Jürgen Böttcher

This color documentary tells the story of the "Mamais." In 1960, a group of workers at the Bitterfeld chemical plant set themselves the task of becoming the first "socialist brigade" in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to act in accordance with the slogan "Work, learn, and live socialist."

Some months after the fall of the Berlin wall, during the time of federal elections in Germany in 1990, Chris Marker shot this passionate documentary, reflecting the state of the place and its spirit with remarkable acuity.

Grabe's film about his friend, fellow filmmaker, and painter Jürgen Böttcher aka Strawalde.

Founded in 1954 as the “Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst”, today's “Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen” is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The documentary traces the history of the university. Graduates of the school have their say and excerpts of student films from five decades are presented.

Impressionistic East German documentary filmed mainly in the Georgian countryside in 1986-1987. The director, a painter, wanted to see if similar scenes to those found in the work of Georgian painter Niko Pirosmanishvili still existed there.

This documentary follows a group of women on a typical workday as they prepare meals for a dockyard in Rostock. The viewer never learns their names - there are no interviews. The women are presented simply as workers: cooking, cleaning, hauling, and serving dishes amid clanking pots and hot steam.

Documentary accompanies the great DEFA film director and painter Jürgen Böttcher, alias Strawalde, detail through his biographical and artistic life: from his childhood as a Nazi boy, his career and his struggles in the GDR under the SED regime, to the opening of the Wall and his international successes. He tells us very personally why he never wanted to leave the GDR and why he never wanted to break with it despite all the reprisals.

Only two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in January 1990, almost two hundred controversial East German visual and performance artists—including Jürgen Böttcher, the Autoperforation Artists, AG Geige, Via Lewandowsky, Trak Wendisch, Conny Hege, Klaus Killisch, Helga Paris and Hanns Schimansky—presented works rarely shown in the GDR at the exhibition space in the former La Villette slaughterhouses on the outskirts of Paris.

A German television format in which Günter Gaus interviewed prominent members of German society, particularly politicians. More than 200 interviews were conducted over the course of 40 years.