16MM WALKTHROUGH

Name: 16MM WALKTHROUGH
Genre: Experimental film
Released: 2025
Duration: 2 min

Medium: Experimental 16mm film
Year: 2025
Runtime: 2 min
Film by: Melina Katsiri Credits ↓

16mm Walkthrough is an experimental filmic observation of Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel. Moving through the neighbourhood on foot, the film records fragments of its present condition: spaces marked by transition, decay and survival.

The film was hand-developed using a coffee-based developer and later digitised, foregrounding the materiality of the image and the tactile qualities of the analogue process. The urban landscape is approached as an archive of social and migratory histories embedded in the city’s surface.

Overexposed blue-toned portrait on 16mm film — 01Film still

Blue-toned 16mm frame of a high-rise building at an angle — 02Film still

Blue-toned 16mm close-up of a car wheel — 03Film still

Blue-toned 16mm close-up of a weathered street surface — 04Film still

Long strips of freshly hand-developed 16mm film hanging from a rack to dry — 05Hand-developed film, drying

Processing 16mm film by hand at a red darkroom station, next to handwritten developing instructions — 06Hand-processing the 16mm film

Film developing spirals, tanks and reels laid out on a white table — 07Developing spirals and tanks

Hands cutting and splicing developed 16mm film on a film splicer beside a reel and red scissors — 08Splicing the developed film

16mm film developing in a dark coffee-based developer, stirred with a ladle — 09Developing in coffee (caffenol)

Loops of freshly developed 16mm film in a metal bowl of water — 10Developed film in the final wash

Credits

Direction: Melina Katsiri
Camera: Melina Katsiri
Hand development: Melina Katsiri
Sound: Melina Katsiri
Editing: Melina Katsiri