WENDE FLICKS Set

(Wende Flicks)

GDR, 1988/1992, color
In German; English subtitles
Credits:

Synopsis

This eleven-DVD set presents eight feature films and four documentaries made by East German filmmakers in the period leading up to and after the fall of the Berlin Wall – that is, the Wende period, or great turning point in contemporary German history. With extensive bonus features, these films give insight into the challenges of film production in a period of radical upheaval; please see individual film pages for more information.

 

This collection includes the following feature films:

  • The Architects (Kahane, 1990)
    A young architect struggles to effect change in East Germany
  • Herzsprung (Misselwitz, 1992)
    Three years after the Wall, unemployment and racism are rampant
  • Jana and Jan (Dziuba, 1991)
    Two teenagers in juvenile detention, where their love is taboo
  • The Land beyond the Rainbow (Kipping, 1991)
    A harsh, yet poetic critique of Stalinism
  • Latest from the Da-Da-R (Foth, 1990)
    The satire of cabaret-artists Mensching & Wenzel
  • Miraculi (Weiß, 1991)
    Avant-garde images of a universal uncertainty and shattered world
  • The Mistake (Carow, 1991)
    An East-West love story – when such love was illegal
  • Silent Country (Dresen, 1992)
    A tragicomedy set in the last months of East Germany

 

This collection includes the following documentaries:

  • Leipzig in the Fall (Kroske/Voigt, 1989)
    The Monday demonstrations of the Peaceful Revolution
  • Eastern Landscape (Schreiber, 1991)
    The East as a landscape of discarded lives (On the Leipzig in the Fall DVD)
  • The Wall (Böttcher, 1989/90)
    A poetic meditation on the Berlin Wall
  • whisper & SHOUT (Schumann, 1988)
    A look at the East German punk & glam rock scene of the 1980s

Press comments

“These films all reveal a critical edge not permitted to East German artists of prior generations, with tools acquired from a long and illustrious filmmaking tradition. The resulting range of cinematographic style and vocabulary is breathtaking.”
— Ian Birnie, Director, Film Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

“The whole series is a real revelation of an undiscovered country.”
— Peter Rainer, film critic, KCRW Radio

 

“WENDE FLICKS shows a diverse world, from a comedy … to a surreal grotesque.”
— Tina Antolini, WFCR 88.5, NPR

 

“Repressed talents exploded in these films.”
— Goethe-Institut Washington D.C.

 

“These films are beautiful as much as they are devastating, offering a never-before-seen
insight into a society at the moment of transformation. Los Angeles fell in love with WENDE FLICKS.”
— Justinian Jampol, director, The Wende Museum

 

“Films of astonishing originality and explosive energy with great beauty, poetry and wit.”
— Reinhild Steingröver, Eastman School of Music, Rochester

 

“These films are a precious time capsule of artistic values, social attitudes, fashions, places and dreams of change. […] After twenty years, it is finally time to take a serious look at the Eastern vision of 1989-90.”
— Brigitta Wagner, Indiana University, Bloomington

 

“The superb East German filmmaking left LA audiences [at the series premiere] surprised and impressed by its sophisticated and intelligent storytelling.”
— Cristina Cuevas-Wolf, Education and Public Programming Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Availability

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