Summer Film Institute Organized by UMass Amherst’s DEFA Film Library Includes Public Lecture and Screenings

June 27, 2013
Contact: 
Daniel J. Fitzgibbons
Contact Phone: 
413/545-0444
AMHERST, Mass. – The DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will welcome 30 international scholars from July 7-14 to participate in its seventh biennial Summer Film Institute. This year’s institute, held on the Smith College campus and titled “DEFA & Amerika: Culture Wars, Culture Contact,” will explore East Germany’s filmic relationship to the USA during the Cold War.
 
Film screenings, workshops and readings will explore how films crossed the East/West border, carrying cultural representations and enabling personal and professional relationships as well as economic transactions.
 
Public events associated with the institute include a keynote lecture on “The Cold War and the Color Line: The GDR and Black America” by UMass Amherst professor emerita Sara Lennox on Sunday, July 7 at 4 p.m. in Graham Auditorium, Hillyer Hall, Smith College.
 
A public film series, “Amerika & the GDR,” that includes the North American premiere of several films, including the DVD premiere of the first East German spy film, For Eyes Only—Top Secret (1963). Producer and author Reggie Nadelson (The Incredible Case of Comrade Rockstar) and director Jim Finn(Interkosmos) will introduce and discuss their films during the film series.
 
Major sponsors of this year’s Summer Film Institute and public film series include the Max-Kade Foundation; the DEFA Foundation, Berlin; DAAD/German Academic Exchange Service; PROGRESS Film-Verleih and multiple UMass Amherst and Five College sponsors.
 
 
For more information, contact the DEFA Film Library: