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DEFA Matinee 2022
Filmstill Lighters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1985/43)
Lighters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1985/43)
Angelika Andrees
Rolf Jarschel’s passion are lighters. He owns the largest collection in Europe with more than 3,000 items. A small showcase of his most memorable exhibits.
Filmstill Lighters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1985/43)

Lighters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1985/43)

Feuerzeuge (DEFA-KINOBOX 1985/43)
Angelika Andrees
DEFA Matinee 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1985
3 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Rolf Jarschel’s passion are lighters of every kind. He owns the largest collection in Europe with over 3,000 items. From Phoenician oil lamps via Döbereiner’s tinderbox to a solar-powered mini-flamethrower for everyday use, he offers glimpses of his impressive repository which is also travelling the country in a touring exhibition.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees
Script
Angelika Andrees
Cinematographer
Michael Halatsch, Jürgen Hoffmann, Wolfgang Randel
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
DEFA Matinee 2022
Filmstill Peace Posters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1983/21)
Peace Posters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1983/21)
Angelika Andrees
In 1981, the Berlin Art Academy organised the “Peace for the World” poster competition. The results are studied by people waiting at the Berlin Alexanderplatz underground station.
Filmstill Peace Posters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1983/21)

Peace Posters (DEFA-KINOBOX 1983/21)

Friedensplakate (DEFA-KINOBOX 1983/21)
Angelika Andrees
DEFA Matinee 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1983
5 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“We no longer stand before a choice between peace and war, but between peace and annihilation (Brecht 1947)”, one of the posters in the Berlin Alexanderplatz underground station reads. In autumn 1981, the Berlin Art Academy had organised a poster competition on the subject of “Peace for the World”. The camera, and along with it the viewers, become waiters and observers.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees
Script
Angelika Andrees
Cinematographer
Christian Lehmann, Harald Klix
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
DEFA Matinee 2022
Filmstill Friedrichstadtpalast
Friedrichstadtpalast
Angelika Andrees
Wolfgang E. Struck, artistic director of the Berlin Friedrichstadt-Palast, wistfully considers the imminent demolition of his house. A look behind the scenes of this renowned theatre.
Filmstill Friedrichstadtpalast

Friedrichstadtpalast

Friedrichstadtpalast
Angelika Andrees
DEFA Matinee 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1980
20 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

In 1980, Wolfgang E. Struck, artistic director of the Berlin Friedrichstadt-Palast, wistfully considers the imminent demolition of his house due to structural deficiencies. Employees rhapsodise about working at this historical stage, where international stars like Louis Armstrong and Juliette Gréco performed. Nearby, construction of the new Friedrichstadt-Palast is starting.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees
Script
Angelika Andrees
Cinematographer
Lars Barthel, Jürgen Brock
Editor
Christine Schrandt, Ingeborg Marszalek
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Stefan Edler
DEFA Matinee 2022
Filmstill Home
Home
Angelika Andrees, Petra Tschörtner
Institutionalised children talk about violence and alcohol abuse in their families – too forthright for DEFA, who stopped the film before completion. The fall of the Wall made the premiere possible.
Filmstill Home

Home

Heim
Angelika Andrees, Petra Tschörtner
DEFA Matinee 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1978
26 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Institutionalised children in Mestlin, Mecklenburg: With no off commentary to provide context, the young people talk about their worries and problems, about violence and alcohol abuse in their families – a forthrightness inacceptable to the DEFA management. When the rough cut is presented for approval, the production is stopped. The film can only be shown after the fall of the Wall.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees, Petra Tschörtner
Cinematographer
Thomas Plenert, Julia Kunert
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme
DEFA Matinee 2021
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In Transit: Report for Posterity
Kurt Tetzlaff
Between March 1989 and March 1990, Kurt Tetzlaff follows the critical Potsdam high school graduate and pastor’s son Alexander Schulz through a time of personal and political upheaval.
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In Transit: Report for Posterity

Im Durchgang – Protokoll für das Gedächtnis
Kurt Tetzlaff
DEFA Matinee 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1990
90 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

“Whoever has discovered a truth must also bear witness to it and make it known,” says the critical Potsdam high school graduate and pastor’s son Alexander Schulz at the start of the film and adds: “You must also endure the personal disadvantages.” Between March 1989 and March 1990, Kurt Tetzlaff follows the intelligent boy through a time of upheaval. At their graduation, Alexander and his class perform the play “Dictatorship of Conscience” by Mikhail Shatrov. He takes part in the demonstrations in autumn 1989 and refuses to serve in the army. Sequences from the GDR news demonstrate how far removed from the citizens the state leadership had become.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kurt Tetzlaff
Script
Kurt Tetzlaff, Hans-Dieter Rutsch
Cinematographer
Werner Bergmann, Jürgen Voigt, Achim Sommer
Editor
Monika Schäfer
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Rainer Pape, Lutz Laschet, Ernst-Dieter Falkenthal, Hartmut Haase
DEFA Matinee 2021
Media Name: db2534ef-9562-4cb0-85b3-671e7ef47ae4.jpg
In Transition: Report on a Hope
Kurt Tetzlaff
A reencounter with Alexander, Tetzlaff’s protagonist of “In Transit”. The mood of departure of the autumn of 1989 gives way to disappointment and resignation only a short time later.
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In Transition: Report on a Hope

Im Übergang – Protokoll einer Hoffnung
Kurt Tetzlaff
DEFA Matinee 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
1991
82 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Once again Kurt Tetzlaff portrays Alexander, who in 1990 works as a nurse and is active in the “Action Reconciliation”. The sense of departure of the autumn of 1989 slowly gives way to disappointments about the outcome of the People’s Chamber elections in 1990, the currency reform and the Unification Treaty. The political and social changes took place at a rapid pace that many found hard to follow. The sense of community that carried people through 1989 is fading. “Now it’s every man for himself”, Alexander states. He has no use for capitalism: “I feel just as lied to and cheated as before.” Resignation spreads.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kurt Tetzlaff
Script
Kurt Tetzlaff, Eckard Mieder
Cinematographer
Ingo Bahr, Jürgen Partzsch, Claus Mühle, Karl Faber, Hans Borrmann, Andreas Bergmann
Editor
Monika Schäfer
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Dietmar Falkenthal, Hartmut Haase, Lutz Laschet, Rainer Pape
DEFA Matinee 2022
Filmstill Jacki
Jacki
Angelika Andrees
A perky 14-year-old girl at the centre of a lively, exhausting patchwork family model. The film stays close to its protagonists but indulges in quite a few digressions.
Filmstill Jacki

Jacki

Jacki
Angelika Andrees
DEFA Matinee 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1976
30 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Andrees’ graduation project approaches the perky 14-year-old Jacki mainly through her social environment: the stressed patchwork family mother, the solitary long-distance truck driver father, the eclectic neighbourhood. The closer the film gets to its protagonists, the freer the movements of the camera become, gliding through a studio as if in a trance or flying over the nocturnal motorway as if over a UFO landing strip.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees
Script
Angelika Andrees
Cinematographer
Julia Kunert
Producer
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR
DEFA Matinee 2021
Media Name: 872cff75-47ad-462e-a47e-d58fd5563879.jpg
Jump, If You Can
Kurt Tetzlaff
In short sequences of images pointedly set to music by Louis Armstrong, we follow the pleasurable triumph of young life over the obstacles of setting out into the world.
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Jump, If You Can

Spring, wenn du kannst
Kurt Tetzlaff
DEFA Matinee 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1985
4 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

In short sequences of images pointedly set to music by Louis Armstrong, the film follows the pleasurable triumph of young life over the obstacles of setting out into the world. As short as the film is and as curious its contents, the chequered story of its working and release titles is just as interesting. In 1987, the industry magazine “Film und Fernsehen” presented it simply as “A DEFA film by”. The text printed there ends with a sentence in brackets: (And many a viewer may marvel at the courage of the little ducklings and feel encouraged themselves.)

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kurt Tetzlaff
Cinematographer
Peter Ackermann, Siegfried Gebser
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
DEFA Matinee 2022
Filmstill Unima Festival (DEFA-KINOBOX 1984/38)
Unima Festival (DEFA-KINOBOX 1984/38)
Angelika Andrees
In 1984, people from forty countries convened in Dresden for a congress of UNIMA, the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. Impressions from the world of puppetry.
Filmstill Unima Festival (DEFA-KINOBOX 1984/38)

Unima Festival (DEFA-KINOBOX 1984/38)

Unima-Festival (DEFA-KINOBOX 1984/38)
Angelika Andrees
DEFA Matinee 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1984
4 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Around 1,500 people from more than forty countries met in Dresden for the 1984 congress of UNIMA, the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. Founded in 1929, UNIMA claims to be the oldest international theatre organisation and has been promoting the global development of puppet theatre to the present day. This Kinobox item offers affectionate impressions of the high art of puppetry.

Philip Zengel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Angelika Andrees
Script
Angelika Andrees
Cinematographer
Jürgen Hoffmann
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
DEFA Matinee 2023
Filmstill Woe to the Vanquished – The Workers’ Uprising, 17 June 1953
Woe to the Vanquished – The Workers’ Uprising, 17 June 1953
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
Using original footage from western archives and newly filmed interviews with contemporary witnesses, a cinematic reconstruction of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953 was made in 1990.
Filmstill Woe to the Vanquished – The Workers’ Uprising, 17 June 1953

Woe to the Vanquished – The Workers’ Uprising, 17 June 1953

Wehe den Besiegten – Der 17. Juni 1953
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
DEFA Matinee 2023
Documentary Film
GDR
1990
87 minutes
German

“17 June 1990, East Berlin. The GDR will exist for another three months. No more time to commemorate all those who stood up in ’53, showed civil courage and were vanquished. This film is dedicated to them.” This is what we hear from offscreen as the film opens, to images of a rally for the victims of 17 June.

Right after the collapse of the GDR regime, director Andrea Ritterbusch searched the western archives for sources for a reappraisal of the East German uprising of 17 June 1953. She discovered a wealth of valuable original footage which she combined with newly shot interviews with contemporary witnesses of the revolt. In her documentary film she reconstructs the weeks before and after the countrywide unrest, sheds light on propaganda and, with the help of her interview partners, interprets the progress, cause and political contextualisation of the strikes and demonstrations over time. The SED regime was on the brink of collapse during those days and may well have been toppled without the intervention of the Soviet army. This review of an event that was already 37 years in the past when this film was made is true to reality and at the same time testifies to the excitement and reorientation of the East German population in the years of political change.

Linda Söffker

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
Script
Andrea Kuschel-Korzecka
Cinematographer
Toralf Teschner, Andreas Bergmann, Alexander Laschet, Niko Pawloff
Editor
Petra Barthel
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Horst Piel, Lutz Laschet, Andreas Walter, Rainer Pape
Score
Eckardt Enkelmann