Painter and graphic artist Helge Leiberg filmed real-life scenes in Dresden and subsequently employed them in his 1982 here comes the sun. Here, they are painted over with images of moving and changing simple forms and shapes in different colors or montaged with images of detailed paintings and  cut out heads and figures. The film experiment displays Leiberg’s typical color and form schemes and is layered with improvised sound and music collages.

A seagull is injured during a dangerous storm and ends up in a forest where she joins a family of woodpeckers. But she gets rejected by the older family members. A young woodpecker falls in love with her and together they leave the forest and go to the sea, where the seagulls live. There the strange woodpecker is rejected. Now they are both looking for a place where they can happily live together.

The mainly black-and-white drawings used in this short were created by painter, graphic artists and member of the Super-8 film scene, Andreas Dress (1943-2019).

The tradition of St Vitus’ Dance (Veitstanz) first appeared in the Middle Ages, when groups of adults and children had danced in public until they lost consciousness. In 1988, 13 women and men revisited the power of this ancient ritual in Erfurt, East Germany. Each of them developed their own movement combined with a noise-sound collage and danced at a place of their choice. They repeated the movement to the point of ecstasy. An experimental exploration of body and space.

Trigger warning: nudity.

Rights: ex.oriente.luc Archive and director

An entertaining trip through East German film history, this animated documentary covers the different genres and types of films made at the DEFA Feature Film Studio from 1946 to 1992.

Scenes of a big (American?) city—crowded streets, police, garbage—morph into alienated settings forefronting graffiti, Hip-Hop and Rap music. The score is music by Bobo (who worked with Rammstein in later years) and Alexander Morawitz (Electric b). Both musicians were part of the 1980s GDR Rap scene, which was considered an unwanted influence from the West and was under Stasi surveillance.

The animator uses expressive drawings in this filmic interpretation of Robert Schumann’s delightful Träumerei (Dreaming), from Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) written for piano in 1838. (Part of DEFA’s Musical Arabesques animation series.)

This puppet animation film is based on Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. A 1936 symphonic fairy tale for children, the piece tells the story of Peter and a little bird who outwit and catch the dangerous wolf and take him to a zoo.

Each character in the tale is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra, helping children learn to distinguish the sonorities of each instrument. Prokofiev’s piece was a staple of music education in East German elementary schools.

—2018 Berlin International Film Festival

An animated interpretation of Suite No. 4, composed and performed by the Bayon musical ensemble. Based in the GDR, Bayon’s works blend Khmer pentatonic music with classical, jazz and rock elements. More recently, one of the group’s songs was featured in The Lives of Others (2006). (Part of DEFA’s Musical Arabesques animation series.)  

Starting in 1975, Lutz Dammbeck worked as a freelance artist for the state-owned East German DEFA Studios. By 1986, when he left the GDR for West Germany, he had directed a total of six shorts for DEFA. These groundbreaking animation films differed in style and content from the studios’ other animation productions; controversial at the time, they are now part of international animation history. This streaming playlist includes the six DEFA animation films:

This poetic film combines animation and life-action to illustrate the song "Am Fenster" ("At the Window") by the popular rock band City.

A girl stands alone at a window, daydreaming and thinking back on her relationship with her boyfriend and the last night they spent together. These reflections enable her to go out into the world, no longer as a girl, but as a confident young woman.

 The East German band Wir was founded in 1970 by singer and keyboard player Wolfgang Ziegler and songwriter Jens Gerlach. 

This music video interprets their song "Und sie dreht sich doch" ("And Yet She's Spinning"). The lyrics describe the importance of protecting Mother Earth: "And yet she's spinning, she's still moving, and we're making sure that she'll keep on for a while."

This is the second installment in the Disco Film series to feature the Puhdys, a popular East German rock band. Their songs "Sturmvogel" ("Petrel") and "Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde" ("Journey to the Center of the Earth") are interpreted using experimental animation in the style of the Beatle's "Yellow Submarine" music video.