Tango

Tango 1985

1

A brief history of the emergence and artistic innovations of tango in 19th-century Argentina and Europe. The film offers a mosaic of tango melodies, art works, dance performances, historical footage, photographs of Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th century, and texts by Celedonio Flores and Enrique Santos Discépolo.

1985

35 Photos

35 Photos 1985

8.00

A woman born in 1949, the year the GDR was founded, talks about her life based on 35 images in her family album that each represent one year. This short was to premiere on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of East Germany. Officials rejected it, however, as an ostensibly negative portrait of GDR family life presented by an atypical woman. It was released under a different title a year later.

1985

Marx Family

Marx Family 1988

1

A moving short portrait of Karl Marx’s family and their living conditions during their time in London.

1988

Bulky Trash

Bulky Trash 1991

1

In early summer 1989, Helke Misselwitz portrays young musicians in a band who produce their music on other people’s waste items. The four boys call themselves "Bulk Rubbish" and they drum out their resentment, having grown up on the new housing estates of East Berlin. A straight-up picture of the GDR youth is presented here, which in no way conforms to the official image. The film crew concentrates on the observation of the boy Enrico and his mother Erika: when the mother marries in the West, her son decides to stay in East Berlin, bidding her farewell at the border-crossing. Only shortly after, the tables are turned again: as the events in Berlin leading up to the fall of the Wall are practically captured live from the film crew, Enrico insists on maintaining his cultural identity, even after the fall of the Wall. The "Bulk Rubbish" musicians want to remain citizens of their own state and perceive the looming reunification with scepticism.

1991

Nude Portraits – Gundula Schulze

Nude Portraits – Gundula Schulze 1984

8.00

Photographer Gundula Schulze wrote her graduate thesis on "nude photography of women in East Germany". It's a subject she continues to pursue in her photography. She considers the stereotype of superficial nude photography anachronistic, and talks vividly about being at pains to develop a relationship of trust with the women she photographs. Schulze wants to show what makes up the "whole woman", living up to her position in East Germany. Scenes of women in the professional world have been edited into the film.

1984

Verzeiht, daß ich ein Mensch bin

Verzeiht, daß ich ein Mensch bin 1988

1

At the end of the 1980s, a film team is about to visit Lukas Wolf, Friedrich Wolf's eldest son, who lives in the state of New York, USA. They carry with them a letter from his half-brother Markus Wolf the Stasi chief from GDR. The brothers have not seen each other since 1933; on the other hand, Lukas met his other half-brother Konrad Wolf once in New York City, where they got along very well, after many years of separation. Johanna and Lukas come from Friedrich Wolf's first marriage with Käthe Gumpold, Markus and Konrad, from the second wife Else Dreibholz.

1988

The Wind Rose

The Wind Rose 1957

5.00

An international anthology about the struggles of female workers around the world.

1957

Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe

Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe 1980

6.30

The first summarizing film about the path of the class and the common stations in life. But also about the different paths in the profession, in love, marriage and family. As well as a soldier. A group chronicle, viewed from the historical distance of the 35th year of the end of the 2nd World War and after 18 years of shooting in peace, which ensured everyone the first human right: they were allowed to live.

1980

...and the father stayed in the war. Encounter with Syrian orphans

...and the father stayed in the war. Encounter with Syrian orphans 1990

1

Director Junge was commissioned by the GDR in the country for the first time in the summer of 1970; his film In Syria auf Montage accompanies German engineers who train workers in the Homs textile factory. Shortly after filming ended, Hafez al-Assad put himself under the dictator. Twenty years later emerged ... the father stayed in the war over a youth club with Syrian orphans in Bad Saarow, whose fathers had died in the Lebanon war and accompanied them to Syria, where they were housed in separate, elite "schools of martyr children". Multi-faceted documents that oscillate between peaceful and tense, hopeful and unsettled.

1990

Tango Dream

Tango Dream 1985

4.70

Sitting at her typewriter, listening to tango music, she dreams. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are far away, a different world where, long ago, the tango came into being. A dream about dance and music, as well as about unfulfilled desire and wanderlust behind the Berlin Wall.

1985

From Us To Me / Vom Wir zum Ich

From Us To Me / Vom Wir zum Ich 1988

8.00

This first co-production between the GDR and Great Britain is intended to contribute to an understanding of the situation and attitudes of millions of working people in opposing social orders. Using the example of shipyard workers, fishermen, the brigade and family of a trade union active cook and unemployed person of various ages and professions in Newcastle on the one hand and a brigade of crane operators of the Warnowwerft and fishermen of the Warnemünde cooperative on the other hand, insights into the way of life and attitudes of people of our time are to be conveyed.

1988

Credo: Martin Luther - Wittenberg 1517

Credo: Martin Luther - Wittenberg 1517 1967

1

Using contemporary artistic representations in words and pictures, the documentary intends to create an overall view of the historical significance of the 450th anniversary of the Reformation in the historical image of the GDR. In terms of content, the film is limited to the city of Wittenberg as the historical center of the Reformation events. This period is seen as the beginning of the early bourgeois revolution, as Luther also made a certain contribution to the replacement of feudalism by the rising bourgeoisie by initiating the reformatory efforts. Lucas Cranach the Younger's panel painting "The Reformers in the Lord's Vineyard" runs like a common thread through the documentary and thus vividly conveys to the viewer the social upheavals of the 16th century between the Reformation and the German Peasants' War.

1967

Gruß aus Libyen oder Grün ist eine schöne Farbe

Gruß aus Libyen oder Grün ist eine schöne Farbe 1989

1

The film provides a reportage-like insight into the country of Libya and its social development. The focus is particularly on the "Green Revolution", i.e. the fight for water for a large-scale national agricultural program. This has led to the settlement of new settlers in the coastal strip between Benghazi and Dorna, whose lives are also reported on.

1989

Look at this City

Look at this City 1962

5.00

Started in the summer of 1961, even before the Wall was built, the film becomes an explanation after this historical event as to why things can no longer go on as they were before. Unmistakably, as in almost all of Karl Gass' films, the passion with which he treats his subject is unmistakable. If you want to get to know the zeitgeist of the historically significant year 1961, which on both sides knew more the Cold War vocabulary than factual arguments, you can see the Eastern variant in this propaganda film.

1962

Die Zeit die bleibt

Die Zeit die bleibt 1985

1

A documentary about German director Konrad Wolf (1925–1982).

1985

Ich sprach mit einem Mädchen

Ich sprach mit einem Mädchen 1976

7.00

A class reunion of the twenty-somethings in the old school. What one remembers, what the individual has new to tell. One of them: Marieluise. Her love, her work, her demands on herself and the world into which she is coming of age.

1976

Do You Know Where Herr Kisch Is?

Do You Know Where Herr Kisch Is? 1985

1

The “Raging Reporter” Egon Erwin Kisch (1885-1948) was one of the most significant journalists of the 1920s and 30s. He wrote from a communist point of view, in language that sparkled with humor. Historic photographs and footage describe Kisch’s eventful journalistic and political life, which brought him to important cities including Berlin, Moscow, Sydney, and New York.

1985