Although avant-garde artistic forms were frowned upon by officials in the GDR, some artists and filmmakers nevertheless succeeded in creating artworks in this vein. Best known among them is director Jürgen Böttcher, who also paints under the name Strawalde. Films such as Egon Günther’s Farewell repeatedly tested the limits of what was acceptable. Filmmakers like Uli Weiss, Jörg Foth and Herwig Kipping increasingly experimented with form in East Germany’s last days and months. And artists like Cornelia Schleime and Via Lewandowsky, who have since become well known in the international art world, were experimenting with film in the GDR as well.