16mm film, installation and hand-made book) is an attempt to make the different segments of this street palatable to viewers: it's not a matter of relaying a message, but more a feeling of the place... (DSP)

The adventure of Melissa and Gustavo starts aboard a red cargo ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It takes them from Brazil to Berlin, a city of perpetual movement, where the old constantly has to give space to the new. The couple finds a home and transforms it into the center of their own universe. As time passes and seasons change, life and cinema become interchangeable and their apartment evolves into an ever-changing stage, where friends are invited to play their own roles and reality and fiction merge. Until one day a cosmic portal appears in their home, opening connections between the past, the present and the future.

In "Mosaïc", the Islamic and Jewish decorative and architectural motifs are based on images, drawings and photographs of intercultural places: Samarkand, Bukhara, Fez, Casablanca, Andalusia, Isfahan, Cairo, Istanbul...

Long ago in ancient Persia, Esther saved the Jews there from a massacre: Beauty and Justice prevail. 2 floating worlds - blue and red, and earth tones. We celebrate PURIM in remembrance. (DSP)

There is such a variety of places where you can find water in Berlin: sometimes, you feel like you are in the countryside, other times, it is industrial, or just full. This project has been an excuse to spend time at places where there are bodies of water, whether rivers, canals, fountains or lakes...

During the pandemic, I shot single frame 16mm material dealing with the dialectic between wanted to be left alone and spending time with people. The result, shot over a bit less than a year, is a film called ZERRISSEN (Torn) which expresses my thoughts during this unusual time. The film was shot in its final order and not edited; when it was finished, I recorded and added sound.