DEFA Film Library Adding 21 New Films to Collection Available to Stream on Kanopy with UMass Library Login

_{This summer, the DEFA Film Library is adding 21 new films to Kanopy, the educational streaming platform accessible by UMass students, faculty and staff via the UMass library.}

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_{Since 2014, the DEFA Film Library has released on Kanopy almost 400 feature films, documentaries and animation films that were produced in (East) Germany between 1930-2021. Among the highlights of the latest additions to the catalog are:}

• _{Two documentaries by Annekatrin Hendel, one of the best-known contemporary German filmmakers – “Beauty & Decay” (2019), about rebellious East German photographers, and “The Brasch Family” (2018), a panorama of one of the most sensational German families;}
   
• _{The biopic “Fallada – The Last Chapter” (1988), directed by Roland Gräf, which was screened and awarded at festivals in Berlin, San Sebastian and Chicago, about German novelist Hans Fallada, whose books were recently rediscovered and published in the U.S. by Melville House and became bestsellers;}
   
• _{Two films related to German author Christa Wolf – the originally banned film “Miss Butterfly” (1965/2020) and the 1990/91 interview “Time Loops – In Conversation with Christa Wolf.”}

_{Evan Torner, associate professor of German studies and film / media studies at the University of Cincinnati, has said that the DEFA films on Kanopy are “essential for teaching and researching the Cold War in Europe,” and Juliane Camfield, director of NYU’s Deutsches Haus, describes the collection “a true cornucopia of extraordinary films, to be (re)discovered and enjoyed by anyone interested in furthering their understanding of this important part of film history and the remarkable filmmakers who shaped it.”}

_{Faculty, staff and and students who would like a quick introduction into East German film history can stream DEFA Film Library’s Essential Collection on Kanopy, a special collection that includes 25 restored classics covering five decades of East German filmmaking.}