Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World - Films

5 x 26min 15sec | original German, English, Spanish, Italian or Hindi version with English subtitles available

DVD available with German voice over
as well as original version with German or English subtitles.

The original German titles are
St. Vincent, Karibik – mit Micha Roggensinger
Bogotá, Kolumbien – mit José Alberto Gutiérrez
Portland, USA – mit Laura Moulton und Ben Hodgson
Ferrandina, Italien – mit Antonio La Cava
Bhopal, Indien – mit Muskaan Ahirwar

Synopsis

Discover the world with original mobile libraries and their no less unusual librarians. Mobile librarians take books to places where people live on the edge or offside and the next book is just too far away. They take us with them when they travel with their books - in India, Italy, the USA, the Caribbean or Colombia - they tell us about their motives, their infectious enthusiasm for reading and acquaint us with the world of their readers.

• Carribean with Micha Roggensinger
In the southern Caribbean, there is a truly unique ship, the "Logos Hope", sailing the waters. It is filled with books and volunteers to distribute them to people. Micha Roggensinger has been part of them for a year. He works in the bookstore of the largest floating library in the world, which travels the world's seas to primarily pursue its Christian mission. In Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent, it's extremely popular. Thousands of the island's inhabitants come on board and select books.

• Bogotá, Columbia with José Alberto Gutiérrez
José Alberto Gutiérrez is providing Bogotá and nearby regions in Colombia with books that he salvaged from the trash while working as a garbage truck driver. It all started twenty years ago with the novel "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy. The "Lord of the Books" now has more than 30,000 books in his small library in the impoverished district of the city. With his foundation, "The Power of Words," he works tirelessly in pursuit of his vision of a better Colombia..

• Portland, USA with Laura Moultan and Ben Hodgson
Street Books – for several years now, a bicycle carrying a crate full of books has been bringing books to people living on the streets of Portland. With her initiative, Laura Moulton, the founder of the project, wants to take the homeless seriously, especially as readers. By providing them with the opportunity to borrow books, she wants to give them back a certain sense of participation in society. Ben Hodgson, who used to live on the streets himself, is one of the drivers and has long been an indispensable member of Street Books.

• Ferrandina, Italy with Antonio La Cava
In southern Italy, we encounter Antonio La Cava, a former teacher who has been traveling across the country with his Bibliomotocarro for many years now and encouraging children to read books. When the small, sky-blue Ape – a mobile library with a tiled roof and a chimney – arrives in the remote villages of the Basilicata, it becomes clear time and again just how important books and reading are for children.

• Bhobal, India, with Muskaan Ahirwar
In Durga Basti, a slum in the city of Bhopal in northern India, 11-year-old Muskaan opens her mobile library "Kitabi Masti" (Fun Books) daily for the children of the district. For the past three years, she has been doing this because she is convinced that only through education children, like herself, have a chance in society. Even the sudden death of her father a year ago did not curb her enthusiasm. All of the children around her love to be inspired by her enthusiasm for reading..

Festivals/Awards

Rome Indipendent Prisma Award
nominated for Best Short Documentary . Firenze Film Festival

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World

Moving Libraries - Where Books Mean the World