Open-Air Screening | Cinevan at Sinti-Roma-Platz

Munich-based filmmaker and artist Patrik Thomas transforms Sinti-Roma-Platz into a temporary open-air cinema with his CINEVAN, bringing together the voices of Sinti* and Roma* youth and young adults from Munich and across Germany.

Curated by Lothringer 13 Halle and Patrik Thomas in cooperation with Museum Brandhorst, Filmfest München, RomAnity e.V., and the Rolling Film Festival, the program “Carriers” brings together three short films that foreground the lived experiences of young Sinti* and Roma* people in documentary and fictional forms of storytelling.

In ATIDE (Daniela Magnani Hüller, 2022, 12 min), a 26-year-old Romani woman, activist, and business educator from Munich reflects on her identity while challenging persistent stereotypes. WESLEY SWIMS (Adrian Oeser, 2024, 31 min) follows a 14-year-old Sinto from Ingolstadt on a journey to Auschwitz, tracing the lasting consequences of National Socialist persecution through his family’s history. Concluding the program, the short fiction film 15 MINUTES (Sejad Ademaj, 2022, 13 min) follows the Romani teenager Jasmina as she confronts the ongoing threat of deportation by the German immigration authorities.

To introduce the program, RomAnity e.V. founder Radoslav Ganev will present his research on the history of Munich’s Sinti* and Roma* communities. Open conversations will then invite audiences to discuss the films and their themes. The program approaches Sinti-Roma-Platz not only as a site of remembrance, but also as a space that makes visible the vitality and contemporary presence of young Sinti* and Roma* communities in Germany.

We warmly welcome in particular neighbors from Schwanthalerhöhe and Westend, members of Sinti* and Roma* communities, and all audiences aged 12 and above. Guests are encouraged to bring their own chairs, blankets, snacks, drinks, and, in the event of rain, umbrellas. As Sinti-Roma-Platz is both a place of remembrance and a shared public space, we kindly ask everyone to help keep the site clean and to be considerate of the surrounding neighborhood and its residents.

CINEVAN, commissioned by Lothringer 13 Halle and the Goethe-Institut as part of the transnational project “Antifascism: Now.”, is simultaneously a mobile cinema, an artwork, and a film laboratory. Equipped with a projection screen, Thomas’s custom-built transport van enables accessible, site-responsive public screenings that treat cinema as a social and educational practice rooted in culture and community.