What does Godzilla have to do with Edward Scissorhands? Quite a lot actually, as you’ll learn at a new event series unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.

Culture Club Kino is a live presentation that mashes together art history, theory, music and videos. Each episode reveals striking connections between the world of literature, philosophy and art, and the popular culture we consume every day. It’s kind of like a TED talk combined with a mind-blowing 4am conversation with a stranger at a nightclub.

Such an event is necessary because pop culture today is loaded with references from past films, music, art and theory, which themselves were recycled themes. As the cycles of cultural repetition get faster and tighter, it becomes necessary to find a guide to help distill the inspirational influences from the effluent.

That guide is Craig Schuftan, an Australian writer and radio host whose voice is familiar to anyone who grew up in Australia in the 90s and 00s. He was a host on the infamous radio station Triple J, which is where he launched the Culture Club as a radio series. Upon moving to Berlin, Schuftan re-invented the Culture Club as a live performance event, joining forces with the team from Mobile Kino. Culture Club Kino is the result.

Premiering on Thursday March 24, Culture Club Kino will take place in the Oval Room of the iconic cinema Babylon at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin-Mitte.

The first event is called “Express Yourself”, and it looks at the development of the idea of self-expression, starting with composer Arnold Schoenberg in 1911,running through the works of NWA, Oskar Kokoschka, Billy Corgan, Bridget Riley, Tim Burton, Kanye West, Lorde, and many more.

So to find out how Godzilla influenced Tim Burton in creating Johnny Depp’s scissor-handed monster, you’ll have to just head along to the event. Tickets can be bought from Mobile Kino’s website.

Culture Club Kino
Thursday March 24, 20:00
Kino Babylon
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30
10178 Berlin