The next ORWO film will be launched via Kickstarter, it has emerged.
The German film brand, once a stalwart of East Bloc cinema and stills film, will be released via the crowdfunding platform, according to statements on the brand’s Instagram and Twitter accounts.
ORWO, which is now owned by FilmoTec GmbH, has recently announced plans to release a new ECN-2 process colour cinema film, as Kosmo Foto has recently reported.
In an Instagram post in March, ORWO (ORiginal Wolfen) said it planned a return to “high quality analogue films”. The ORWO factory was originally the site of the first Agfa film plant in Wolfen, eastern Germnay, before World War II. After WWII, the Agfa brand moved to a new site in West Germany.
In August, an ORWO spokesman told the Photrio photography forum that the German film producer planned to release its new cinema film in 2022. He said: “Yes the rumours are true. After tons of requests, we have decided to release a completely new color [sic] cine film line. The world needs choice!
“It’s a bit daunting to be setting up as the only alternative to the giant behemoth that is Kodak; but we are convinced that this is what is necessary to make film thrive, not just survive. Creative people need a range of canvases. They need options!”
It is not known whether the new film on Kickstarter ORWO refers to on Twitter and Instagram is the new ECN-2 film or another emulsion. There are no further details as to when the new Kickstarter campaign will be launched.
In recent years, ORWO’s black-and-white cinema stocks have reached a new audience as LOMOgraphy’s Kino range of black-and-white films, such as the 100-ISO Potsdam and the 400-ISO Berlin, which are believed to be ORWO’s UN54 and N&5 emulsions respectively.
FilmoTec recently merged with InovisCoat, a German film manufacturer that was formed after the break-up of Agfa in the 2000s.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
Shanghai film may be ORWO stock. The similarities between Shanghai 100 and ORWO N54 are very striking.
I can’t find anything related to a kickstarter thing on ORWO’s twitter or instagram
It’s here in their Twitter profile: “110 years of producing color & b/w camera films for photography & cinematography. Join the analog(ue) revolution – new film soon to be on Kickstarter.”