IT’LL BE OK: A photo exhibition by filmmaker Bernd Sahling

Sept. 5 – Oct. 31, 2024

Deutsches Haus at NYU | New York

The exhibition and film screening are co-presented by Deutsches Haus at NYU and the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst.

The exhibition It’ll Be OK with photos by filmmaker Bernd Sahling documents the unique perspective of the punk Stummel, who experienced two political systems in East and West Germany. Besides Sahling, only a few photographers, including Helga Paris, Harald Hauswald and Sven Marquardt, were invited to take pictures of the East German punk scene.

Sahling’s exhibition includes eleven exemplary photos, printed in over-sized format, which he took with his Praktica SLR camera (with 35- and 50-mm lenses) while shooting his long-term documentary It’ll Be OK (1987-90). The photos portray East Germany’s tabooed punk scene, while presenting the radical changes that took place before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Accompanying the photos are texts, written by the director that can be accessed by scanning the QR code. The texts are also available as a free illustrated booklet at the Deutsches Haus exhibition.

Deutsches Haus at NYU | October 15 | 6:00 pm | 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY 10003

Screening of It’ll Be OK (GDR/Germany, 1987-90, 78 min., documentary, EN ST)

In 1988, director Bernd Sahling released his documentary Living My Way tracing the punk Stummel’s life in East Germany from November 1987 to March 1988. It was the first film featuring the officially denied punk scene in East Germany. It’ll Be OK includes the earlier film, and additional footage shot after the fall of the Berlin Wall and until March 1990. Director Bernd Sahling and Hiltrud Schulz (DEFA Film Library) will be present to introduce and discuss the film.

The exhibition is made possible through an endowment established by Roger J. Schnetzer and the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA). Special thanks to filmmaker Bernd Sahling, Savannah Champion (translator of the texts), the Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Detlef Fiedler (exhibition design, print), and Hiltrud Schulz (DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst).

PDFs:

Booklet_IT'LL BE OK.pdf