The Big Black

In January 2010, writer and director Oliver Kyr and producer Joachim Maurer arrived in Berlin with a screenplay, and a vision: shoot an entire movie in just a month, and finish editing by the end of the year.

Declined financial backing by both the funding institutions and the broadcasters, they did what everyone in their situation would do: shoot the movie anyway.

The result is "The Big Black", a dark love story - in many respects. A journey through doubt and failure, for both the fictional characters as well as the production team, and a truly independent production.

"The Big Black" will be released in cinemas and on DVD in 2011. An exclusive preview of the film's first five minutes is promised for the talk.

The Awesome Foundation

Michelle Thome and Henrik Molte will present the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe.

Every month, the foundation awards $1,000,- grants to projects and their creators - cash, upfront, with no strings attached, and no claims of ownership over the projects it supports. It is, in the words of one of the trustees, "a micro-genius grant for flashes of micro-brilliance".

Michelle Thorne works for Creative Commons as International Project Manager. She organized the Free Culture Research Conference, and helped “chaordinate” the DMY Maker Lab and other DIY projects in Berlin and around the world.

Henrik Moltke is a digital activist, media professional and advisor. He has been working on various access to knowledge and copyright-reform project, such as FREE BEER, Good Copy Bad Copy and Creative Commons. He works for Mozilla as the European Drumbeat project producer.

Also awesome: Tomoko will be serving tasty Japanese food, so please skip dinner and come hungry! New: you can now follow Tomoko on Facebook, here.