DEFA Film Library releases new DVD collection from East Germany
“The Wende Flicks Collection,” a new, 12-DVD set of feature films and documentaries from the former East Germany is being released Nov. 9 by the DEFA Film Library to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Wende refers to 1989, the turning point in German history that led to reunification after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
The DVD collection features works that were shown during the past year as part of the touring film series “Wende Flicks: Last Films from East Germany” in Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., New York, Montreal and San Francisco. The set includes nine feature films and four documentaries made by East German filmmakers from 1988-94. Extensive bonus features accompany the films and give an insight into the challenges of film production in a period of radical upheaval, according to Barton Byg, director of the DEFA Film Library.
“‘The Wende Flicks Collection’ features films that got lost in the midst of social change, many of which were never subtitled or screened outside of Germany,” said Byg. “The collection brings most of these films to the international public for the first time on DVD.”
According to Byg, most of the “Wende Flicks” titles were made by the last generation of East German filmmakers, many of whom had not been allowed to make their own films before.
“Their repressed talents exploded in films such as Herwig Kipping’s surreal and radical critique of Stalinism in East Germany, ‘The Land beyond the Rainbow,’ Jörg Foth’s satire, ‘Latest from the Da-Da-R’ and Helke Misselwitz’s story of love and racism, ‘Herzsprung,’” he said.
Other works in the collection include “Silent Country,” the debut film of Andreas Dresen, one of today’s best-known German directors, which looks at the Wende with a tragicomedic eye. Director Heiner Carow, who supported many young East German filmmakers in the 1980s, is represented with his East-West love story, “The Mistake.” The documentaries in the set depict a world from the punk and glam rock music scene in East Germany in the late 1980s (Dieter Schumann’s “whisper & SHOUT”), to the Leipzig demonstrations of fall 1989 and the ensuing dismantling of the Berlin Wall and a country’s way of life.
“The Wende Flicks Collection” is available from the DEFA Film Library, 545-6681, defaorder@german.umass.edu and online at www.umass.edu/defa.
November 8, 2009.
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