Description
Book SynopsisPaints a complex portrait of East German film art and representation through examining eighteen key DEFA films following the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, East Germany's DEFA filmmakers had a brief window in which to critique GDR society on either side of the Wende, the sweeping political turn that surrounded the fall of the Berlin Wall andthe opening of the border. Building on the DEFA Film Library's retrospective Wende Flicks series and Indiana University's DEFA Project, this study examines the newly rediscovered filmic artifacts of this transitional cinema, introducing eighteen key films from 1988 to 1994 in essays by German scholars, film professionals, and cultural figures. Accompanying interviews and historical film reviews present a complex portrait of East German film art, itscommunist bloc influences, and its legacy for contemporary German film culture. The resulting anthology combines historical, autobiographical, cultural-political, and journalistic discourses to explore the tension between the hopes and frustrations these films express, the historical exigencies that overshadowed their production and reception, and the politics of their revival. Contributors: Skyler J. Arndt-Briggs, Peter Blank, Claudia Breger,Barton Byg, Knut Elstermann, Peter Kahane, Jennifer M. Kapczynski, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Thomas Krüger, Helmut Morsbach, Benjamin Robinson, Katrin Schlösser and Frank Löprich, Nicholas Sveholm, Johannes von Moltke, Brigitta B. Wagner. Brigitta B. Wagner is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Film Studies at the Freie Universität and in Time-Based Media at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.
Trade ReviewThe target audience of this book is above all English-speaking scholars of literature, culture, and film. But also from a German perspective it contains much interesting information. * HHPRINZLER.DE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Making History ReVisible Thoughts for Indiana Not a Bad Heritage: An Interview with Andreas Dresen Spectral Images in the Afterlife of GDR Cinema The Wende in Film Between Times: My Experience as a Director during the Wende "Look, People, Look!": An Interview with Eduard Schreiber The Theatricality of "Shard Films": An Interview with Jörg Foth Competing Archives: Intertextuality and Wende Narrative in the "Last Films from East Germany" The State of Being Done: Film at the End of the Second World Cinema after the GDR's Downfall: The Story of Ö-Film When Berlin-Brandenburg Met Kommerz-Keil: An Interview with Klaus Keil Performing the GDR: The Last DEFA Generation and the Tradition of Theatricality Surveillance States: Structures of Conspiracy in Wende Cinema Cleansing the System: East German Cinema Repurposed Historical Archaeology: Curating the Wende Flicks Series The DEFA Foundation, 2010: Rediscover the Past-Support the Future Activating an Archive of Inner Perspectives: Political Education with DEFA Films Vorspiel (1987) flüstern & SCHREIEN (1988) Coming Out (1989) Leipzig im Herbst (1989) and Östliche Landschaft (1991) Die Architekten (1990) Die Mauer (1990) Letztes aus der DaDaeR (1990) Der Tangospieler (1991) Verriegelte Zeit (1991) Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen (1992) Verfehlung (1992) Stilles Land (1992) Jana und Jan (1992) Herzsprung (1992) Sammelsurium-Ein ostelbischer Kulturfilm (1992) Miraculi (1992) Burning Life (1994) The Schlöndorff Controversy (2008) Selected Bibliography Notes on the Contributors and Curators Index
