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DEFA FILM LIBRARY [East] German Cinema & Beyond since 1993

Winner of the DEFA Foundation’s Programming Prize 2020 DEFA Film Library 502 Herter Hall | Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst 161 Presidents Drive | Amherst, MA 01003 umass.edu/defa | @german.umass.edu | Tel: (413) 545-6681

DVD (and streaming) Feature Films New Releases 3 Just Released 6 Back Catalog 8 19 Documentaries New Releases 20 Just Released 23 Back Catalog 24

STREAMING (only) New Releases 26 The Lutz Dammbeck Collection 28 Back Catalog 32 NEW DVD RELEASES 3 FEATURE FILMS About Us Coming Out

The DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the only research GDR, 1989, dir, Heiner Carow, 108 min., color center worldwide devoted to a broad spectrum of filmmaking from and related to the former GDR. Tanya and Philipp work together and are both The DEFA Film Library’s mission is twofold: to make East German films available and better engaged teachers. They become close and move $350 (3-yr) known outside of ; and to broaden the understanding of filmmaking in the GDR in together. Tanya is very much in love, but things and East Bloc through critical interdisciplinary and transnational scholarship. In order to get complicated for Philipp. He meets Matthias, achieve this mission, the nonprofit organization mounts a multi-tiered effort. and the two fall passionately in love. But Philipp • It houses an extensive archive and research collection of 35- and 16mm prints, struggles with his identity and what to do: Tanya Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) DCPs, DVDs, books, periodicals, documents and images. Visiting researchers are is pregnant and it is hard to overcome years of Academic libraries: $124.95

welcome to come explore! repressing his homosexuality. Home & public libraries: $24.95 • In terms of production and distribution, the DEFA Film Library creates high-quality The first and only about gay life ever English-subtitled versions of East German films in various formats, often with produced in , Coming Out premiered educational bonus features. These are distributed on DVD and via streaming in North on the night the Wall opened—November 9, 1989. America and in various other countries around the world, as well as through the It was filmed in part on location at gay hangouts international Goethe-Institut network. in , including the gay bars Schoppen- • The DEFA Film Library’s key programs for teachers and for public and scholarly stube and Zum Burgfrieden, in the Prenzlauer outreach include touring film series, as well as biennial summer film institutes and Berg district of the city, and the Friedrichshain artist-in-residence tours. Volkspark. Students from UMass Amherst and the Five Colleges are involved in all aspects of the DEFA Film Library. Through working on productions, public programming, sales and distribution, This 30th anniversary edition features a newly- and teaching and outreach activities, they gain valuable non-academic experience in restored HD version of the film, as well as a translation, subtitling and research, as well as library, conference and arts management. range of bonus materials that address ways to teach the film and provide insight into the In February 2019, the DEFA Film Library Endowment, was established as a means to history of legislation and in East support and enhance the mission and activities of the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst. German society. This DVD was curated by Kyle If you would like to make a donation, please go to umass.edu/defa. Frackman (Univ. of British Columbia). Bonus Film: The Other Love (Die andere Liebe, GDR, 1988, dirs. Helmut Kissling, Axel Otten, THE TEAM 36 min., color) This is the only documentary on the topic of homosexuality ever produced in the GDR. It was commissioned by the in and produced in cooperation with East German gay and lesbian activists. In interviews, East German Skyler J. Arndt-Briggs Interim Director lesbians and gay men talk openly about their first sexual experiences and coming out. This Mariana Ivanova Incoming Academic Director (Jan 2020) public education film was primarily distributed by municipal and district film distribution services (Kreisfilmstellen). Hiltrud Schulz Production & Outreach Manager (Streaming | Production | Outreach | Contracts) “One of the landmark works of gay cinema.” —David Hall, GayCelluloid.com Kevina King Graduate Program Assistant (Subtitling | Film Rentals | Conferences) “The descriptions of East Berlin’s gay scene are revelations in themselves.” —Variety Katrin Bahr Graduate Program Assistant (Research Film Collection) “An honest, generous film, which observes the conflicting love affairs with sympathy, Lily Sarosi Archival Assistant and resists the temptation of a neat last-reel solution” —David Robinson, The Times (35mm and 16mm Prints) Jennifer Moss Office Manager SILVER BEAR & TEDDY AWARD (Bookkeeping | DVD Orders) 1990 Berlin International Film Festival Barton Byg Founding Director, Emeritus “Unseen for a generation, this fast-paced drama is an invigorating revelation of what was the brilliant promise of East German cinema in the late 1960s.” —Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus, MoMA Department of Film “Formally oriented to the nouvelle vague (Godard, Truffaut), the film enthralls with its haunting imagery and its honest mourning for a misled youth.” —Filmdienst

DVD 1 The Russians Are Coming original title Die Russen kommen Other Films by GDR, 1968/87, 90 min., b/w, CinemaScope, English subtitles director Heiner Carow script Claus Küchenmeister, Heiner Carow | Inspired by the short story Die Anzeige, by Egon Richter cinematography Jürgen Brauer editor Evelyn Carow set design Alfred Thomalla costume design Werner Bergemann music Peter Gotthardt sound Werner Klein, Hans-Joachim Kreinbrink production manager Dieter Dormeier production DEFA Studio for Feature Films 2016 restoration ARRI Media Berlin/ cast: Gert Krause-Melzer, Victor Perevalov, Dorothea Meissner, Norbert Christian, Karla Runkehl, Vsevolod Safanov, Rolf Ludwig, Lissy Tempelhof, Hans Hardt-Hardtloff, Thomas Langhoff The end of WWII is fast approaching and 16-year-old Günter, a member of the Hitler Youth, still believes in a German victory. He is drafted into ’s last-ditch effort to resist the approaching Soviet Army. When he is captured and accused of killing a Soviet forced laborer, Günter faces an intense psychological crisis. Heiner Carow on DVD Heiner Carow’s semi-autobiographical film was not approved for final production. Officials argued it focused on an ordinary Nazi follower, rather than an antifascist hero, and that it was “contaminated with modernism.” The film, which includes clips from the Nazi Kolberg (1945), was finally reconstructed and released in 1987. This DVD All DVDs in this catalog have English subtitles and are available for presents a new digitally-restored 2K-transfer of the film.

2 DVD Career original title Karriere, GDR, 1970, dir. Heiner Carow, 84 min., b/w, CinemaScope, English subtitles After officials banned The Russians Are Coming, Heiner Carow decided to use footage from the banned film as purchase, streaming and non-commercial screenings. Not rated, NTSC. flashbacks in a new film. Set in contemporary at the end of the 1960s, Career is an interesting story in its own right. A few years after its release, however, the director vehemently distanced himself from its conformity to the party line.

• New digitally-restored transfers • Biographies & Filmographies • “A Film with Two Birthdays – 1968 and 1987,” by historian Burghard Ciesla • “Guide to Scenes and Plot,” by historian Burghard Ciesla • “How a Banned Film Made It to Theaters…” and “An Interview with Director Heiner Carow,” by former DEFA chief dramaturg Dieter Wolf • “Restored: A conversation with film historian Ralf Dittrich and cultural historian Hiltrud Schulz Prices are subject to change. Please check umass.edu/defa • “Imagery with Power: Film Poster Artist Otto Kummert,” by graphic designer Detlef Helmbold • Berlinale Night Talk: with Knut Elstermann, Gert Krause-Melzer and Ralf Schenk (2016, 9 min.)

DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst www.umass.edu/defa

© 2016 English subtitles: Subs , DEFA Film Library. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. To Save and Project th DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1968/87 Die Russen kommen | 1970 Karriere © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. The 14 MoMA Festival The cover design is based on the 1987 original poster by Otto Kummert. of Film Preservation Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor- mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. BONUS FILM | CAREER | GDR, 1970, dir. Heiner Carow Cover Image: REALFilm by Lutz Dammbeck NEW DVD RELEASES NEW DVD RELEASES FEATURE FILMS 4 5 FEATURE FILMS A rare DEFA feature film that deals with environmental problems A comedy by , the director of Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?

Biology! Biologie! Love’s Confusion Verwirrung der Liebe GDR, 1990, dir. Jörg Foth, 89 min., color GDR, 1959, dir. Slatan Dudow, 106 min., color Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $124.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95

“The Airship is one of the most unconventional feature films ever produced in East Germany.” —Munich Film Museum Sonya, an art student, loves the med student Dieter. “…the topic of flying is nothing but a metaphor for freedom and self-determination.“ —fimdienst.de “The film catches the turn-of-the [20th] century atmosphere.” —Variety And Siegi, a factory worker, loves the bricklayer Eddie. At a lavish Carnival party at East Berlin’s $350 (3-yr) art school, an unintentional exchange of partners

$350 (3-yr) original title Das Luftschiff | GDR, 1982, 116 min., color | Aspect ratio 16:9 | English subtitles director Rainer Simon script Rainer Simon and Fritz Rudolf Fries, based on Fries’s novel Das Luft-Schiff: begins. When everyone takes off their masks, Biographische Nachlässe zu den Fantasien meines Grossvaters camera Roland Dressel non-camera animation Lutz Dammbeck editor Helga Gentz dramaturg Manfred Hocke set design Hans Poppe Dieter realizes that he has not spent the evening costume design Werner Bergemann music Friedrich Goldmann, Karl-Ernst Sasse producer Dorothea Hildebrandt production DEFA Studio for Feature Film Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr)

cast Jörg Gudzuhn, Elisa Montés, Victor Carvajal, Daniel Roth, Katrin Knappe, Gudrun Ritter, Johanna Schall, with Sonya, but with Siegi! Academic libraries: $124.95 Hermann Beyer, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Kurt Böwe, Arno Wyzniewski Although director Slatan Dudow was a celebrated Home & public libraries: $24.95 proletarian director and collaborator of , East German officials had problems with this film. They saw it as threatening their plan to Franz Xaver Stannebein, a young boy at the turn of the 20th century, wants to do nothing more than fly. He carries this obsessive dream into his adulthood as a merchant in Spain. One day, he meets German industrialists who want to fund his idea—but they ask him to first build an airfield in Spain. When the bring together the intelligentsia and workers; they Nazis use the field during the Spanish Civil War, Stannebein feels betrayed. To register his complaint, he goes to Germany, where he is committed to an insane asylum in . After WWII, his grandson and other family members search for him, only to find the asylum empty... also objected to the film’s sensuality, which they Director Rainer Simon collaborated on this experimental feature film with composer Friedrich Goldmann, Roland Dressel—his longstanding director of photography and one of the leading cinematographers of A comedy by SLATAN DUDOW his time—and renowned media artist Lutz Dammbeck, who created the non-camera animation. (Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?) perceived as a challenge to socialist morality. • New digitally restored transfer Campaigns organized against the film, however, could • Biographies & Filmographies • “The Flights of Franz Xaver Stannebein,” by film historian Matthias Struch not prevent this light and fanciful • Director Rainer Simon on The Airship (Germany, 2018, dir. Nadine Fuhrhop, 11 min., color, English subtitles) DEFA Film Library from becoming a box office hit. The audience was Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa intrigued by the upbeat musical score, the fresh The cover design is based on the film’s 1983 original poster by Lutz Dammbeck. © 2018 English subtitles: DEFA Film Library at UMass. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1982 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public young faces on screen and the storyline, which performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. was both sensuous and free of ideology. Ulla is a sensitive and principled 10th-grader in a small East German town. When Winfried falls in love with his classmate, he adopts her passion for protecting the environment. One “Once again, the director created a model for how everyone can feel comfortable— day, they discover that an illegal trout farm and weekend home are being built in the middle especially smart young women, who allow themselves and their men to enjoy the lovely of a conservation area. Ulla tries to stop the project and gets her classmates involved. feeling of freedom.” —Der Tagesspiegel Winfried is in a difficult position because it is his father, the powerful CEO of a company, “This film symbolizes a longing for political relaxation after the sad years of .” who is responsible. As they meet resistance from the powers that be, the others gradually —Deutsches Historisches Museum give up the fight to save the local nature reserve; but not Ulla, who is left to deal with the consequences. “A meditation on art and industry. [The film] addresses the [GDR] regime’s utopian vision of a grandiose cultural revolution.” —Joshua Feinstein, Triumph of the Ordinary Biology! was not only one of the last films produced at the DEFA Studios, it was also one of very few East German films that dealt with protecting the environment. This topic was taboo in the GDR, where all data on environmental damage was classified information. 2018 Culture in the Cold War: East German Art, Music and Film retrospective, Nevertheless, grassroot activists—often under the umbrella of the church—represented a Amherst, USA small but vigorous environmental movement. 1961 Sydney International Film Festival, Australia “A story that severely critiques injustice, opportunism and moral cowardice.” 1961 Cineparade, Melbourne, Australia —kinofans.com

“The film tells about the difficulty of finding one’s identity in the midst of a deteriorating Other Films by ideological system.” — Film Museum Slatan Dudow on DVD Other Film by Jörg Foth on DVD

“Latest from the Da-Da-R is an astonishing, stylistically-sure farewell to the GDR. A diag- nosis of mood that goes below the surface.” —Die Zeit JUST RELEASED ON DVD JUST RELEASED ON DVD FEATURE FILMS 6 7 FEATURE FILMS The Airship Das Luftschiff Midnight Revue Revue um Mitternacht

“The Airship is one of the most unconventional feature films ever produced in East Germany.” —Munich Film Museum “…the topic of flying is nothing but a metaphor for freedom and self-determination.“ —fimdienst.de $350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $124.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 “The film catches the turn-of-the [20th] century atmosphere.” —Variety GDR, 1982, dir. Rainer Simon, 116 min., color GDR, 1962, dir. Gottfried Kolditz, 106 min., color

original title Das Luftschiff | GDR, 1982, 116 min., color | Aspect ratio 16:9 | English subtitles director Rainer Simon script Rainer Simon and Fritz Rudolf Fries, based on Fries’s novel Das Luft-Schiff: Biographische Nachlässe zu den Fantasien meines Grossvaters camera Roland Dressel non-camera animation Lutz Dammbeck editor Helga Gentz dramaturg Manfred Hocke set design Hans Poppe Franz Xavier Stannebein, a young boy at the turn of the 20th century, Famous producer Otto Kruse brags that he will produce a successful, costume design Werner Bergemann music Friedrich Goldmann, Karl-Ernst Sasse producer Dorothea Hildebrandt production DEFA Studio for Feature Film cast Jörg Gudzuhn, Elisa Montés, Victor Carvajal, Daniel Roth, Katrin Knappe, Gudrun Ritter, Johanna Schall, Hermann Beyer, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Kurt Böwe, Arno Wyzniewski wants to do nothing more than fly. He carries this obsessive dream into new kind of revue film. When the project is close to failing, he orders his adulthood as a merchant in Spain. He invests everything he has into his stage manager to “do what it takes.” Soon, his young female $350 (3-yr) building his own airship, but then gets involved with the Nazis. After assistant finds herself holding a dramaturg, composer and set designer Franz Xaver Stannebein, a young boy at the turn of the 20th century, wants to do nothing more than fly. He carries this obsessive dream into his adulthood as a merchant in Spain. One day, he meets German industrialists who want to fund his idea—but they ask him to first build an airfield in Spain. When the Nazis use the field during the Spanish Civil War, Stannebein feels betrayed. To register his complaint, he goes to Germany, where he is committed to an insane asylum in Leipzig. After WWII, his grandson and other family members search for him, only to find the asylum empty... WWII, his grandson and other survivors in the family search for him; he hostage in a villa—with orders to keep them there until they create a Director Rainer Simon collaborated on this experimental feature film with composer Friedrich Goldmann, Roland Dressel—his longstanding director of photography and one of the leading cinematographers of his time—and renowned media artist Lutz Dammbeck, who created the non-camera animation. • New digitally restored transfer is rumored to be in an asylum. cheerful revue film. The hostages fear it is impossible to please both • Biographies & Filmographies • “The Flights of Franz Xaver Stannebein,” by film historian Matthias Struch • Director Rainer Simon on The Airship (Germany, 2018, dir. Nadine Fuhrhop, 11 min., color, English subtitles) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr)

DEFA Film Library Academic libraries: $124.95 Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst the public and the critics. Only a young, brash, unknown musician who umass.edu/defa

The cover design is based on the film’s 1983 original poster by Lutz Dammbeck. This was the first full-length ever made in the GDR. © 2018 English subtitles: DEFA Film Library at UMass. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH.

DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1982 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. Home & public libraries: $24.95 Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public has insinuated himself into the group is enthusiastically inspired to performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. Director Rainer Simon collaborated on it with acclaimed German media create an opulent film revue and impress the young assistant producer. artist and non-camera animator Lutz Dammbeck. “Kolditz uses humor to go to places that no other East German filmmaker dared.” Other Films by —Jim Morton, eastgermancinema.com Rainer Simon on DVD “[This is] the only truly spectacular musical revue made by DEFA and it’s also presented in the tradition of Brechtian epic theater.” —Andrea Rinke, Film’s Musical Moments

The Naked Man on the Sports Field Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz

“Like Agnes Varda’s well-known Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962), Apprehensionis a day-long chronicle of a woman as she confronts the possibility of cancer.” —The American Film Institute “Christine Schorn’s performance is memorable.” —Ron Holloway, 1983 Filmex, Los Angeles “The film explores the role of the artist in society and “The film rates as one of the best pics of the season emerging from East Germany. An intelligently narrated and professionally GDR, 1973, dir. , 102 min., color, 2-DVD set also makes a plea for the artist‘s freedom of expression.” acted film.” —Variety –Los Angeles Times APPREHENSION original title Die Beunruhigung GDR, 1981, 96 min., b/w, aspect ratio 4:3, English subtitles director | script Lothar Warneke scenario Helga Schubert camera Thomas Plenert Kemmel is almost 40. Although little throws the good-natured sculptor dramaturg Erika Richter set design Georg Kranz editor Erika Lehmphul The Fiancée Die Verlobte costume design Christiane Dorst, Herbert Henschel, Ruth Leitzmann music César Franck production DEFA Studio for Feature Films

cast Christine Schorn, Hermann Beyer, Christoph Engel, Sina Fiedler, Cox Habbema, Jörg Herrmann, Jamila Karlovská, Ostara Körner, Mike Lepke, Bärbel Loeper, Wilfried Pucher, Horst Röseler, Traute Sense, Steffie Spira off, he is torn between wanting to address his generation’s memories of $350 (3-yr)

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $124.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 , and disappointment that many people don’t understand GDR, 1980, dirs. Günter Reisch, Günther Rücker, 106 min., color his works—despite official programs to bring art to the public. One day, The divorced with a teenage son, attractive Inge (Christine Schorn) is in her mid-30s and fully aware of her self-worth and independence. She is a psychologist and involved with a married man. After a routine check- up, Inge receives an unexpected call from her doctor. She learns she may have a malignant lump in her breast and must have a biopsy the following day. Inge is afraid of the final diagnosis… In the next 24 hours

under enormous psychological pressure, she re-evaluates her relationships and her life. A FILM BY LOTHAR WARNEKE Germany, 1934: Hella, a member of an anti-Nazi resistance group, is With a powerful, semi-autobiographical script by Helga Schubert, Apprehension is considered by critics to he offers to make a sculpture for the sports field in his hometown. be East Germany’s greatest women‘s film. Cameraman Thomas Plenert, noted for his documentaries (Winter Adé, The Wall), included black-and-white images of East Berlin life in this low-budget feature film shot exclusively on location and with a cast largely made up of lay actors. The film was seen as an experiment, A FILM BY KONRAD WOLF but turned into a box-office hit. (GOYA, I WAS NINETEEN) sentenced to ten years in prison for high treason. Only her fiancé’s • New digitally restored transfer • “Letting Reality Speak,” director Lothar Warneke • Biographies & Filmographies in conversation with film historian Erika Richter • “Dealing with Cancer, Dealing with Love: Power • “From Scenario to Film,” by film historian Erika Richter THE NAKED MAN and Hierarchies in the GDR Medical System,” This tongue-in-cheek episodic film interweaves the director’s personal Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) by Sonja E. Klocke, University of Wisconcin

DEFA Film Library Academic libraries: $124.95 letters and visits keep her hope alive. Then, on the day of her release, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst ON THE SPORTS FIELD umass.edu/defa

© 1999/2016 English subtitles: Titelbild, DEFA Film Library at UMass. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih memories and political defeats and the weight of German history into a GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1981 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. Home & public libraries: $24.95 Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor- her fiancé is arrested by the Nazis. mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. nuanced story about the role of art and artists in society. The autobiographical novels of resistance fighter Eva Lippold served as the inspiration for this acclaimed film. The directors’ nuanced sense of character and their exploration of the psychological experience of “One of the DEFA Studio‘s most introspective productions!“ extreme duress reframed East Germany’s antifascist film . —Seán Allan, DEFA at the Crossroads of East German and International Film Culture

1984 New Directors/New Films, MoMa, New York 1980 Crystal Globe Grand Prix, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 1980 Official submission, Best Foreign Film, Academy Awards Other Films by Konrad Wolf on DVD Isabel on the Stairs Isabel auf der Treppe

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $119.95 Home & public libraries: $19.95 “The film put the solidarity of East “A not-to-be missed blending of lovestory towards refugees to the test.” Just Married and drama.” —prisma.de —Potsdam Film Museum GDR, 1983, Dir. Hannelore Unterberg, 69 min., color Just Married Just Twelve-year-old Isabel and her mother had to escape from Chile after the 1973 military coup. Isabel’s father stayed behind, fighting in the Original title: Grüne Hochzeit GDR, 1988, 95 min., color, aspect ratio16:9, English subtitles

Director: Herrmann Zschoche Script: Christa Kožik A film by Herrmann Zschoche Camera: Günter Jaeuthe Editor: Monika Schindler underground. For six years, they have lived in a new apartment building Dramaturg: Gabriele Herzog Set Design: Paul Lehmann Costume Design: René le Doil Music: Günther Fischer Production: DEFA Studio for Feature Films Cast: Anja Kling, Marc Lubosch, Heide Krone, Horst-Alexander Hardt, Ursula Werner, , Achim Wolff, Dana Schmidt, Klaus Manchen, Lotte Loebinger, Heide Kipp, in East Berlin. At first, the neighbors make an effort to welcome them, Klaus Manchen, Martin Seifert

Susanne (17) and Robert (18) want to get married; because Susanne is still underage, she needs parental permission. With twin babies and tight finances, the newlyweds soon feel overwhelmed, and dealing with everything makes but then they become more distant. Isabel does not feel at home in the “Konrad Wolf was one them forget the love that brought them together. In this sequel to his box-office hitSeven Freckles (1978), director Zschoche skillfully captures the life and problems of young East Germans in the late 1980s. strange country. Not even her friendship with Philip, the neighbors’ of East Germany’s most

DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa Isabel on the son, can change her mind. Almost every day, Isabel sits on the stairs creative directors!” © 2016 English subtitles: Christopher Hench, DEFA Film Library. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1988 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. A film by Hannelore Unterberg Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is Stairs waiting for a letter from her father, from whom she has not heard for —eastgermancinema.com prohibited. many years. DVD BACK CATALOG DVD BACK CATALOG FEATURE FILMS 8 9 FEATURE FILMS The Actress Die Schauspielerin Born in the GDR – Films about Young People

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $124.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 GDR, 1988, dir. Siegfried Kühn, 86 min., color

Maria, a rising theater star in Nazi Germany, is in love with Mark, “A and comedic summer film about “Our message is that you have to learn to love, young love, wanderlust and the travel limitations “A not-to-be missed blending of lovestory sometimes your whole life long.” Next Year at Lake Balaton that existed [in the former GDR].” a Jewish actor. She accepts her dream job in Munich, but Mark is Just Married and drama.” —prisma.de — Christa Kožik, scriptwriter “Entertaining and full of verve!” —Lexikon des internationalen Films —Cinémathèque Leipzig Next Year at Lake Balaton banned from performing—except at the Jewish Kulturbund Theater in Married Just Berlin. Maria discovers she is unable to live without Mark, but the Nazi Nuremberg Laws forbid their relationship. Original title: Grüne Hochzeit Original title: Und nächstes Jahr am Balaton

GDR, 1988, 95 min., color, aspect ratio16:9, English subtitles GDR, 1980, 89 min., color, aspect ratio 16:9, English subtitles Director: Herrmann Zschoche Script: Christa Kožik A film by Herrmann Zschoche Director: Herrmann Zschoche Camera: Günter Jaeuthe Editor: Monika Schindler Script: Herrmann Zschoche, based on a story by Joachim Walther

Dramaturg: Gabriele Herzog Set Design: Paul Lehmann Scenario: Inge Wüst-Heym Camera: Günter Jaeuthe A film by Herrmann Zschoche 1989 Berlin International Film Festival Costume Design: René le Doil Music: Günther Fischer Editor: Monika Schindler Dramaturg: Manfred Wolter Production: DEFA Studio for Feature Films Set Design: Alfred Thomalla Costume Design: Günter Pohl Cast: Anja Kling, Marc Lubosch, Heide Krone, Horst-Alexander Hardt, Ursula Werner, Music: Günther Fischer Production: DEFA Studio for Feature Films Ute Lubosch, Achim Wolff, Dana Schmidt, Klaus Manchen, Lotte Loebinger, Heide Kipp, Cast: Kareen Schröter, Günter Schubert, René Rudolph, Odetta Bereska, Gudrun Ritter, 1989 Best Actress, Karlovy Vary International film Festival Klaus Manchen, Martin Seifert Peter Bause, Bernd Chill, Thomas Kieper, Silke Hollender, Christine Krech, Fred Delmare Susanne (17) and Robert (18) want to get married; because Susanne is still Jonas and Ines are in love and want to spend their vacation together camping underage, she needs parental permission. With twin babies and tight finances, on the Baltic coast. But Ines’s narrow-minded parents intervene and insist that the newlyweds soon feel overwhelmed, and dealing with everything makes they join the family vacation. Problems arise, so they all end up traveling to the them forget the love that brought them together. Bulgarian Black Sea on their own. While on his way, Jonas meets a beautiful Dutch girl who is going to India via Turkey… In this sequel to his box-office hit Seven Freckles (1978), director Zschoche skillfully captures the life and problems of young East Germans in the late 1980s. Director Herrmann Zschoche’s road movie is a humorous look at East German travel restrictions and how they played out for young people who longed to roam The Adventures of Werner Holt Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt and see the world. DEFA Film Library DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa umass.edu/defa Next Year at Lake © 2016 English subtitles: Christopher Hench, DEFA Film Library. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih Just Married © 2016 English subtitles: Kathryn Julian, DEFA Film Library. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1988 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. A film by Herrmann Zschoche DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1980 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. A film by Herrmann Zschoche Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public Balaton performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is $350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $ 150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $79.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 GDR, 1965, dir. Joachim Kunert, 164 min., b/w prohibited. prohibited. Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of “A Plattenbau taking a dig at East “One of DEFA’s important critical- Germany’s self-congratulatory housing propaganda.” school and into Hitler‘s army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier, but at Swan Island realistic films!” —alpha TV —achtung berlin festival

the front Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war. When Island Swan Gilbert is hanged by the SS, Werner turns his gun on his own army.

Original title: Insel der Schwäne GDR, 1982, 88 min., color, aspect ratio: 16:9, English subtitles Director: Herrmann Zschoche Script: Herrmann Zschoche, , based a novel by Benno Pludra

1965 Official Selection, Cannes International Youth Festival Assistant Director: Sibylle Schönemann Camera: Günter Jaeuthe A film by Herrmann Zschoche Editor: Erika Lehmphul Dramaturg: Gabriele Herzog Set Design: Harry Leupold Costume Design: Joachim Dittrich Music: Peter Gotthardt Production: DEFA Studio for Feature Films Cast: Axel Bunke, Matthias Müller, Sven Martinek, Uwe Kaatz, Britt Baumann, Kerstin Reiseck, Ursula Werner, Christian Grashof, Monika Lennartz, Dietrich Körner, Ruth Kommerell, Fritz Marquardt, Heidemarie Wenzel When he is 14, Stefan’s parents decide to move the family to Marzahn, a desolate high-rise suburb of Berlin, still under construction. Stefan’s innocent childhood suddenly ends when he encounters the bullying of an older boy and his gang. Officials accused director Herrmann Zschoche and scriptwriter Ulrich Plenzdorf of giving a distorted, negative view of socialist reality. They required that the team make several edits and change the final scene, which in the original cut All My Girls Alle meine Mädchen was open-ended. DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa © 2016 English subtitles: Katrin Bahr, Christopher Hench, DEFA Film Library. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Swan Island Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1982 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. A film by Herrmann Zschoche Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $79.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is GDR, 1979, dir. , 83 min., color prohibited. Film student Ralf is assigned to document a brigade of six women workers at a Berlin light bulb factory. The team works well together; but when one of Ralf’s interviews reveals that the brigade leader has secretly been keeping a record of disciplinary issues, Ralf finds himself pulled into their conflicts. “This upbeat portrait of feisty young women workers is a must!” —Andrea Rinke, film scholar And Your Love Too ...und deine Liebe auch

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $79.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 GDR, 1962, dir. Frank Vogel, 92 min., b/w On August 13, 1961—the night the goes up—three people must make a decision that will change their lives forever. A small crew filmed on the streets of East Berlin with mobile cameras for four months, capturing the city’s daily life and the extraordinary atmosphere of this historic period with precision and humor.

“Like Agnes Varda’s well-known Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962), Apprehension is a day-long chronicle of a woman as she confronts the possibility of cancer.” —The American Film Institute “Christine Schorn’s performance is memorable.” —Ron Holloway, Los Angeles 1983 Filmex A FILM BY “The film rates as one of the best pics of the season emerging from East Germany… An intelligently narrated and professionally acted film.” —Variety LOTHAR APPREHENSION WARNEKE original title Die Beunruhigung GDR, 1986, 95 min., color, aspect ratio 4:3, English subtitles director | script Lothar Warneke Scenario: Helga Schubert camera Thomas Plenert dramaturg Erika Richter set desig Georg Kranz editor Erika Lehmphul costume Design: Christiane Dorst, Herbert Henschel, Ruth Leitzmann music César Franck production DEFA Studio for Feature Films

cast Christine Schorn, Hermann Beyer, Christoph Engel, Sina Fiedler, Cox Habbema, Jörg Herrmann, Jamila Karlovská, Ostara Körner, Mike Lepke, Bärbel Loeper, Wilfried Pucher, Horst Röseler, Traute Sense, Steffie Spira For prices, Divorced with a teenage son, the attractive Inge (Christine Schorn) is in her mid-30s and fully aware of her self-worth and independence. She is a psychologist and involved with a married man. After a routine check- up, Inge receives an unexpected call from her doctor. She learns she may have a malignant lump in her

breast and must have a biopsy the following day. Inge is afraid of the final diagnosis… In the next 24 hours A FILM BY LOTHAR WARNEKE under enormous psychological pressure, she re-evaluates her relationships and her life. With a powerful, semi-autobiographical script by Helga Schubert, Apprehension is considered by critics to be East Germany’s greatest women‘s film. Cameraman Thomas Plenert, noted for his documentaries (Winter Adé, The Wall), included black-and-white images of East Berlin life in this low-budget feature film shot exclusively on location and with a cast largely made up of lay actors. The film was seen as an experiment, More Featurebut turned into a box-office hit. Films • New digitally restored transfer please check • Biographies & Filmographies • “Letting Reality Speak,” director Lothar Warneke in conversation with film historian Erika Richter, 2004

DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa

© 1999/2016 English subtitles: Titelbild, DEFA Film Library at UMass. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1981 © DEFA-Stiftung.on All rights reserved. DVD Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor- mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. 1982 Competion Venice Film Festival umass.edu/defa

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$24.95 $24.95 $24.95 Home & public libraries: libraries: public & Home libraries: public & Home Home & public libraries: libraries: public & Home - - FEATURE FILMS FEATURE —Ralf Schenk, film historian 11 —The Oxford History of World Cinema —The Oxford History of World —The Museum of Modern Art, New York —The Museum of Modern FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin International Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin International 1990 Art Curator, LACMA O. Benson, Art Curator, —Timothy cials banned the rough cut as “indifferent and insignificant.” Inspired and insignificant.” the rough cut as “indifferent cials banned film by painter and Born in ’45 is the only feature by Italian , filmmaker Jürgen Böttcher. documentary GDR, 1966/1990, dir. Jürgen Böttcher, 94 min., b/w 94 min., Jürgen Böttcher, dir. GDR, 1966/1990, to clear takes a few days off decide to divorce. Alfred Alfred and Lisa he meeting strangers. Although through Berlin and his head, roaming open. In 1966, offi ending remains to Lisa, the film’s ultimately returns 80 min., b/w , GDR, 1963, dir. of WWII. A non-smoking cigarette factory A comedy set at the end hundreds of dogged by every possible mishap, must travel worker, barrels of carbide back to Dresden, where miles without a truck to get weld their ruined factory back together. his co-workers need it to “One of the best German film comedies!” b/w Herrmann Zschoche, 129 min., GDR, 1965/1990, dir. the entrenched challenges Carla, a young and idealistic teacher, small-minded en routines and opportunism of her hypocritical and and hostile” by vironment. This film was labeled “nihilistic, skeptical spring 1966. officials and banned during final production in Masina in La Strada.” “Jutta Hoffmann reminds us of young Giulietta A FILM BY WACHOWIAK WITH JUTTA BONUS FILM Holly Fisher) Käthe Kollwitz: A Conversation with Hildegard Bachert (2016, dir. KÄTHE KOLLWITZ IMAGES OF A LIFE “This masterful feature film eloquently captures the determination and sensitivity with which Kollwitz produced one of the most profound artistic reflections on the early 20th century.”

KÄTHE KOLLWITZ: IMAGES OF A LIFE A film by Ralf Kirsten DVD BACK CATALOG BACK DVD Ewald Forchner

- Dieter Wolf

costumes | | dramaturg —Marion Deshmukh, George Mason University DEFA Studio for Feature Films DEFA

Hans Poppe —Henriette Kets de Vries, Smith College Museum of Art —Henriette Kets de Vries,

design

production | | Peter Gotthardt set

| | FILMS music | | ARTIST ARTIST | Otto Hanisch |

Horst Hartwig

“This film can be considered East Germany’s closest counterpart to early Godard.” closest counterpart to early Godard.” East Germany’s “This film can be considered Evelyn Carow

camera | | production editing Carbide and Sorrel Karbid und Sauerampfer Carbide and Sorrel Carla Karla Jahrgang 45 Jahrgang in ’45 Born | | Ralf Kirsten

Käthe Kollwitz – Bilder eines Lebens

script

| title

Karin Wacker

| | Krehbiel Werner

(USA, 2016, dir. Holly Fisher, 19 min.) Holly Fisher, Käthe Kollwitz: A Conversation with Hildegard Bachert (USA, 2016, dir. Jutta Wachowiak, Fred Düren, Carmen-Maja Antoni, Gerd Baltus, Gabriele Barth, Eckhard Becker, Fred Düren, Carmen-Maja Antoni, Gerd Baltus, Gabriele Barth, Eckhard Becker, Jutta Wachowiak, • New digitally restored transfer • Biographies & Filmographies • “Käthe Kollwitz: A Life in Art,” by Seán Allan, University of Warwick (1987) Interview with Director Ralf Kirsten and Dramaturg Dieter Wolf” • “Written • DEFA Film Library DEFA of Massachusetts Amherst Univ. umass.edu/defa © 2013-15 English subtitles: Eurotape, DEFA Film Library. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA- All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA- Film Library. © 2013-15 English subtitles: Eurotape, DEFA All rights reserved. Studio für Spielfilme 1986 © DEFA-Stiftung. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Warning: Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Matthias Freihof, Detlef Bierstedt, Walfriede Schmitt, Axel Werner Matthias Freihof, Detlef Bierstedt, Walfriede is 47 years old and already a well-established artist in Germany and Käthe Kollwitz (Jutta Wachowiak) her youngest son, volunteers to join the German army in WWI and gets killed two weeks abroad when Peter, She becomes a radical pacifist; in her art life and art forever. This painful tragedy changes Kollwitz’s later. After signing a petition against the Nazis, she is excluded she reflects on her son and the meaning of war. from the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin and her art is labeled “degenerate.” Lonely and sick, Kollwitz spends the last days of her life near Dresden and she dies at the age of 78, before the end of WWII. Ralf Kirsten—director of The Lost Angel, an homage to German artist Ernst Barlach—used episodes from unpublished letters and diaries to fit them together in a mosaic-like self-portrait. Kollwitz’s GDR, 1986, 95 min., color, aspect ratio 4:3, English subtitles GDR, 1986, 95 min., color, “The Brechtian quality of the film allows one to experience the physical and mental transformation of actress Jutta Wachowiak “The Brechtian quality of the film allows one to experience the physical and mental transformation of actress Jutta into her role as Käthe Kollwitz.The result is a thoughtful, beautiful film.” It is a timeless classic.“ artistic creativity and her simultaneous despair. film movingly captures Kollwitz’s “The original director makeup sound cast KÄTHE KOLLWITZ IMAGES OF A LIFE - —Variety retrospective, Berlin International Film Festival Germany 1966 retrospective, Berlin International DVD BACK CATALOG BACK DVD 2016 10 Germany, 1948, dir. , 105 min., b/w Erich Engel, 1948, dir. Germany, Based of murder… is falsely accused Blum, a Jewish manufacturer, Dr. few German films on a 1926 court case in Magdeburg, this is one of as it existed in to portray conservative nationalism and anti-Semitism by former Ufa scriptwriter and rule. Written Germany prior to Hitler’s ), and directed by famous Brechtian director Robert A. Stemmle (Toxi theater director Erich Engel. The Dreyfus “The Blum Affair is the German counterpart to the French , 1948 The Telegraph Affair.” — gang Kohlhaase’s and editor Evelyn Carow’s 1990 cut. Carow’s and editor Evelyn gang Kohlhaase’s Evelyn Schmidt, 89 min., color GDR, 1981, dir. social norm. After Susanne is a single mother who lives outside the a minor insurance quitting her job, she is short on cash and attempts less-than-ideal fraud to make ends meet. This frank portrayal of a , one of very few socialist citizen was controversial and The Bicycle allowed to be screenedEast German films directed by a woman, was not came down. abroad until the Wall —San Francisco MoMA “A rare feminist view of socialist Germany.” GDR, 1965/90, dir. Gerhard Klein, 83 min., b/w Gerhard GDR, 1965/90, dir. metalworkers provoke their colleagues Berlin in the 1960s: two young their leather jackets and motorbikes. with critiques... not to mention cut in September 1966, after the 11th Plenum,Officials banned the rough This DVD presents scriptwriter Wolf as “dishonest and anti-socialist.” GDR, 1956, dir. Gerhard Klein, 81 min., b/w Klein, 81 Gerhard dir. GDR, 1956, attracted Uschi, from the East, is before the Berlin Wall. Mid-1950s Berlin, loves the bright shop windows but she also the West; to Hans, from loses its glamor to reality, soon The glitzy West the city. in his part of Klein Films made by Gerhard film is one of four Berlin This however. Kohlhaase. Wolfgang and scriptwriter of postwar Berlin.” “The most definitive record Part of Quartet the Berlin Film Part by Gerhard Klein (Director) and Wolfgang Kohlhaase (Script) Kohlhaase Wolfgang and Klein (Director) by Gerhard The Blum Affair Affaire Blum The Bicycle Das Fahrrad Berlin around the Corner Berlin um die Ecke Berlin around the Eine Berliner Romanze Eine Romance A Berlin

BERLIN AROUND THE CORNER A film by Gerhard Klein FEATURE FILMS FEATURE Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Academic libraries: $124.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Academic libraries: $79.95

Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu— Barton Byg, Framing the Past Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) - Manfred Renger

$350 (3-yr) —2016 Berlin International Film Festival $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) production

(1966)”

Georg Katzer , Berlin International Film Festival music by the Klein/Kohlhaase team. In 1966, officials banned the rough Hans-Joachim Kreinbrink |

Evelyn Carow | sound Alfred Drosdek editing Wolfgang Kohlhaase Wolfgang

design

2016 Retrospective: Germany 1966 script

set Berlin um die Ecke DEFA Studio for Feature Films DEFA Klaus Wischnewski | Barbara Braumann | title Gerhard Klein |

Peter Krause | New digitally restored transfer Biographies & Filmographies by Annette Dorgerloh, Humboldt University Berlin “Official Decision Statement on Berlin around the Corner Interview with Scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase about the Film, 2001, 11min. Kohlhaase about the Interview with Scriptwriter Wolfgang Gettysburg College by Henning Wrage, “Berlin Chapter IV,” “Jeans, Leather Jacket, Cowboy Hat: The Costume Design Concept in Berlin around the Corner,” Dieter Mann, Kaspar Eichel, Monika Gabriel, , Hans Hardt-Hardtloff,

• • • • • • DEFA Film Library DEFA of Massachusetts Amherst Univ. www.umass.edu/defa © 2015 English subtitles: submarines, Berlin & DEFA Film Library at UMass. All rights reserved. Licensor: © 2015 English subtitles: submarines, Berlin & DEFA All rights reserved. 1966/90 © DEFA-Stiftung. für Spielfilme PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH DEFA-Studio Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Warning: Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA GDR, 1966/90, 83 min., b&w Aspect ratio 4:3, English subtitles original director camera costumes dramaturg Harald Warmbrunn, Kurt Böwe, Jürgen Frohriep, Klaus Ebeling Harald Warmbrunn, Berlin in the 1960s. Olaf (Dieter Mann) and Horst (Kaspar Eichel) are two young metalworkers, who provoke their older colleagues with critiques of the antiquated equipment and lack of materials ... not to mention their love of and the generational leather jackets and motorbikes. Olaf and Horst begin to be targeted in the house newsletter, conflict escalates. This film is the fourth in the Berlin Film Series production cast

cut in the aftermath of the SED Party’s 11th Plenum, condemning the film as “dishonest and anti-socialist.” As of 11th Plenum, condemning the film cut in the aftermath of the SED Party’s Kohlhaase and editor Scriptwriter Wolfgang 1987, the rough-cut version was shown in arthouse screenings only. and produced an abridged version that Evelyn Carow revisited the available material after the fall of the Berlin Wall premiered in 1990. This DVD presents the new digitally restored transfer of the 1990 version of the film. “Scenes and storylines are loosely connected in this filmic essay of unconventional beauty!” adaptation of .” “Directed by one of the most consistent practitioners of the GDR’s “A very circumspect and carefully worded picture: a social survey of working class conditions at the time.” —Variety FEATURE FILMS FEATURE 13 DEFA Film Library. DEFA [email protected] umass.edu/defa | (413) 545-6681 To check prices and order DVDs: check prices To Feel free to come use our archives! Research visitors are welcome at the DVD BACK CATALOG BACK DVD - - - Chiffriert an Chef – Ausfall Nr. 5 Chiffriert an Chef – Ausfall Nr. DVD BACK CATALOG BACK DVD 12 GDR, 1950, dir. , 111 min., b/w GDR, 1950, dir. his factory is testing During WWII, chemist Hans Scholz discovers that but the industrial a poisonous gas. He struggles with his conscience, Trial on Nuremberg big wigs care only for profits. The film is based transcripts and the 1947 book I.G. Farben, by American author Richard electronic include music by Hanns Eisler, Its modernist features Sasuly. sound by Oskar Sala and a script by Friedrich Wolf. II regret and War “This feature is a fascinating blend of post-World —buyindies.com propaganda.” emerging Cold War GDR, 1979, dir. Helmut Dziuba, 94 min., color GDR, 1979, dir. East Berlin, gets Brandin, an electrical engineering student in Wolf . His work as a recruited by the CIA. He immediately notifies the the CIA sends double agent inevitably strains his personal life. When on building of the Wall Brandin on a mission in the GDR, he ensures the film offers a uniquely August 13, 1961. This overlooked East German spy and a com convincing view of the individual psychology of pelling picture of divided Berlin. GDR, 1975, dirs. Christa Mühl, Werner Hecht, 62 min., b/w Werner GDR, 1975, dirs. Christa Mühl, —a film low-budget communist the World? or Who Owns Kuhle Wampe, debates in the the source of vehement personnel—was top-flight with Republic. This is during the film censorship office of the original censorship proceedings on a detailed reconstruction of Berlin in the 1920s-30s ; it includes original footage Kuhle Wampe that were cut from the movie. and reenactments of scenes cing Soviet troops, through the building of an agricultural cooperative, of an agricultural cooperative, through the building cing Soviet troops, and 1953. A story of scandal uprising of June 17, to the East German film chronicled and conveyed most of all change, this sabotage, and the new socialist republic. line on the first years of the official GDR, 1957, dir. Kurt Maetzig, 203 min., b/w, 2-DVD set 2-DVD min., b/w, Maetzig, 203 Kurt dir. GDR, 1957, seve WWII, the story follows in just after Set on a manor ral families from the flight of the aristocratic landowners before advan landowners before the flight of the aristocratic ral families from Council of the Gods Rat der Götter Coded Message for the Boss Ein Feigenblatt für Kuhle Wampe Ein Feigenblatt für Wampe! Censored: Kuhle Schlösser und Katen und Schlösser Cottages and Castles

FEATURE FILMS FEATURE Home & public libraries: $29.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $19.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Academic libraries: $84.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Academic libraries: $74.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) cast costume camera director original official submissionsfortheAcademy Awards. declared thefilmwouldstirupanti-Polishsentiments.HeldforQuestioningwasoneofEastGermany’s at the1983BerlinInternationalFilmFestival,EastGermanofficialswithdrewitafterPolishgovernment by ayoungSylvesterGroth(InglouriousBasterds,TheReader, MyFührer).Althoughthefilmwastoscreen existential questionsofcrimeandpunishment,aswellobedienceresponsibility. Theleadisplayed Based onHermannKant’s autobiographicalnovel,thefilm—withtop-notchperformances—raises a spyplantedbythePoles. is solitary confinement,thenamonghostilePolishprisoners,andfinallywithGermanNaziswhoassumehe killed herdaughter, MarkisthrownintoaKafkaesquenightmareofaccusationsandpersecution—firstin prisoners atatrainstationnearWarsaw. WhenaPolishwomanaccuseshimofbeingtheNaziofficerwho In thefallof1945,onlyafewmonthsafterWWII,19-year-old GermanPOWMarkNiebuhrarriveswithother Kasicki, ZygmuntMaciejewski,AndrzejPieczyński Heteren, HorstHiemer, GünterJunghans,KrzysztofChamiec,GustawLutkiewicz,RomanWilhelmi,Andrzej mance (unlesspermissionisspecificallygrantedbytheDEFA FilmLibrary)isaviolationofcopyrightlawandprohibited. Warning: Thisdigitalrecordingislicensedforhomeandeducationaluseonly. Anycopying,reproduction,orpublicperfor DEFA-Studio fürSpielfilme1982©DEFA-Stiftung. Allrightsreserved. © 2017Englishsubtitles:DEFA FilmLibraryatUMassAmherst.Allrightsreserved.Licensor:PROGRESSFilmverleihGmbH. umass.edu/defa Univ. ofMassachusettsAmherst DEFA FilmLibrary Scriptwriter Wolfgang KohlhaaseontheFilmProduction(2001,9min.,color) “When theWindTurns: HeldforQuestioning,”bydirectorFrankBeyer Biographies &Filmographies New digitallyrestoredtransfer SylvesterGroth,FredDüren,MatthiasGünther, KlausPiontek,Hans-UweBauer, Alexandervan EberhardGeick|

FrankBeyer|

title design 2010 BerlinInternationalFilmFestival•1984BestForeignFilm,OfficialSubmission,Academy Awards

Der Aufenthalt|GDR,1982,98min.,color, aspectratio4:3,Englishsubtitles JoachimDittrich| 1984 SanFranciscoInternationalFilmFestival•Melbourne script editor Wolfgang Kohlhaase,basedonthenovelbyHermannKant RitaHiller| music 1983 GoldenLionNominee,Venice FilmFestival GüntherFischer| dramaturg DieterWolf | production

set $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) DEFA StudioforFeatureFilms

design

AlfredHirschmeier

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FEATURE FILMS A FILM BY FRANK BEYER BEYER FRANK BY FILM A

I Was NineteenIchwarneunzehn Herzsprung Held forQuestioningDerAufenthalt “A tenseprisondrama!” —Gene SiskelFilmCenter guiltandatonement,aswellobedienceresponsibility.” A FILMBYFRANKBEYER With SylvesterGroth(Deutschland83) WESTERN “Stand-out performances!” —Variety DEFA “A directorialtourdeforce!” —London FilmFestival

war period.” —MontrealMirror “One ofthemostimportantfilmsto come outofGermanyinthepost- documents thesearchfora“usable”Germanpast. in hisownland.KonradWolf’s mostautobiographicalfilmpowerfully soldier withthevictoriousSoviettroops.Herehefeelslikeastranger was achild.AttheendofWWII,hereturnstoGermanyasyoung Gregor’s familyfledfromNaziGermanytotheSovietUnionwhenhe GDR, 1968,dir. KonradWolf, 115min.,b/w and racism.”—Goethe-InstitutMontreal “A beautiful,whimsicalandattimesmagicalfilmaboutlove,longing in thisdirector’s featurefilmdebut. it. GünterLamprechtandEva-MariaHagenco-starinremarkableroles in lovewithawanderingstrangerandthewholevillageistalkingabout job andherhusbandcommitssuicide.To makemattersworse,shefalls German unificationisariseinunemployment.Johannatoolosesher In thelittletownofHerzsprung,onlythingthathaschangedsince Germany, 1992,dir. HelkeMisselwitz,87min.,color of likeachamberpiece,thisfilmdiscussesexistentialquetions “Staged for thePoles. who detesthim,andfinallyamongGermansassumeheisspying persecution, firstinsolitaryconfinement,thenamongPolishprisoners Reader)—is thrownintoaKafkaesquenightmareofaccusationand daughter. Mark—playedbySylvesterGroth(InglouriousBasterds,The accused byaPolishwomanastheNaziofficerwhokilledher In October1945,19-year-old MarkNiebuhrisaGermanPOWwrongly GDR, 1982,dir. FrankBeyer, 101min.,color 14 1993 1992 DVD BACKCATALOG German FilmAward Nominee Special Mention,SanSebastianInternationalFilmFestival —Deutsche Welle streaming, see p.32) (available on B lood B rothers

JacobtheLiarJakobderLügner MarriageintheShadows EheimSchatten TheLandbeyondtheRainbow JustDon’tThinkI’llCryDenkblossnicht,ichheule DVD BACKCATALOG

schalk, whosefate had beenhiddenfromthepublicbyNazi authorities. to theacclaimedGerman theatercouple,MetaWolff and JoachimGott Save himselfbydivorcing hiswife.Thedirectordedicated hisdebutfilm struggle tosurvive.ThenHansisgiven anultimatumbyaNaziofficial: As Nazianti-Semiticpoliciesincreasingly infringeontheirlives,they actor HansWielandmarriestheJewish actressElisabethMaurer. This filmspansaten-yearperiodstarting in1933.CelebratedGerman Germany, 1947,dir. KurtMaetzig,104min.,b/w on film,inastylisticcrossbetweenHieronymusBoschandBreughel. this filmwithbeingoneofthemostradicalcondemnationsGDR maker—still believeinhumangoodnessandtruelove.Criticscredit “real existingsocialism.”Onlytwochildren—MarieandtheRain- village ofStalinain1953.Thevillagerslegitimizeinjusticebyglorifying This harsh,yetpoeticcritiqueofStalinismcentersonthemythical Germany, 1991, dir. HerwigKipping,89min.,color “Formally anexceptionallydenseandbrilliantlyperformedfilm.” allegedly anti-socialistelements. the state.Thismasterpieceofcriticalrealismwasbannedin1965for suspended forwritinganessayhisteacherstakeasachallengeto hypocritical, self-congratulatoryandimmersedinthepast.Hegets High schoolseniorPeterconsiderstheadultsaroundhimtobe GDR, 1965,dir. FrankVogel, 91min.,b/w acclaim. author JurekBecker, JacobtheLiarquicklyachievedinternational touches andmemorablevignettes.Written bytherenownedGDR Beautifully performed,thisbittersweetstoryisloadedwithhuman of hisfellowJewslivinginaPolishghettounderNazioccupation. Jacob (VlastimilBrodsky)inventsnewsreportstobolsterthespirits GDR, 1974,dir. FrankBeyer, 96min.,color “A meditation on false beginnings and the uses and abuses of ideologies.” “A meditationonfalsebeginningsandtheusesabusesofideologies.” 1948 2000 1977 Venice International FilmFestival New York JewishFilmFestival Best ForeignFilmNominee,AcademyAwards —Reinhild Steingröver, EastmanSchoolofMusic

—Lexikon desInternationalenFilms Das LandhinterdemRegenbogen 15 FEATURE FILMS -

Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Academic libraries: $124.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) DVD BACK CATALOG DVD BACK CATALOG FEATURE FILMS 16 17 FEATURE FILMS Were the Earth Not Round Wäre die Erde nicht rund

1981 Competition, OUR SHORT LIFE International Film Festival original title: Unser kurzes Leben GDR, 1980, 109 min., color, 16:9, English subtitles Were the Earth Not Round “This film is prescient, as this type of conflict director | script Lothar Warneke | scenario Regine Kühn | based on Brigitte Reimann’s novel Franziska Linkerhand “A feminist and internationalist film with philosophical ambitions.” will become increasingly common with increasing assistant directors Andreas Höntsch, Jan Bereska | cinematography Claus Neumann | editing Erika Lehmphul —Heinz Kersten, film critic, So viele Träume globalization.” —, director dramaturg Christa Müller | set design Alfred Hirschmeier | costumes Christiane Dorst, Herbert Henschel, GDR, 1981, dir. Iris Gusner, 87 min., color OUR SHORT LIFE Ruth Leitzmann | makeup Brigitte Welzel, Frank Zucholowsky | music Gerhard Rosenfeld sound Hans-Joachim Kreinbrink | production manager Horst Hartwig | production DEFA Studio for Feature Films Were the Earth NotWere Round Earth the cast Simone Frost, Hermann Beyer, Dietrich Körner, Gottfried Richter, Christian Steyer, Barbara Dittus, Dieter Knust, Helmut Straßburger, Annemone Haase, Uwe Kockisch, Gerd Staiger, Gert Gütschow East German geology student Christiane becomes part of an inter-

Original title: Wäre die Erde nicht rund national group studying in Moscow. Eventually she and Hatem, from $350 (3-yr) GDR, 1981, 89 min., color, aspect ratio 16:9, English subtitles Director: Iris Gusner Script: Iris Gusner, Günter Haubold Camera: Günter Haubold The fun-loving, 26-year-old architect Franziska Linkerhand works for a Dramaturg: Tamara Trampe Editor: Renate Bade Set design: Heike Bauersfeld famous professor. Yet, she feels restrained by her dependence on him Costumes: Dorit Gründel Music: Baldur Böhme Producer: Werner Langer and longs to take risks. When her marriage falls apart, she moves to a Production: DEFA Studio for Feature Films Syria, fall in love and have a child. When their studies draw to a close,

small town for a fresh start. Franziska approaches her new life with Cast: Bozenna Stryjek, Rasim Balajev, Lissy Tempelhof, Franciszek Pieczka, A Film by Iris Gusner vigor and idealism. Many of her colleagues have given in to the dictates Galina Komarova, Reso Tshikvishvili, Vladimir Putshkov, Abdykalyk Akmatov, of economic restrictions and prefabricated apartment blocks; but Ursula Werner, Dieter Montag Franziska hangs onto her ideals and, as in her private life, is Christiane arrives at a Moscow hospital to see her little daughter. While she not willing to compromise. however, they must decide where to move—and each option requires waits for the child to recuperate, she reflects on her life. Remembering her Brigitte Reimann’s bestselling semi-autobiographical novel, childhood in East Germany, she thinks about her grandfather and his obsession with building a perpetual motion machine. She also revisits her past five years

Franziska Linkerhand, became a cult hit in both East and West By Lothar Warneke as a geology student in Moscow, where she fell in love with Hatem, from Syria, Germany. Readers were fascinated with the radical, emancipated, her fellow student and father of her child—and the fact that there is no place in that one of them forego personal and professional fulfillment. This sensitive protagonist who passionately rebels against social the world they can go and be together. assumptions and contradictions. This poetic, semi-autobiographical drama by one of East Germany’s few female • New digitally restored transfer directors—who studied with at VGIK, the Russian Institute for • Biographies & Filmographies Cinematography—explores the strength and limits of will and desire. • • Lothar Warneke on His Film, 1999, 7 min. poetic, semi-autobiographical drama by one of the GDR’s few female • “Building and Dwelling in Late Socialism,” by Hunter Bivens, Univ. of California Santa Cruz

DEFA Film Library Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) • “Finding the Right Path in Our Short Life We Are Given,” Director Lothar Warneke in Academic libraries: $74.95 Conversation with Film Historian Erika Richter, 2001-2004. Written interview. Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa • “Designing Meaningful Spaces: Alfred Hirschmeier’s Scenography for Our Short Life,” by Annette Dorgerloh, Humboldt University Berlin Were the Earth © 2016 English subtitles: DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved. Licensor: directors explores the strength and limits of will and desire. • Subtitles On/Off PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1981 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. A Film by Iris Gusner DEFA Film Library Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public performance (unless permission specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is Not Round Home & public libraries: $19.95 Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst prohibited. www.umass.edu/defa

© 2015 English subtitles: Kathryn Julian and Christopher Hench, DEFA Film Library at the Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Film-Verleih GmbH DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme 1980 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. DVD Design: absolut Medien and zenon design “I think the film is wonderfully directed, with absolutely intelligent

Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor- mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and prohibited. dialogs!” —Helke Sander, director, Fantasie und Arbeit

When You’re Older, Dear Adam Wenn du gross bist, lieber Adam

GDR, 1966/90, dir. Egon Günther, 70 min., color Adam is a clever boy with an active imagination. One day, a grateful

swan gives him a magic flashlight. When it shines on someone who $350 (3-yr) is lying, the person floats up into the air! Before Günther‘s comedy was canceled during production in February 1966, officials had already censored the script. When restorers later worked on the film, they discovered that passages of dialog had been removed from the Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr)

soundtrack. Instead of hiding this aggressive form of censorship, they Academic libraries: $124.95

decided to mark these passages with inserts. Home & public libraries: $24.95 “This film was inspired by the Czechoslovakian film Až přijde kocour (When the Cat Comes), by Vojtěch Jasný. The Film Spring did not remain without influence on DEFA at the time.” —Der Spiegel SPRING TAKES TIME

“East German documentaries often portrayed leftist and liberal artists who were forced into exile by the Nazis. This topic corresponded to the GDR’s official antifascist film policies. The production of these films also depended on current propaganda demands: the life of émigrés was shown through the lens of con- temporary official politics. This explains reductions, omissions, or condensations in the artists’ portraits. The films offer, beyond their actual topic, a fascinating temporal journey into East German history.” —Ralf Schenk, Chairman, DEFA Foundation, Berlin Presented here are nine short films that feature: film director Slatan Dudow; actor Martin Brandt; authors Erich Fried, Erich Weinert, and ; photographer Walter Ballhause; cartoonist Leo Haas; and journalist Egon Erwin Kisch. Original interviews with the artists, close family members, and friends are combined with little-known historic film material. GDR, 1962 – 1989, Total 204 min., Aspect ratio: 4:3, NTSC, German with English subtitles, 2-DVD Set Acquire the entire [East] German Film Collection on DVD!

Arnold Zweig Walter Ballhause: One among Millions This unique collection of over 120 DVDs presents films made from the 1930s until the 2000s GDR, 1962, dir. Joop Huisken 19 min., b&w GDR, 1982, dir. Karlheinz Mund, 21 min., b&w Do You Know Where Herr Kisch Is? Malik GDR/CSSR, 1985, dir. Eduard Schreiber, 19 min., color GDR, 1967, dir. Giovanni Angella, 18 min., b&w/color Erich Fried: The Whole World Should Endure in a wide range of , including comedy, drama, sci-fi, , period films, literary GDR, 1988, dir. Roland Steiner, 30 min., color Leo Haas: Artist and Witness of His Time Traces GDR, 1971, dir. Jörg d’Bomba, 13 min., color GDR, 1989, dir. Eduard Schreiber, 21 min., color Slatan Dudow: A Film Essay about a EXTRAS: Marxist Artist

A film by Günther Stahnke adaptations, documentaries and . Topics include: everyday life in the GDR, • Biographies and Filmographies GDR, 1974, dir. , 29 min., b&w • “Exile: Nine Variations on a Theme,” Even Today He’d Speak His Mind by Seán Allan, Univ. of Warwick GDR, 1975, dir. Volker Koepp, 34 min., b&w • “Painting with a Lens: Artists’ Film Portraits,” written interview with Eduard Schreiber history, sexuality, art and artists, the role of women in socialist society, WWII, • “Erich Fried: Father or Brother?,” by Roland Steiner

DEFA Film Library Monologue for a Taxi Driver Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst the Holocaust, the Cold War, the fall of the Wall and German unification. (Director: Günter Stahnke www.umass.edu/defa B O N U S : Script: Günter Kunert) © 2015 English subtitles: Christopher Hench, Evan Torner; DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Film-Verleih GmbH | DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme, DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme 1962-1989 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor- mance (unless permission specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and prohibited.

Many DVDs have special features tailored for classroom use, teaching and research. All films have English subtitles and all essays, bonus films, interviews and historical For prices, documents are in English. please check To get more information or a quote for purchasing the entire collection, please email: umass.edu/defa [email protected]

$350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr)

$150 (1-yr) (1-yr) Streaming: Edu $150 (1-yr) (1-yr) Streaming: Edu

$79.95 Academic libraries: libraries: Academic $79.95 Academic libraries: libraries: Academic

$24.95 Home & public libraries: libraries: public & Home $24.95 Home & public libraries: libraries: public & Home FEATURE FILM Your UnknownBrother Wozzeck films subtitledfor our Filmmaker’s Tours and SummerFilmInstitutes—areavailable for Over 400prints(35mm, 16mm),DCPsand1,000DVDs—including newly-discovered And checkoutthe DEFA FilmLibrary’s curatedfilmseriesonourwebsite! FILMS SCI-FI For more information: [email protected] or(413)545-6681. Eastern Bloc!” —TheGuardian many beautiful,thoughtfulcosmicadventures cameoutofthe “We maythinkofKubrick’s 2001asgreatgrown-upsci-films,but “A milestone!”—TheMuseumofModernArt,NewYork German officials. Invited totheCannesFilmFestival,filmwaswithdrawnbyEast crucial butlittle-discussedjunctureinleftwingresistancetoNazism. for friendship.Thisrarepsychologicaltakeonantifascismexaminesa his resistancegroup.Afilmaboutisolation,fear, betrayalandtheneed Clasen isafraidhebeingwatchedandambivalentaboutcontacting Released fromaNazicampforpoliticalprisonersin1935,Arnold GDR, 1981,dir. UlrichWeiß, 103min.,color astonishing work!“—AustrianFilmMuseum A dialecticalMarxistexperimentinexpressionism.Anextremely story unfoldsinflashbacks,asBüchnernarrates. excoriates humanityforhavingallowedWozzeck’s fate.Thetragic Wozzeck inthenameofscientificprogress,medicalstudentBüchner While ananatomyseminarpreparestoexaminethecadaverofFranz Germany, 1947,dir. GeorgC.Klaren,101min.,b/w 18 RENT OURFILMS screenings andresearch rentals. DVD BACKCATALOG

Dein unbekannterBruder

AnimationbeforeUnification TheStoryofLittleMook TheSinging,RingingTree TheGoldenGoose TheDevil‘sThreeGoldenHairs ANIMATION FAIRY-TALE FILMS FILMS DVD BACKCATALOG with feathersofpuregold. As arewardforhiskindness,good-heartedshoemakerreceivesgoose GDR, 1964,dir. SiegfriedHartmann,65min.,color, Englishdubbed in live-action films. by elementsofsocial andpoliticalsatirethatwouldnever havebeenallowed more than800shorts. The16cartoonsonthisDVD,shot on35mm,areunified By thetimeitclosed in1990,theDEFA StudioforAnimationFilmhadproduced GDR, multipledirectors,1974-1990,57 min.,color&b/w, nodialog 13 millionviewers. Arabian Nights.Staudte’s lavishproductionandspecialeffectswereseenby Germany’s mostbelovedchildren’s filmclassicinthemagical settingofthe GDR, 1953,dir. ,96min.,color, Englishdubbed landmark ofchildren’s filmmaking andaEuropeancultfilm. haughty princessbeforethesunsets,orelsehewillbeturnedintoabear. A The princemustfindthesinging,ringingtreeinordertowinhandof GDR, 1957,dir. FrancescoStefani,70min.,color, Englishvoiceover Grimm. must gettheDevil’s threegolden hairs.AclassicfairytalebytheBrothers In ordertosavehisownlifeandmarrythebeautifulprincess,poorJacob GDR, 1977,dir. EgonSchlegel,89min.,color, Englishdubbed production ofaseriesmarvelousfairy-talefilmsforchildren.” “One ofthebest-keptsecretsColdWar wasEastGermany’s

Die goldeneGans —Jack Zipes,TheIrrestibleFairyTale: TheCulturaland

Dassingende,klingendeBäumchen

DieGeschichtevomkleinenMuck Wer reisstdenngleichvor’mTeufel aus? 19

Social HistoryoftheGenre

Home & public libraries: $24.95 EACH TITLE: Home & public libraries: $19.95 Academic libraries: $79.95 Academic libraries: $74.95 Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) $350 (3-yr) $350 (3-yr) NEW DVD RELEASES NEW DVD RELEASES DOCUMENTARIES 20 21 DOCUMENTARIES Art Unleashed: Experiments on Film by Lutz Dammbeck IN TRANSITion GDR/Germany, 1978-1988, 132 min., color & b/w, doc., experimental, media collage, 2-DVD set Germany, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 1990-91, color & b/w, doc,168 min., 2-DVD set

Edu Streaming: see p.28 Academic libraries: $129.95 Home & public libraries: $29.95 This collection of five early short films made by German director Documentary director Kurt Tetzlaff filmed a young East German and his friends from March and media artist Lutz Dammbeck introduces the formative period 1989, before the fall of the Wall to German unification on October 3, 1990. At the start of the of an artist who remains one of Germany’s boldest and most film project, his intention was simply to portray young people. But the political changes taking $350 (3-yr) innovative creators. The films testify to the artist’s attempts to place in the GDR overtook his concept. The result is a 2-part presentation of the country’s break with prevailing trends and establish new multimedia art and the thoughts and feelings of young people at the time. Critics praised concepts and exhibition practices in the GDR. They also open a this long-term observation as an important historic document of the period. These films are window onto East Germany’s experimental art scene, of which available with English subtitles for the very first time in this 2-DVD set. Dammbeck was a central member. Over time, Dammbeck’s Academic libraries: $129.95 efforts to unleash art from the limitations imposed on it by local In Transit: Report for Posterity Im Durchgang – Protokoll für das Gedächtnis Home & public libraries: $29.95 officials and East German cultural policy became exhausting; he Germany, 1990, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 86 min., color & b/w, doc.

left for West Germany in 1986. In March 1989, director Kurt Tetzlaff meets 18-year-old high EACH TITLE | Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) This DVD was curated by Seth Howes (Univ. of Missouri). school student Alexander and accompanies the young intellec- tual over the next 12 months. Born in East Germany, Alexander is a pastor‘s son. Though not a member of the FDJ, the state youth organization, he is a dedicated and clear-sighted citizen. Metamorphoses I GDR, 1978, 7 min., color & b/w, experimental, no dialog Alexander openly discusses his non-conformist views on life This mix of non-camera animation with 35mm footage was a project initially planned for the and society—including the role of truth. Full of hope, in the banned multimedia show Tangents I. The first experimental film to be shown publicly in the GDR. autumn of 1989 he joins the citizens’ movement demonstrations. He is detained by the police and later released. After the Wall Homage to La Sarraz GDR, 1981, 12 min., b/w, experimental opens on November 9, Alexander takes part in discussions Dammbeck experiments with over-painting and non-camera animation in relocating his about the future of his country. But after the first free elections Leipzig artists’ circle to La Sarraz Castle, the site of a legendary 1929 congress of European in spring 1990, his hopes have turned into resignation. The avant-garde filmmakers. documentary is interspersed with East German television news broadcasts, which present a glorified image of the GDR while, in First Leipzig Autumn Salon GDR, 1984, 22 min., b/w, doc., silent, EN Inserts reality, the country is collapsing. In fall 1984, 6 Leipzig artists—Lutz Dammbeck, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling, Günter Firit, Frieder Heinze, Günther Huniat, Olaf Wegewitz—organized a renegade exhibit in protest of In Transition: Report on a Hope Im Übergang – Protokoll einer Hoffnung GDR´s official art system. The name of the exhibit was an ironic play on Herwarth Walden´s Germany, 1991, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 82 min., color & b/w, doc. famous Berlin exhibition in 1913. The border is open and, for the first time, East and West REALFilm GDR-Germany, 1986, 48 min., b/w, documentation of media collage Germans celebrate New Year‘s Eve together. In 1990, Alexander works for the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace as an This collage, recorded in Leipzig, May 14, 1986, reflects on the medium of film. It was hailed alternative to military service. He recalls the hopes and ideas he as a unique, sensual experience in the GDR art scene. In it, Dammbeck attempts to cleanse had in the fall of 1989. The personal experiences and reflections film elements of ideology and commerce, then compose a new film from them in real time. of Alexander and his friends illuminate what becomes of those hopes in the months that follow. The Painter Came from a Foreign Land… Germany, 1988, 43 min., color & b/w, doc. Dammbeck explores his artistic arc in the GDR and FRG by interviewing 3 other GDR artists Excerpts from news reports chronologically trace the important who left for West Germany in the mid-1980s: Cornelia Schleime, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling political events that led up to German unification on October 3, and Hans Scheib. 1990: the final meeting of the Central Round Table, founded to establish democracy in the GDR; the first free elections; curren- cy reform and the transition to the West German Deutschmark; and negotiation of the Interstate Treaty. “Dammbeck’s films represent the artist’s attempts to break new conceptual and metho- dological ground in the East German cultural landscape, in particular by establishing collaborative and ‘intermedia’ exhibition concepts.” —Seth Howes, Univ. of Missouri “A long-term observation in which daily developments in political relations are excitingly mirrored.” —Margit Voss, Berliner Zeitung ”As a filmmaker, a performance artist and an organizer, Lutz Dammbeck helped define the foundations of the experimental art scene in late East Germany. This DVD compilation “This is an enticing document of a time in which hopes for the future turn into reality, offers a selection of some of the artist‘s most revealing works.” but also lose a lot of their utopian power due to social developments.” —Sara Blaylock, Univ. of Minnesota Duluth —filmdienst.de NEW DVD RELEASES JUST RELEASED ON DVD DOCUMENTARIES 22 23 DOCUMENTARIES Two documentaries by Peter Voigt, one of the best-known East German documentary Our Children Unsere Kinder filmmakers and assistant to Bertolt Brecht at the from 1954 to 1956. GDR, 1989, dir. Roland Steiner, 84 min., color & b/w, doc.

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $124.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Dusk: 1950s East Berlin Bohemia

“Through clever montage and surprising, barbed insertions, the film itself becomes an autonomous piece of art.” —Claus Löser, film historian

“An artistically outstanding documentary about individual and collective memory.” —berlin-film-katalog.de

DUSK: 1950 Dämmerung – Ostberliner Boheme der 50er Jahre DUSK: 1950S EAST BERLIN BOHEMIA

original title Dämmerung – Ostberliner Bohème der 50er Jahre Germany, 1992, 93 min., color/b&w, aspect ratio 4:3, English subtitles Germany, 1992, dir. Peter Voigt, 93 min., color & b/w, doc. director Peter Voigt assistant director Andreas Goldstein camera Christian Lehmann editor Peter Voigt sound Jürgen Abel, Holger Rogge music adviser Nino Sandow photos Ulrich Wüst

producer Herbert Kruschke production dokFilm , Brandenburger Filmbetrieb Ackermann & Lotz S EAST BERLIN BOHEMIA

cast: Barbara Brecht-Schall, Rudi Ebeling, Heinz-Dieter Knaup, Ingrid Lechner, Stefan Lisewski, Rolf Ludwig, Barbara Lübbert, Kurt Mühle, , Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, Hans Stetter, Werner Stötzer, Igael Tumarkin, Jutta Voigt, Carl Weber, Gerd Zeuchner, Ulrich Wüst

Berlin in the 1950s: divided, but not yet walled. Young artists, at the $350 (3-yr) start of their careers and seeking a new lifestyle, frequented the East

Berlin in the 1950s: divided, but not yet walled. Young artists, at the start of their careers and seeking a new Berlin cafés and bars that were meeting places for intellectuals, as lifestyle, frequented the East Berlin cafés and bars that were meeting places for intellectuals, as well as Cold War secret service agents and black marketeers.

Former East Berlin bohemians gather at Ganymed, the legendary restaurant near Bertolt Brecht’s Berliner A DOCUMENTARY BY PETER VOIGT Ensemble. In the early 1990s, soon after the fall of the Wall, they recall the atmosphere of their city in the DUSK: 1950s… which changed so abruptly when the Wall went up in 1961. They relate defining encounters with well as Cold War secret service agents and black marketeers. key players of the East Berlin art scene, especially theater reformer Bertolt Brecht. Director Peter Voigt— A DOCUMENTARY BY PETER VOIGT Brecht’s youngest assistant and himself part of the 1950s art scene—uses interviews, archival materials and atmospheric images of the period in this multi-layered film essay. 1950s East Berlin • New digitally restored transfer “ Spaces between Beginning and End,” by film historian • Biographies & Filmographies Claus Löser

• People Who Appear in the Film “Bohemia and Socialism,” by journalist Jutta Voigt Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) • The Favorite (Germany, 2005, dir. Alexandra Czok, 45’) “Brecht’s Berlin Revisited,” by theater director Carl Weber Former East Berlin bohemians—actors, visual artists, fashion

Bohemia Academic libraries: $124.95 DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst umass.edu/defa Bonus: THE FAVORITE (Germany, 2005, dir. Alexandra Czok) © 2018 English subtitles: DEFA Film Library at UMass. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. 1992 © model—gather at Ganymed, the legendary restaurant near the Berliner DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. Home & public libraries: $24.95 Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public perfor- mance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. Ensemble. Soon after the fall of the Wall, in the early 1990s, they recall the atmosphere of their city in the 1950s. In addition to interviews, the director uses archi- val materials and images in this multi-layered, atmospheric film essay.

“An artistically outstanding documentary about individual and collective memory.” —berlin-film-katalog.de

Theater Work: The Berliner Ensemble at 25 Theaterarbeit This film focuses on marginal youth cultures in late-1980s East Germany—groups such

THEATER WORK THEATER WORK original title Theaterarbeit | GDR, 1975, 63 min., b&w, doc., aspect ratio 4:3, English subtitles GDR, 1975, dir. Peter Voigt, 63 min., b/w, doc. as goths, skinheads, anti-skins, punks and neo-Nazis. From an official perspective, these director | script Peter Voigt camera Winfried Goldner editor Ilse Radtke music Paul Dessau, Hanns Eisler, Hans-Dieter Hosalla, Kurt Weill sound Manfred Berger set design sketches Karl von Appen, , photos Ruth Berlau, Arno Fischer, Hainer Hill, Vera Tenschert, Percy Pauschka groups did not exist, as the topic of such youth subcultures was taboo. producer Mathias Remmert production Studio H&S, Berlin From May to October 1974, Peter Voigt filmed at the Berliner Ensemble (BE) during From May to October 1974, Peter Voigt filmed at the Berliner Ensemble the 25th anniversary of the theater’s founding. Voigt, a member of the BE himself in the 1950s, interviewed theater technicians who had been part of the world-famous ensemble for decades. Sharing experiences, memories and impressions from their particular point of view, they paint an intriguing picture of the theater’s history. (BE) during the 25th anniversary of the theater’s founding. Voigt, a $350 (3-yr) Over the course of four years, director Roland Steiner investigated young people who fell This documentary, originally shot on 16mm film, includes rarely-shown photographs, set design sketches and historic sound recordings, as well as clips from BE rehearsals and productions of Cement, Coriolanus, , The Mother, Señora Carrar‘s Rifles and . member of the BE himself in the 1950s, interviewed theater

through the cracks of GDR society and tried to understand what drew them to such groups. A DOCUMENTARY BY PETER VOIGT technicians who had been part of the world-famous ensemble for Building on interviews with the young people themselves, as well as with concerned decades. Sharing experiences, memories and impressions from their parents and well-known authors Christa Wolf and Stefan Heym, this documentary addres- • New digitally restored transfers of all films • Director Biographies & Filmographies • “Brecht, DEFA and the Moving Image“ by Seán Allan, Univ. of St. Andrews • Brecht Dialog 1968 (DDR-Magazin 1968/40, GDR, 1968, dir. Karlheinz Mund, 11 min., b&w, doc.) point of view, they paint an intriguing picture of the theater’s history. • The Plum Trees Have Surely Been Cut Down (Die Pflaumenbäume sind wohl abgehauen, GDR, 1978,

ses the attempts of young East Germans to come to terms with their country, history and dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 11 min., b&w, doc.) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) • And Yet It Moves (…und sie bewegt sich doch, GDR, 1978, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 32 min., b&w, doc.) Academic libraries: $124.95 DEFA Film Library Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst society and explores why they rebel against socialist norms. umass.edu/defa © 2018 English subtitles for main film: DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved. © 2018 English subtitles for bonus films: DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst. All rights reserved. Licensor: PROGRESS Filmverleih GmbH. Studio H&S 1975 This documentary, originally shot on 16mm film, includes rarely- Home & public libraries: $24.95 © DEFA-Stiftung. All rights reserved Warning: This digital recording is licensed for home and educational use only. Any copying, reproduction, or public performance (unless permission is specifically granted by the DEFA Film Library) is a violation of copyright law and is prohibited. While this important historic document about GDR youth can contribute to the discussion of shown photographs, set design sketches and historic sound recor- neo- in Germany, it does not provide an explanation for rightwing radicalism today, dings, as well as clips from BE rehearsals and productions of Cement, Coriolanus, In the as it emerged from a very specific, past political and social context. Jungle of Cities, The Mother, Señora Carrar‘s Rifles and The Threepenny Opera.

“This film makes a plea for listening better, for seeking to understand, for discussing BONUS FILMS: In addition to Theater Work, this DVD—presented by the International things openly before it’s too late.” —Roland Steiner, Our Children Brecht Society—includes three new digitally-restored bonus films on Bertolt Brecht: Brecht Dialog 1968 DDR-Magazin 1968/40 “An empathetic documentation of skinheads in the GDR. A quiet, detailed plea to also GDR, 1968, dir. Karlheinz Mund, 11 min., b/w, doc. listen to people who turn their backs on society. The director—who gave voice to young people who, according to East German ideology, did not exist—called the film Our The Plum Trees Have Surely Been Cut Down Die Pflaumenbäume sind wohl abgehauen Children. The explosive force contained in this would itself have been enough to bring GDR, 1978, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 11 min., b/w, doc. down the Wall.” —Frankfurter Rundschau And Yet It Moves …und sie bewegt sich doch GDR, 1978, dir. Kurt Tetzlaff, 32 min., b/w, doc. 2011 goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, Wiesbaden, Germany 2008 One World Film Festival, Berlin 1989 Silver Dove, Leipzig International Film Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, East Germany For regular updates on events and news, don’t forget to “Like” the DEFA Film Library on Facebook! DVD BACK CATALOG DVD BACK CATALOG DOCUMENTARIES 24 25 DOCUMENTARIES ART | WORK – Six Shorts

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $79.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 GDR, 1961-1984, dir. Jürgen Böttcher, 143 min., color & b/w Throughout his creative life, artist and filmmaker Jürgen Böttcher explored the theme of art and artists. This DVD presents six of his filmic milestones on this topic: Short Visit with Hermann Glöckner (1984, 32 min.); Shunters (1984, 22 min.); Transformation Trilogy: Potter’s Bull, Venus after Giorgione, Woman at the Clavichord (1981, 17 min. / 22 min. / 17 min.); and Three of Many (1961, 33 min.).

“Böttcher’s films could be the foundation of a counter-genre.” —Harun Farocki, filmmaker ARTS in EXILE

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $84.95 Home & public libraries: $29.95 GDR, 1962-89, 204 min., color & b/w, doc., 2-DVD set Dirs. Giovanni Angella, Jörg de’Bomba, Joop Huisken, Volker Koepp, Karlheinz Mund, Eduard Schreiber, Roland Steiner Nine short documentaries address the situation of artists under the Nazis and the decision of some artists to go into exile. This DEFA Foundation selection features films on: film director Slatan Dudow; actor Martin Brandt; authors Erich Fried, Erich Weinert, and Arnold Zweig; photographer Walter Ballhause; cartoonist Leo Haas; and journalist Egon Erwin Kisch. La Villette

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $79.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 GDR, 1990, dir. Gerd Kroske, 53 min., color, doc. Only two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, two hundred con- troversial East German visual and performance artists, including the Autoperforation Artists, Via Lewandowsky, Trak Wendisch and Jürgen Böttcher, presented works rarely seen before at a unique, three-day exhibition—The Other Germany Outside the Walls—at La Villette in . Includes extensive bonus materials about the event. “The ‘Wild Youth’ from the East transformed the Paris slaughterhouse into a space of subversive counter-culture.” —babylon cinema, Berlin Last to Know Jeder schweigt von etwas anderem Order your copy now!

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) Academic libraries: $79.95 Home & public libraries: $24.95 Germany, dirs. Marc Bauder & Dörte Franke, 2006, 72 min., color, doc. Mehr Kunst als Werbung: Das DDR-Filmplakat 1945–1990 [More Art than Advertising: The East German Film Poster, 1945-1990] This intense and very moving documentary features four (of approxi- Berlin: Betz+Fischer Verlag, 2017. (bertz-fisher.de) mately 250,000) former political prisoners in the GDR. Nearly twenty This densely illustrated book by Detlef Helmbold is the first comprehensive work on film years after the fall of the Wall, it is still difficult to answer their child- posters and poster design in the (1945-49) and East Germany ren’s and friends’ questions. Conversations with people in search of (1949-90). In this period, over four hundred freelance and permanently employed how to come to terms with a painful, very personal past. graphic designers created about 6,400 posters. Written in German, three essays by Helmbold anchor the collection in its historical, graphic, artistic and sociopolitical contexts. Including photos of all 6,400 posters, the volume is both a useful reference “The documentary counterpart to The Lives of Others.” and an introduction to East German graphic art and cinema. —Hamburger Morgenpost “A standard reference book and an aesthetic pleasure.” —Frank Arnold, epd Film

$350 (3-yr)

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EACH TITLE EACH : WEST GERMANYSEENTHROUGHANEASTGERMANLENS What Would HappenIf...?Was wäre,wenn…? The CondemnedVillageDasverurteilteDorf Brothers andSistersBrüderundSchwestern DVD, pleasevisitourwebsite. as well.Forupdatesandforacompletelistofstreamingtitles,includingthosealsoon All newreleasesareinHDandweworkingonreplacingoldertitleswithversions the Kanopyplatform. lable throughKanopy. Additionally, thefilmsonfollowingpagesareonlyavailable With fewexceptions,allthefilmsandbonusthatwe’vereleasedonDVDareavai New ZealandandAustralia. that havesignedupwithKanopyandarelocatedintheUSA,Canada,UnitedKingdom, service. Currently, ourfilmscanbestreamedbyuniversities,collegesandpubliclibraries Since 2014,theDEFA FilmLibraryhasbeenworkingwithKanopyeducationalstreaming and dialog. land swap withWest Germany. Acomedywith captivatingvignettes and somevillagers thinktherewillbeare-parcelingof properties and show aninterestin therundownmanorhouse.Gossipspreads quickly, of asudden,mysterious meninafancycarappearthe villageand East Germanvillage ofWillshagen,ontheGerman-German border. All In thelate1950s,collectivization of agricultureisinfullswingthe GDR, 1960,dir. GerhardKlingenberg, 90 min.,b/w The villagersareexpectedtomoveout… on village land, in preparationfor a confrontationwith the SovietUnion. clouded bynewsthatUSoccupationforcesintendtobuildanairfield village ofBärenweilerinWest Germany. Hisjoyatreturninghomeis After yearsinSovietcaptivity, farmerHeinzWeimann returnstothe GDR, 1952,dir. MartinHellberg,106min.,b/w conflict inthe West, withimagesofaflourishingEastGermanstate. pagandistic documentary, hejuxtaposesimagesofclasshierarchyand the lifeof“brothersandsisters”inEastWest Germany. Inthispro footage fromWest GermannewsreelsandTVprograms,compares Heynowski digsintothisubiquitousWest Germanexpression,using act againstourbrothersandsistersintheZone.”DirectorWalter lor Konrad Adenauer commented that this was “an infamous and brutal A fewdaysaftertheGDRbuiltBerlinWall, West GermanChancel GDR, 1963,dir. Walter Heynowski,40min.,b/w, doc. 2016LocarnoFilmFestival,Switzerland 26 STREAMING –NEW - - -

SeedCornShouldNot BeGround Ernst Barlach:MysticofModernity BattleonCanvas Kanopy. The followingtitlesfromtheInstitutewererecentlyaddedtoourstreamingcollectionon East GermanArt,MusicandFilm,whichwasaccompaniedbyanextensivefilmseries. In 2018,theDEFA FilmLibraryhostedaNEHSummerInstitutonCultureintheColdWar: FILMS FROMOUR2018NEHSUMMERINSTITUTE Käthe Kollwitz:AConversationwithHildegard Bachert Fritz Cremer, CreatoroftheBuchenwaldMemorial STREAMING –NEW and War The Weavers’ Revolt , ThePeasantWar, Woman withDead Child(1903) photographs, images ofhersculpturesandgraphicworks—including This filmpresents Käthe Kollwitzaspoliticalartist. Historic film footage, GDR, 1967,dir. KurtTetzlaff, 20min., b/w, doc. life andpassion.Thefilmisbasedon interviewsconductedinfall2015. of theGalerieSt.EtienneinNewYork City, talksabout Kollwitz’s works, Hildegard Bachert,distinguishedKätheKollwitzexpertandco-director USA, 2016,dir. HollyFisher, 19min.,color&b/w, doc. accompanied byatextBertoltBrecht. including hissculpturesfortheBuchenwaldMemorial.Theimagesare (1906-93) showstheartistinhisstudioandsomeofartworks, This portraitof(East)GermansculptorandgraphicartistFritzCremer GDR, 1957,dir. HugoHermann,17min,b/w, doc. Barlach’s sculptures. Critics praisedthedirector’s exceptionaluseoflightandcolorinfilming illustrated byimagesofhisdrawings,paintingsandsculptures. overview, 1938) weavestogetherexcerptsfromhiswritingsintoabiographical This filmonthelifeofGermanExpressionistartistErnstBarlach(1870- Germany, 2006,dir. BerndBoehm,26min.,color&b/w, doc. of themonumentalworkpaintedinRenaissancestyle. Museum inBadFrankenhausen.Thisshortfollowstheten-yearcreation completed In 1987,Werner Tübke, oneofEastGermany’s mostsuccessfulpainters, GDR, 1988,dir. Ted Tetzke, 21min.,color, doc. —are combinedwith passagesfromherdiary. for the Panorama The EarlyBourgeoisRevolutioninGermanyforthePanorama 27

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EACH TITLE EACH : Documentaries THE LUTZDAMMBECKCOLLECTION The MasterGameDasMeisterspiel The NetDasNetz-Unabomber, LSD&Internet Overgames blends filmandartinboldunexpectedways. discover oneofGermany’s mostinnovativecontemporaryartists,whosework documentary films—madefrom1975to2015.Itoffersviewerstheopportunity includes 18films—documentedmediacollage,animations,experimentaland German filmmakerandmediaartistLutzDammbeck.TheDammbeckCollection The DEFA FilmLibraryisverypleasedtopresentthecompletecinematicoeuvreof Germany, 1998,dir. LutzDammbeck,106min.,doc.,color Kaczynski, theUnabomber, withinterviewsleadingeyewitnesses. inweaves excerptsfromcorrespondencebetweenthedirectorandTed people’s mindsandpotentiallyreplacedrealitywithvirtualrealities.It trends andmoderntechnologyinfluencedsocialrelationships,affected society? Thisprovocativedocumentaryexploreshowpost-WWII the unlimiteddevelopmentofinformationtechnologymeanforhuman With thedevelopmentofinternet,questionarises:Whatdoes Germany, 2003, dir. LutzDammbeck,121min.,color&b/w, doc. reeducation programinWest Germany. theories thatalsounderpinnedtheAmericandenazificationand ly disturbed,Dammbeckuncoversthemid-20thcenturyUSpsychiatric In exploringhow(West) Germanscouldhavebeenconsideredmental his show, heanswered:“Anation!Acrazy, mentallydisturbednation!” use inpsychiatrictherapy. Whenaskedhowmanypatientswatched called BeattheClock,whichwasbuiltaroundgamesdevelopedfor he basedhisshow, Nurnichtnervöswerden,onanAmericanshow West GermanTVgame-showhostJoachimFuchsbergeradmitsthat Germany, 2015,dir. LutzDammbeck,164min.,color&b/w, doc. Army, which seesthecountry’s “German identity”threatened. time, isshakenbyaseries ofbombingsby theBavarianLiberation in general—ofbeing complicitwith“destructivemodernism.” Atthesame year later, anunsigned lettersurfacesaccusingRainer—and modernart Academy. Speculationragesover whopaintedovertheoverpainter. A paintings. In1994,black paintisspreadon27ofhispieces atVienna’s Art in particular, forover-painting photographsandhisown andotherartists’ Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer was world-famous for his abstract art and, Austrian painterArnulfRainerwasworld-famous forhisabstractartand, 28 STREAMING –NEW -

Dürer’s HeirsDürersErben 1. Leipziger Herbstsalon FirstLeipzigAutumn Salon1.LeipzigerHerbstsalon The PainterCameFromaForeignLand… Time oftheGods ZeitderGötter. DerBildhauerArnoBreker STREAMING –NEW Plenert, of the artists setting up the exhibit the day before its opening. Plenert, of theartistssettingup theexhibitday beforeitsopening. showsoriginalfootage, shotbycinematographer Thomas both circumvented and challengedtheauthorityofcultural officials.This East Germanartsystem. Lastingalmostamonth,theprivate exhibition Salon asaprotestagainst officialartexhibitionsandfailedreforms tothe secretly organizedthesensationalexhibition theFirstLeipzigAutumn Grimmling, GünterFirit,FriederHeinze, GüntherHuniat,OlafWegewitz— In fall1984,sixyoungLeipzigartists— Lutz Dammbeck,Hans-Hendrik GDR, 1984,dir. LutzDammbeck,22min., b&w, doc., silent,ENInserts how dotheydealwiththewesternartmarket? positions andstrategies?Whatistheimpetusbehindtheirartnow?And Grimmling andHansScheib.Whathasbecomeoftheirformerartistic East toWest Germanyinthemid-1980s:CorneliaSchleime,Hans-Hendrik the process,heinterviewsotherEastGermanartistswhoemigratedfrom his decisionandsortingoutpastpresentidentityasanartist.In from theGDRtoHamburg,West Germany. Two yearslater, heisexploring In 1986,aftermuchofficialinterferenceinhiswork,Dammbeckmoved Germany, 1988, dir. LutzDammbeck,43min.,color/b&w, doc. Der MalerkamausfremdemLand… the formerdecathleteGustavStührk. Ernst Jünger, West GermanartcollectorPeterLudwigandBreker’s model, contemporaries andfriends,includingauthorsRogerPeyrefitte In seekingananswer, thedirectormeetswithseveralofBreker’s by theNazis—becomeAdolfHitler’s preferredsculptorandprotégé? inthe1920sandwhoseworkwasfirstconsidered“degenerateart” Paris in artists a highlytalentedsculptor—whohadmetFrenchavant-garde the lifeandworkofGermansculptorArnoBreker(1900-91).Howcould While workingonhisHerculesConcept,Dammbeckbecamefascinatedby Germany, 1992,dir. LutzDammbeck,92min.,color, doc. Socialist RealismintheGDR. so-called LeipzigSchool,which,crucially, evolvedduringthereignof the developmentofanewstyleGermanrealismassociatedwith East Germany’s LeipzigAcademy forGraphicandBookDesign,explores Director LutzDammbeck,himselfanalumnusof history. art German East This documentarypaintsaninsightful,oftencriticalpictureofearly called “Dürer’s redheirs”byWest Germanjournalistsinthe1970s? School paintersWerner Tübke andBernhardHeisig,whohadbeen After theWall camedownin1989,whathappenedtomajorLeipzig Germany, 1996,dir. LutzDammbeck,59min.,color&b/w, doc. 29

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31 Animation Films Animation Bratislava Film Festival, Slovakia and Animation Film, Germany Leipzig International Festival for Documentary Festival, USA Film Chicago International Children’s

1995 1993 1993 GDR-Germany, 1984-1993, dir. Lutz Dammbeck, 45 min., color Lutz Dammbeck, dir. 1984-1993, GDR-Germany, are knight, but circumstances wants to become a good Duke Ernest castle to claim the Duke’s The Emperor—who wants not in his favor. and accused of murder mother—has Ernest wrongfully and marry his a Critics called the film on a 1284 medieval legend. jailed… Based masterpiece. Kanopy playlis Dammbeck, 75 min., color, Lutz GDR, 1975-1986, dir. worked as a freelance artist for the Starting in 1975, Lutz Dammbeck he left the GDR Studios. By 1986, when DEFA state-owned East German These for DEFA. he had directed a total of six shorts Germany, for West films differed in style and content from the groundbreaking animation at the time, they studios’ other animation productions; controversial are now part of international animation history.

STREAMING – NEW STREAMING COLLECTION LUTZ DAMMBECK THE al among officials, and set unprecedented standards in GDR animation. al among officials, and set unprecedented standards of Ulm Der Schneider von Ulm, GDR, 1979, 15 min., color The Tailor idea of flying, which Dammbeck uses This film is based on apoem by Bertolt Brecht. The the first example of the director’s It’s here for the first time, reappears in his next films. experimental and surrealistic style of animation. no dialog Live! Lebe!, GDR, 1978, 11 min., color, to old age. The magical dreams of his This short film traces the story of a man from birth material His striving for takes over. but daily routine quickly youth sometimes appear, wealth leads him to betray his youthful ideals. no dialog The Moon Der Mond, GDR, 1975, 6 min., color, A dragon drags it into a cave and the sky. The moon swirls happily around until it falls out of friends come up with But the moon’s forces it to give him light, while he eats all the cakes. a plan. Herzog Ernst Duke Ernest MAINSTREAM: AGAINST THE Animated Works Lutz Dammbeck‘s no dialog The Flood Die Flut , GDR, 1986, 10 min., color, to build a boat. While one is mindful of When a storm gathers, two men on an island decide his time on decorative details. the coming danger and urges speed, the other wastes The Discovery Die Entdeckung, GDR, 1982, 18 min., color an adventure! She flies to the place of A bumblebee is tired of her daily routine and needs saw it as a Older viewers, however, her dreams. This cartoon was a hit in GDR cinemas. or even their country. metaphor for their longing to escape their daily life Einmart Einmart , GDR, 1981, 15 min., color Einmart was both controversi Tarkowsky, With its rich visual world inspired by Buñuel and - - Media Collages & Experimental Films Experimental Collages & Media STREAMING – NEW STREAMING 30 GDR, 1978, 7 min., dir. Lutz Dammbeck, color & b/w GDR, 1978, 7 min., dir. non-camera Dammbeck had planned a film that would combine I. Tangents animation with 35mm footage for the multimedia exhibition continued working Although the exhibition was banned, Dammbeck on the film. Metamorphoses I—the first experimental film ever to be beginning of shown publicly in East Germany—marks the filmic long-term art project the Hercules Concept. The film is Dammbeck’s models—of indepen one of the very first examples—and thus without dent filmmaking in the GDR. GDR, 1981, 12 min., dir. Lutz Dammbeck, b/w GDR, 1981, 12 min., dir. Dammbeck animation, non-camera Experimenting with and over-painting Palace. There, relocates his Leipzig-based artists’ circle to La Sarraz avant-garde a legendary congress was held by leading European cinema as a forum filmmakers who wished to create an independent tastes of the masses for discussing issues such as elitist thinking, the film history is and the gaps between art and life. Not only avant-garde and sounds from the at stake in this film, however; so too are images Nazi past. GDR-Germany, 1983-1990, dir. Lutz Dammbeck, 45 min., color & b/w Lutz Dammbeck, 45 min., 1983-1990, dir. GDR-Germany, in part inspired by a text by Heiner Müller, In this multi-layered film, the concept of Hercules. His experiments Dammbeck started exploring film clips, overpainting, photography, with different media—including evident in this film, in which collage, painting and movement—are inspired by the classical figure. he examines a series of questions hero? Is there a new Hercules today? How Who was the legendary are the virtues of are heroes created in a totalitarian society? What heroes? GDR-Germany, 1986, dir. Lutz Dammbeck, 43 min., b/w Lutz Dammbeck, 43 dir. 1986, GDR-Germany, performances by pantomime collage, which includes This multimedia others, is a reflection Fine Kwiatkowski, among artist and dancer sound, light and movement. of film and its elements: on the medium of ideology and com cleanse these elements goal is to Dammbeck’s merce and compose a new film out of them. Recorded in Leipzig on merce and compose a new long-term art collage—part of Dammbeck’s May 14, 1986, this media and —was hailed as a groundbreaking project, the Hercules Concept in the GDR art scene. extraordinary sensual experience Metamorphoses I Metamorphosen I Homage to La Sarraz Hommage à La Sarraz Herakles Höhle The Cave of Hercules REALFilm COLLECTION LUTZ DAMMBECK THE

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EACH TITLE EACH : - FEATURE FILMS FEATURE

Minna von Barnhelm oder das Soldatenglück Minna von Barnhelm

33 Für die Liebe noch zu mager?

STREAMING STREAMING Lied der Matrosen

Unser täglich Brot

Wolz – Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten – Leben und Verklärung Wolz Günter Reisch, 110 min., color GDR, 1973, dir. hatred of capitalist returns from WWI with a deep Soldier Ignaz Wolz but tries to war profiteers. He decides to start his own revolution, based on the stay away from the organized class struggle. A comedy autobiography of the radical communist Max Hoelz. GDR, 1973, dir. Bernhard Stephan, 86 min., color GDR, 1973, dir. appreciates the work of 18-year-old everyone At the textile company, including Lutz, Susanne, but nobody really considers her a woman, a change, but…. with whom she is in love. She sets about to make GDR features popular This humorous, poetic film about daily life in the 1970s rock music by the Klaus Renft Combo. GDR, 1952, dir. Martin Hellberg, 103 min., color Martin Hellberg, 103 min., GDR, 1952, dir. has become engaged to Minna von Barn Prussian Major von Tellheim 97 min., b/w Slatan Dudow, GDR, 1949, dir. family lives in occupied Berlin after WWII The petit-bourgeois Weber an unemployed cashier, meet. The father, and struggles to make ends different ways: while Ernst participates in the sees his sons going very some fast Harry tries to make society, construction of a new socialist With a film score by Hanns Eisler. money illegally. min., b/w GDR, 1958, dirs. Kurt Maetzig, Günter Reisch, 118 fueling rebellionsNews of the Russian Revolution has swept the world, are sentenced toin Germany on land and sea. Sailors Lobke and Kasten member of the firingdeath for their political agitation; when Steigert, a A heroic epicsquad, cannot bring himself to shoot them, he is arrested. after WWI. detailing part of the German Revolution that took place Rainer Simon, 104 min., color GDR, 1974, dir. the popular Eulenspiegel, Although the powers that be try to silence Till social jester holds a mirror up to his environment and exposes the consequences. The film, based on a without fearing grievances, portrait of the is a jovial, subversive script by Christa and Gerhard Wolf, War. folk hero that depicts the period of the German Peasants‘ GDR, 1971, dir. Günter Reisch, 125 min., color Reisch, 125 Günter dir. GDR, 1971, WWI from prison. Although is released October 1918: to their sends its last reserves the German Kaiserreich is almost over, of mood, and the uprising working class is in a rebellious deaths. The Liebknecht. Part two of a call for revolution led by sailors sets off Kiel’s (Part one on p.32) about Karl Liebknecht. a two-part biopic the King deprives War, After the Seven Years’ helm, a Saxon noblewoman. he becomes impoverished. Ashamed, hethe Major of his honor and but Minna has a plan for how to set thingsbreaks off his relationship; on the drama by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. straight. The story based Minna von Barnhelm, or the Soldier’s Fortune Soldier’s Barnhelm, or the Minna von Too Young for Love? Young Too Anarchist – Life and Illusion of a German Wolz Our Daily Bread The Sailors Song Eulenspiegel Till Trotz alledem! Trotz of Everything! In Spite

- - STREAMING STREAMING Die Buntkarierten 32 Blutsbrüder

Germany, 1949, dir. Kurt Maetzig, 98 min., b/w Kurt Maetzig, 1949, dir. Germany, family built around The moving episodic saga of a working-class Berlin spans three the life of Guste, a young maid born in 1884. The story Wilhelmine the from generations and almost 70 years of German history, film to be entered at the period until after WWII. It was the first DEFA Cannes International Film Festival. GDR, 1968, dir. Egon Günther, 107 min., b/w Egon Günther, GDR, 1968, dir. volunteer to In August 1914, many young German men euphorically son of a militaristic state prosecutor, But in Munich, the join the army. East German become a soldier or fight this war. decides that he won’t cinematic style and prevented its wider officials criticized this film’s release after its premiere. GDR, 1970, dir. Heiner Carow, 91 min., b/w Heiner Carow, GDR, 1970, dir. After officials banned The Russians Are Coming, Heiner Carow used plot centers on a some of the footage as flashbacks in this film. The caught in a moral conflict. Set in apolitical businessman 40-year-old, Germany at the end of the 1960s, Career is an interesting film in West the director vehe its own right. A few years after its release, however, GDR, 1975, dir. Werner W. Wallroth, 99 min., color Wallroth, W. Werner GDR, 1975, dir. experiences Reed) Harmonica (Dean Sand Creek, 1864: US soldier Indians, whom he believed protected. He the massacre of Cheyenne in their fight, headed by Hard Rock (Gojko deserts and joins the Indians is based on Western This DEFA blood brother. Mitić), who becomes his historic events. tionary Social Democrat, workers’ leader and virulent antimilitarist— Democrat, workers’ leader tionary Social then on, he is considered approving war loans. From votes against Part one of a two-part and a traitor to the fatherland. anti-patriotic p.33) Liebknecht. (Part two on biopic about 96 min., color Iris Gusner, GDR, 1983, dir. decides mother, Maja, a thirty-something single In this gentle comedy, She quits her job and moves to the city, to risk it all by „bailing out.“ for a new job and new relationships. In the where she starts looking situations and life experiences. process, she faces unfamiliar party line. GDR’s mently distanced himself from its conformity to the GDR, 1965, dir. Günter Reisch, 113 min., b/w Reisch, 113 Günter dir. GDR, 1965, revolu Karl Liebknecht—the is arming itself for war. In 1914, Germany Kaskade rückwärts

Abschied

Karriere

Girls in Gingham Farewell Career Blood Brothers Bailing Out Solange Leben in mir ist Leben in Solange in Me Is Life as there As Long

FEATURE FILMS FEATURE EACH TITLE: Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) $350 (3-yr) STREAMING STREAMING DOCUMENTARY & CHILDREN‘S FILMS 34 35 ANIMATION FILM The Arctic Sea Calls Das Eismeer ruft Documentary

$350 (3-yr) Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) EACH TITLE : GDR, 1983, dir. Jörg Foth, 78 min., color In early 1934, the Soviet steamship SS Chelyuskin is exploring the Children of Golzow: Individual Portrait Arctic when it becomes icebound. The crew finally manages to escape Lebensläufe – Die Geschichte der Kinder von Golzow in einzelnen onto the ice. In a Prague neighborhood, five children hear the news on Porträts, GDR, 1980, dir. Winfried Junge, 255 min., color & b/w, doc. their homemade radio and decide to go to their rescue. As they embark From 1961 to 2007, documentary filmmaker Winfried Junge conducted

on their journey, though, they encounter problems. $350 (3-yr) a long-term documentary project, following the life of children who EACH TITLE : started school in Golzow, East Germany in August 1961. He visited the The Blue Light Das blaue Licht town at regular intervals to catch up on the children’s lives. This film—

the eighth in the series of twenty—draws on films shot 1961-80, giving Edu Streaming: $150 (1-yr) GDR, 1976, dir. Iris Gusner, 79 min., color a social panorama of growing up in the GDR. An anthology of portraits Hans served his king faithfully as a soldier, but was cheated out of his from one of the longest-running documentary projects in film history. pay. As he returns home, he meets a witch who heals his wounds. In return, she demands that he fetch the blue light from the bottom of the well; but Hans outsmarts her, keeps the glowing stone and gains the services of a little magician. Based on a Brothers Grimm fairytale. Animation Film

Rumpelstiltskin Das Zaubermännchen Copyright by Luther GDR, 1960, dir. Christoph Engel, 71 min., color GDR, 1983, dir. Lew Hohmann, 17 min., color, animation A boastful miller pretends his daughter Marie can spin straw into gold. This short film gives an entertaining introduction to the role of Martin She is locked in a room full of straw and ordered to turn it into gold by Luther (1483-1546)—a pastor, writer and lecturer at the University of the next morning. She despairs, but a little man appears and offers his Wittenberg—in the events leading to the Reformation. With sly humor, help. A classic Grimm’s fairy tale overlaid by a class analysis of work this film presents the Reformation as a media revolution. and exploitation. O

Snow White Schneewittchen GDR, 1961, dir, Gottfried Kolditz, 60 min., color Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, haughty queen who had a magic mirror. She would ask, „Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?“ And as long as the mirror answered, „You, Queen, are the fairest here,“ she was content. This Grimm’s fairy tale with a socialist slant was one of the top ten highest grossing DEFA films ever.

When Martin Was Fourteen Als Marting vierzehn war GDR, 1964, dir. Walter Beck, 83 min., b/w For a complete list of all films and playlists available on streaming, please visit Martin and his friend Kathrin find their youth ends abruptly in March 1920, when their village is drawn into the events surrounding the reac- umass.edu/defa tionary Kapp Putsch. Martin accidently stumbles upon weapons that have been stockpiled for the reactionary forces, and he and Kathrin get involved in unexpected adventures. Shown at the 1965 Cannes Youth The Founders Fund for Student Researchers (2019-21) Film Festival. Students in North America can apply for: —Stipends for DVD rentals Sign up for our e-newsletter! [email protected] —A stipend to help support a research visit to the DEFA Film Library For deadlines and more details, please email [email protected] Remember that all films we released on DVD The Founders Fund was established in honor of the retirement of the are avaialble on streaming. DEFA Film Library’s founding director, Professor Emeritus Barton Byg.