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There’s an amazing Turkish market every Tuesday and Friday in Kreuzberg. It’s your typical market, full of cheap fruits and veggies, second hand bike dealers and fabric vendors.

Kreuzberg is one of the most popular boroughs in Berlin. It has the highest density of youth (in all of Europe) and is home to the largest immigrant community in Berlin (mainly Turkish).

Kreuzberg, which literally translates to ‘cross-hill’, belonged to West Berlin. Tons of artists, punks, squatters moved to this part of town in the 60’s and it became know for its diverse subcultures. It eventually grew into the cultural, alternative center of the city.

There’s roughly 4 million people in the city and each borough is completely different from the next. No matter how close they are to one another, once you step foot into a different area, you feel like you’re in another world.

I noticed these colourful steel pipelines running through the city. Turns out Berlin is built on swampland. The name Berlin, translates to swamp in German (or is believed to be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl which means “swamp”.

These pipes are carrying water and sewage from the grounds where new buildings are being constructed. There is so much development going on in the city, that these pipes almost blend in with the general atmosphere.

This is a photo of the people’s palace, also known as The Palace of the Republic (or what’s left of it). It was opened to the public in 1976 and is being taken apart (after much debate) because the government wanted to show the world that they are moving on and ridding its city of its communist past (that, along with some asbestos rumours). Citizens of Berlin protested its demolition, wanting to preserve the building for historical purposes, but lost out.

The city has decided to rebuild the original Royal Palace or the Berlin City Palace (which was finally destroyed in the 1950’s to build the people’s palace) and turn it into a museum.

I thought Montrealers were bad at making decisions but this city takes the cake.

They’re taking apart the building very slowly, piece by piece. If the city were to eliminate the building in one go, the loss of weight on the land would cause the Berlin Cathedral (featured below), which is located on the other side of the street, to sink.

This is what happens when you build a city on swampland.

Berlin Cathedral

The other thing I noticed when I first got here were the sidewalks.

Every bit of sidewalk in the city is made of tiny cobblestones. Apparently the city does this because it allows them to employ more people to maintain and build the sidewalks.

The effect is beautiful.

Check out more photos I’ve taken of the city on flickr.

The first thing I noticed (and fell in love with) when I arrived in Berlin were the traffic lights. A day later I learned that the Ampelmännchen is Berlin’s mascot.

There’s a whole history behind the traffic lights, which I learned on a walking tour of the city. The lights were created in 1961 and designed by a traffic psychologist named Karl Peglau. (Yes, a traffic psychologist). He thought people would respond better to traffic signals if they looked friendly.

Before reunification West and East Germany had different sets of traffic lights. The Ampelmann belonging to East Germany. After unification the west tried to standardize all the traffic lights, which meant the elimination of the Ampelmann.

East Germans, outraged by the notion, protested against its elimination and won. This little man with his bourgeois hat became the mascot for the East German nostalgia movement known as Ostalgie.

When I first got here I thought, ‘I wish I could get that on a t-shirt’ now I know that I can get a t-shirt and can cook little Ampelmännchen for dinner!

Here’s a link to the Ampelmann shop.

Bill Brownstein wrote a great article on Birthday Girl for the Montreal Gazette two weeks ago. He called the film “stylish, decidedly satirical and playfully subversive.”

If you didn’t get a chance to see it, here it is.

A great month for my short film Birthday Girl!

The film will be showing in three festivals in April. The first one up is the Women’s International Film Festival, South Florida. The festival runs from March 28th to April 6th and takes place in Miami.

Next is The Palm Beach International Film Festival which runs from April 10th to the 17th. The film is screening in competition.

I was asked to present the film at the Dresden International Short Film Festival. The film will be screening out of competition as part of a retrospective of Quebec cinema. The festival runs from April 15th to the 20th. I’ll be there to present the film!

I don’t have the dates for any of the screenings but as soon as I know I will post the info.

I’m thrilled to say that I got funding from SODEC to write a feature length screenplay!

I’m currently in Berlin doing research and absorbing the culture. I’ve heard such amazing things about the city - the artists community, the people, the food etc. that I’ve wanted to come out here for quite some time.

I’ll be living here for a few months finishing the screenplay and blogging about my experience.

If you have any suggestions on what to see or places to go I’d love to hear about them!