Gabriele Stötzer

An animated documentary short about the central prison for women in the former GDR, based on interviews with former prisoners.

GOOD MORNING, MY BEAUTIES! The film is a vibrant group portrait of East German women from a wide variety of walks of life in the GDR. What they all have in common is that they grew up in the GDR and were shaped by it; they do not view this background as a “burden,” but rather base their self-image and identity on it. The film explores and describes the true state of women’s equality in a country that claimed to have resolved this issue once and for all—in sharp contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany. The book features the voices of female musicians, writers, LPG chairwomen, workers, painters, politicians, and scholars. They all recount the daily grind, their everyday lives, and their struggle for recognition in a repressive state that persecuted, punished, and imprisoned its opponents.

The rough, unkempt facades in Prenzlauer Berg – as if the skin had been peeled off the houses, says photographer Tina Bara. Having grown up in a prefabricated building, the young woman was drawn to East Berlin. She quickly got in conflict with the state, just like the artists Cornelia Schleime and Gabriele Stötzer, whom director Pamela Meyer-Arndt questions in her film about memories, traumas and creative genesis.

GDR August 31, 1985, Klubhaus in Coswig/Dresden - "Intermedia I - Farbraum/Klangbild"- the event was the first and, as it turned out, the last exhibition by the subculture in East Germany, in which over 40 visual artists and twice as many musicians, performers and super 8 film photographers participated. About 1,200 visitors travelled from all over the GDR to witness a six hour programme on both evenings. It remains unclear to this day how many informers working for the Stasi were among them.