It's official, X-Con Berlin 2009 was a huge success! More than one hundred philes from thirteen countries got together to celebrate the series that holds a special place in every fan's heart.

Kimon from Eat The Corn wrote a very thorough article about how the experience was. We are very honored that he chose XFN for this amazing exclusive. Here, he speaks in detail how it was like to live that experience with other philes. Enjoy!

X-CON BERLIN 2009.10.17-18
Article by Kimon

“Let them take you to Germany, they make nice cars” the subscription to the X-Con read, echoing Mulder in Triange. And indeed the fans came. From thirteen countries, Philes from Europe -- and beyond! -- gathered in Berlin for a weekend to celebrate the one series that holds a special place in their lives.
It all started in the German online forums X-Files Mania. Strong from their experience together in visiting London for the premiere of I Want To Believe in July 2008, the forum members embraced Monika Kirchberger’s idea of setting up a convention for all X-Files fans in their own country. Quickly enough, a trio of an organization team was formed, consisting of Monika, Moni (Fox W Mulder) and Mel (foxtrot), and around them gathered a team of staffers. The idea of a convention is not revolutionary in Ten Thirteen fandom, however rarely did it come to fruition and often it would be more of a friendly gathering rather than something worthy of the title convention. There were conventions in the series’ home country, the fabled X-Files Expo, which toured the USA in 1998, and a lighter version of it in the UK in 2000 (?); and there was the convention in Chile in 2008. But never was there an event of this size in mainland Europe.
After obtaining the official stamp from FOX Germany, which also provided what became the event’s largest prize, a new edition of the complete series and films on DVD, the team embarked on advertising the event and setting up a professional site to promote it. An entire floor of the Mercure Hotel in Tempelhof was rented to host the event. When the day of the event came, with the help of many volunteers, everything was ready. There was the main conference room. There was a big screen showing episodes non-stop, alternating from episodes in English and dubbed in German (with the occasional subtitles). There was a memorabilia and fan art room, or “FBI Evidence Lab” as the sign proudly announced. A web-based media channel, Seriasten TV, covered the event (you can see their report here). And there were fans -- more than a hundred of them! The hosting was conducted both in German and English, and in conversations one could overhear many different accents of English; the convention really did have a very international flavour.
That was a positive point for me, as I enjoy cross-cultural exchanges a great deal. And not just because I have an international background having lived in three European countries in my short life: talking with people from ‘elsewhere’ is for me a way to enrich yourself with other points of view and put into perspective ideas one may have on the importance of one’s home country. Tie that with the fact that I could meet people with whom I could also chat about my favourite series and visit the endlessly artistic city that is Berlin, attending the Con was a no-brainer for me! Okay, I’ll admit I did have my reservations about going at first. I was not sure if a group of girls that are loud shippers (a description they didn’t seem to mind when I mentioned it – they actually liked it!) could pull off the organizational and financial headache a convention represents. Sure there were problems and one can’t be too harsh when you think it was the first time they did that kind of thing – for example a third day of the convention was cancelled and not all X-Files cast & crew that were contacted were able to come after all. But the bottom line is that the Con was a success.
The Con was structured around a few key presentations, in which certain philes each presented very different aspects of the show, proving how rich an experience following this show can be. These were, for me, one of the highlights of the Con since I enjoy reading and writing all kinds of analysis of the series and I encourage it in any way I can.
- Sophie Gozdowsky (so_vieh), a student in medicine, focused on four episodes to study the boundaries between real science and fiction in the series: “Ice” delved into roles of different parts of the brain, “Blood” provided a description of the effects of LSD John Lennon would agree upon, “Never Again” investigated different kinds of ergots, and “Field Trip” again delved into naturally-occurring hallucinogenic molecules. So great to see that people still care about the efforts the writers put in their scripts to include real science in the episodes – and in a top-notch presentation too!
- Carmen Amrein (BienchenXF2000), a student in music, exposed her passion for our favourite composer for all Ten Thirteen productions, Mark Snow. The presentation did not limit itself to just his X-Files outings: sound clips from his career before and after were played, along with internationally exclusive material Carmen herself recorded in Snow’s concerts in Fimucité in Tenerife this summer. That orchestral and epic version of the Millennium theme (I call it “Mark Snow goes Morricone”) is one of the best things I’ve ever heard!
- Nastja Hansen (FijiMermaid) presented some aspects from a thesis she was currently working on, which is entirely focused on the X-Files: “The Truth Is Not Out There: post-modernism and the X-Files”. From Lyotard and Baudrillard to the way the series didn’t provide definite answers or moral judgements and to Mulder and Scully’s reversal of the classic genre attributions of the believer and the skeptic , there was some great food for thought there, You can now find Nastja’s thesis here, courtesy of Berlin’s free university JFK Institute for North American Studies and Frank’s blog.
- Kai Krick, German author of many X-Files and Millennium-related books, also attended and held a straightforward chat with the German fans to reminisce the times when the show was in everybody’s mouths and to share his experience in book writing and publishing and television series fandom. I’m still waiting the subtitled version to express an opinion on that... I did talk with Kai afterwards though, and he re-awakened my will to learn German as he told me of the detailed guides on the two first seasons of Millennium he co-wrote!
All of the lectures were very professional and well received. They opened many threads for discussions in the Q&A sessions that followed, and beyond! Indeed as the main conference room was being prepared for the next event, philes would keep on debating and exchanging ideas in the middle of the hall.
The Con hosted many contests, for which the attendees voted. The group from Cologne stole the show for the costume and roleplay contest, with their parody costumes of the Great Mutato, Sheriff Hartwell, Mulder in “Duane Barry” speedos®, or even a bee . For the fan art, drawings and photos competed with miniatures and facemasks – there was some great art there, not the least of which were a series of photos recreating the atmosphere of the show . The ugliest tie contest was the opportunity to take some funky pictures. The fanvideos contest drew many laughs and emotions, as well as applause. Notably, videos from the upcoming fan-made LAX book, from the Costa Rican fans, from the Australian fans and of course from the German staff team were shown. Watching episodes in the viewing room was fun (I don’t speak German, but once in a while I tried to put two or three words together using what I picked up here and there – who knows when it will be necessary for you to use “Kriegen der Kakerlaken” in a conversation in German?).
And then there was the knowledge contest, which came in many forms: quiz, Pictionary, Taboo, scenes re-enactment, tune whistling, word association... I was glad to find myself among the ten contestants, and I was even gladder ending up winning the whole thing! I must thank Juliane (Lay3Jane) without whom I wouldn’t have gone as far, the lovely audience, my producer, yadda yadda.
This was also the opportunity to hold gatherings for many a charity promoted by Gillian Anderson: Off The Street Kids, Buskaid and the Alinyiikira Junior School. The proceedings of the Con were entirely given to the German branch of the Neurofibromatosis Network at the end of the event, in the form of a 585 € cheque.
But the definitive highlight of the X-Con was Dean Haglund! Our beloved Ringo Langly crossed the Atlantic to visit Berlin and meet fans. With him came Phil Leirness, his co-host in their podcast Chillpak Hollywood Hour, and Lyle Skosey, their producer, and the fans got to interact and laugh with them on many occasions throughout the weekend. For Dean and his team not only attended the X-Con, they also came to shoot a documentary retracing conspiracy theories, and Berlin was a spot they had to visit. Indeed, a few select fans were able to participate in a tour of Berlin with Dean on the Friday before the Con and interestingly enough not visit the classic touristic places but some of the places more relevant to Germany’s modern history -- for example the Stasi museum and prison, where the DDR’s (East Germany) state intelligence and surveillance agency sent thousands of its citizens. Many fans were also interviewed particularly for this documentary, “The Truth Is Out There”. But fans in general were delighted to see in Dean a very accessible and pleasant guy with an amazing memory for names! (well, except Nastja’s)
In the inevitable autograph and photo sessions I bought Dean’s mythical comic book on “the real reason why The Lone Gunmen were cancelled”, a funny and fearless little piece in the style of those anarchic underground comics of the 1970s of the likes of Robert Crumb. Then Dean’s show followed. Dean has been doing this improvisation show for years, but the audience always laughs to tears on many occasions. On the menu were, in a totally random order: David Duchovny gay clones, autoerotic asphyxiation-inducing exploding larvae, Duetche Bahn conspiracies, horribly creaking doors (or was it dogs? Or bowel movement?) and general silliness! To top it off, I once again got to go on stage to be none other than Mulder (!) and improvise with Dean/Langly using little papers with random sentences written by the audience! (and no, the reason why it worked so well was not that we faked it, it was just a series of amazing coincidences!)
The “Jamison Young Unplugged in Berlin” concert, in which I Want To Believe’s “Memories Child” was performed, topped off the night! A tireless traveller, Jamison impressed fans with his humble attitude and his lifestyle of re-using things as much as possible instead of buying or manufacturing new ones. Armed with his touching lyrics and his acoustic guitar, Jamison played before the roomful of attendees and if some, like me, did not know his work well enough before, they were converted fans by the show’s end.
Then, when most went to bed (or in the case of the organizers planned for the day ahead), a group of us stayed behind for a late-night event that every phile must experience in his life: the drinking game! Watching episodes (and drinking) with fellow fans that also knew the episodes and dialogues was a real blast! Like Marie said, “I feel my whole life has been leading to this moment!” It seems we liked those Vancouver woods that night, since the episodes we saw were “Quagmire” and “Detour”.
In Sunday morning, rumours of a surprise started circulating. Monika explained the X-Con team had offered all the Ten Thirteen persons they had contacted the possibility to reply with a video message, but as of Saturday night they had not received any. But during the night, one message came in, and as it was shown to the attendees cheers and applauses were heard: it was the ever-smiling Frank Spotnitz! Immediately excited discussion began on the meaning of his phrase “important news in the months to come”.
Phil and Dean then recorded their podcast for Chillpack Hollywood Hour (which can now be found here and here), a very enjoyable and interesting hour. Discussions didn’t just concern X-Files and the Lone Gunmen, also broader issues were discussed such as forgotten inventors, events grossly over-mediatized (conspiracies?) and, thanks to Traumcave’s intervention, Berlin and the weight and responsibility of history.
And then – well then I had to leave to take an early plane, so I missed the award ceremony. I did take a cool movie clapper with me as an award, another way to remind me of this event when I look around my room. This was a one-time event that will stay in the memories of all those that attended, staff, volunteers or simple fans. It most definitely was an opportunity for me to meet philes – philedom is often an online-only experience. I also got to distribute the pdf version of my mythology primer from my site, Eat The Corn, and get live feedback which after all these years was just wonderful! Around the end of the year, the organizers are expected to announce whether a second Con will follow next October. They certainly have set a precedent in Germany, Europe and the fandom and they should be congratulated. Personally, I can’t wait for next year and put my title of XF quiz winner to the test for anyone who dares! Come along!