GDR Bulletin Volume 24 Issue 1 Spring Article 33 1997 Reports and Announcements various authors Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/gdr This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Recommended Citation authors, various (1997) "Reports and Announcements," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 24: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/ 10.4148/gdrb.v24i0.1242 This Announcement is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in GDR Bulletin by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. authors: Reports and Announcements REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS THE DEFA FILM LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST The DEFA Film Library Project was begun in 1990 in order to encourage and support the study of the cinema of the GDR (films produced by DEFA - Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft) and films dealing with Eastern Germany since unification. Current activities of the DEFA Film Library include: •The first North American Conference on the Cinema of Eastern Germany, 2-5 October 1997. •Distribution of important DEFA films by arrangement with Progress Film-Verleih GmbH. •Publication of information on Eastern German cinema of importance to North American audiences, students and scholars. •Development of an archive and study center at the University of Massachusetts, with extensive collections of films and publications. In May 1997 the Bundesanstalt für vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben approved an agreement on the DEFA Film Library's future cooperation with the German organizations responsible for this part of the German cinematic heritage, Progress Film-Verleih GmbH and the DEFA Stiftung (expected to be established in winter 1997/98). •Acting as a gathering point for information to be shared among scholars working on the subject. •Ongoing support of coursework, graduate research and film series at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Direct inquiries to: DEFA Film Library Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Heiter Hall University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst MA 01003 USA Tel.: 413-545-6671 Fax.: 413-545-6995 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.umass.edu/defa/ Staff: Barton Byg, Director [email protected] Brenda Bethman, Assistant to the Director [email protected] Jennifer Good, Curatorial Assistant [email protected] 109 Published by New Prairie Press, 1997 1 GDR Bulletin, Vol. 24 [1997], Iss. 1, Art. 33 GDR BULLETIN EAST GERMAN AND GDR-RELATED FILMS AVAILABLE IN NORTH AMERICA Compiled by Barton Byg and Jacob Adelman Edited by Jacob Adelman The DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst keeps a file of films produced in the German Democratic Republic's DEFA studio and presently available from North American film and video distributors. Along with this list of GDR-produced titles are co-productions with West Germany and other countries. Films with East German- and German unification-related themes have also been included. The films listed here are all subtitled in English. An updated version of this information is available on the Worldwide Web at www.umass.edu/defa/titles.html. Affäre Blum (The Blum Affair), 1948 Ehe im Schatten (Marriage in the Shadows), 1947 Directed by Erich Engel Written and directed by Kurt Maetzig black & white, 110 min. Based on Hans Schweikart's Es wird schon nicht so Available on VHS from Heidelberg Haus and 16 mm schlimm black & white, 104 min. from Kino International. Available on 16 mm from the National Center for Jewish In the style of an Expressionist gangster film, the story of Film. a Jewish businessman in the Weimar Republic who is The Nazis force a Jewish actress to give up her career and framed by an Anti-Semitic prosecutor for a crime he did insist that she divorce her German husband. When he is not commit. ultimately unable to protect her, the two resort to suicide. Based on the lives of Joachim and Meta Baer Gottschalk. Der Bruch (The Break), 1988 Directed by Frank Beyer Der Fall Gleiwitz (The Gleiwitz Case), 1961 Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase Directed by Gerhard Klein Starring Götz George, Otto Sander and Rolf Hoppe Written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase and Günther Rücker color and black & white, 111 min. black & white, 70 min. Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films. Available on 16 mm from Kino International. In the lean days following the war, three men plan a On September 1, 1939, Hitler's army started World War million-dollar safe cracking heist. II when it crossed over Poland's western border. The justification given to the public was that the Polish rebels Domino, 1981/82 had allegedly raided the German "Gleiwitz" radio station. West German production An authentic reconstruction of events in a laconic, "New Written and directed by Thomas Brasch Wave" style. Starring Bernhard Wicki and Katharina Thalbach black & white, 118 min. Former East/Former West: Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films. Berlin After the Reunification, 1994 When a successful actress breaks her theater engagement Directed by Shelly Silver mid-run to play the leading role in Goethe's Stella, she color, 63 min. gains a new perspective on her life and the world around Available on VHS from Shelly Silver. her. Made up of hundreds of street interviews, Former East/Former West presents a complex view of how Ber• DrehOrt Berlin (Location Berlin), 1987 liners are redefining their beliefs, identities and alle• East/West German co-production giances. As people talk about the recent changes in their Directed by Helga Reidemeister city's borders, they raise the question now facing most color people and countries of the world: Who belongs and who Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films. does not? Through diverse interviews, a spectrum of German identities is explored and East and West Berlin are "joined" on film before the fall of the Wall. https://newprairiepress.org/gdr/vol24/iss1/33 110 DOI: 10.4148/gdrb.v24i0.1242 2 authors: Reports and Announcements REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Frühlingssinfonie (Spring Symphony), 1982/83 Kinder, Kader, Kommandeure (Strictly Propaganda), West German production; filmed at DEFA Studios 1992 Directed by Peter Schamoni Directed by Wolfgang Kissel color color, 94 min. Available on VHS from Live Entertainment and 16 mm Available on 16mm and VHS from First Run/Icarus from West Glen Films. Films. A costume/ music film on Clara and Robert Schumann. The history of the German Democratic Republic is told through East Germany's official newsreels and state Der geteilte Himmel (Divided Heaven), 1964 films. A fast moving compendium of East Germany's Directed by Konrad Wolf forty years, the film presents beaming workers and per• Cinematography by Werner Bergmann fect children who populate a world so bizarre and surreal Based on the Christa Wolf novel that one can't help but to reflect on other forms of black and white, 114 min. propaganda - including our own. Available on 16 mm from the DEFA Film Library. A "new wave"-influenced screen adaptation of Christa Lissy, 1957 Wolf's novel. The film explores the dangerous quest for a Directed by Konrad Wolf female identity against the backdrop of momentous Cinematography by Werner Bergman historical events, in this case the building of the Berlin Based on the F.C. Weiskopf novel Wall. black & white, 89 min. Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films. Die Grünsteinvariante (The Grünstein Strategy), 1984 In the tumultuous years preceding the war, Lissy seeks to West German production climb the social ladder through her marriage to the hand• Directed by Bernhard Wicki some and successful Alfred Fromeyer. But when Based on Wolfgang Kohlhaase's radio version of the Fromeyer loses his job, he becomes a Nazi officer to Ludwig Turek story maintain his high social status. Lissy has to choose color, 105 min. between her ambition and her ethics. Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films. The poignant story of personal relationships in a Germany Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers are Among about to instigate the Second World War. Us), 1946 Directed by Wolfgang Staudte Ich war neunzehn (I Was Nineteen), 1968 black & white, 91 min. Directed by Konrad Wolf Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films and 35 mm, Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase and 16 mm and video from Kino International. Konrad Wolf When Susanne Wallner returns from a woman's concen• Cinematography by Werner Bergmann tration camp, she finds her apartment occupied by the black & white, 120 min. cynical Dr. Mertens, a physician and officer in the war. Available on 16 mm from West Glen Films. Through Susanne's care, the broken man gathers new Eleven years after leaving Germany with his parents, strength and courage, until the shadow of the past catches nineteen-year-old Gregor Hecker returns in April 1945 up with him. The film evokes expressionism and film noir with a Red Army scouting group. Ashamed of the Ger• and was both DEFA's first worldwide success and the man people, Gregor realizes his country can only be first postwar German feature. changed by the innocent suvivors. Konrad Wolf's most autobiographical film. Jakob der Lügner (Jacob the Liar), 1975 Directed by Frank Beyer color, 101 min. Available on 16 mm from the National Center for Jewish Film and 35 and 16 mm from Kino International. Jacob Heim is forced to report to the police after he allegedly violates the ghetto's curfew. At the police station, he overhears a radio report of the Red Army's advance. He becomes a hero after claiming the news came from his own hidden radio. 111 Published by New Prairie Press, 1997 3 GDR Bulletin, Vol. 24 [1997], Iss. 1, Art. 33 GDR BULLETIN Nikolaikirche (Nikolai Church), 1995 Spur der Steine (Traces of the Stones), 1966 Directed by Frank Beyer Directed by Frank Beyer Based on the Erich Loest novel Starring Manfred Krug black and white, 133 min.