Prenzlauerberginale #8

The film festival has its origins in a one-off event in 2016 at the Museum Pankow on Prenzlauer Allee. After that, it took place annually in the large hall of the Babylon, and since 2022 the Filmtheater am Friedrichshain in Prenzlauer Berg has been the home of the film festival. There is always a focus on topics such as the building of the Wall or homosexuality in the GDR, but the biggest highlight in recent years has certainly been the intensive screening of films from the State Film Documentation, which was not intended for release by the GDR leadership. The Prenzlauerberginale is showing them anyway.

September 3, 2024, 6 pm and 8:30 pm Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg: Encounters between May 1 and July 1, 1990, Director: Petra Tschörtner, 75 min., 1990 Petra Tschörtner takes to Schönhauser Allee during the day and at night, is present during police operations to disturb the peace at night, in the Prater and in the Hackepeter at the Schwoof and with night owls on the left and right of the subway and asks questions about the future. In the supporting film, right-wing young people have their say and talk about their world. Guests include Hans Narva, former bassist of Herbst in Peking, and screenwriter Jochen Wisotzki.

September 10, 2024, 7.30 pm & additional date on September 11, 2024, 7.30 pm Once upon a time in East Berlin..., Director: Cathie Levy, 55 minutes, 1990 When French filmmaker Cathie Levy hears about the fall of the Wall, she moves to East Berlin and talks to the people of Prenzlauer Berg. There is Britt, the heroine of the film, who reflects on the new freedom to travel and the beginning sell-out of Prenzlauer Berg, on the farewell mood on all sides. A few years later, the short films The Evening and The Archaeologists trace the spirit of the post-reunification era in the Kommandantur and a junk store selling East German products.

September 17, 2024, 7:30 p.m. Why make a FILM about THESE PEOPLE?, directed by Thomas Heise, 36 min., 1980 In Sachen H. und acht anderer, directed by Richard Cohn-Vossen, 29 min., 1972 A friend of directing student Thomas Heise has his moped stolen in Prenzlauer Berg. Instead of going to the police, the thief and the budding filmmaker go into the "scene" themselves to track down the thieves. In In Sachen H. and eight others, a trial takes place at the Prenzlauer Berg district court against youths from Kollwitzplatz; the camera is always present until the sentencing. In the supporting film, young people talk about their living situation at the beginning of the 1980s.

September 24, 2024, 7.30 pm & additional date on September 25, 2024, 7.30 pm Poetry of the Underground - Prenzlauer Berg controversial 1976-1990, Matthias Aberle, 87 min., 2009 Prenzlauer Berg in East Berlin: transit space for the GDR art scene between East and West. From the 1970s onwards, artists emerged from the "reality that failed" into the Prenzlauer Berg backyard landscape. Among them were personalities such as Cornelia Schleime, Harald Hauswald, Sascha Anderson and the members of the punk bands Rosa Extra and Planlos. In Prenzlauer Berg, people experimented between Dadaism and punk, writing, photographing, painting, making music and filming. Until the Wall came down.

For three years now, we have been showing the films from the State Film Documentation (SFD) in the "Berlin Totale" series, which have been restored and digitized by the Federal Archives. With these films, the GDR tried to present itself without propaganda. The films were intended to show the real problems of actually existing socialism. Of course, no normal GDR citizen got to see them, they all went into the archive and were only to be shown to later generations, namely when these problems had been overcome and communism was in full bloom. The project was poorly funded, the budget was barely sufficient for long journeys, so most of the films were shot in Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg. Which is very fortunate for us, as we can draw from the full.

On September 17, we will be showing "Housing Problems", which shows these problems from the perspective of young people. The principal of the school and the section representative will also have their say. In the last week, we are showing two SFD contributions. On the one hand, there is the film "Pensioner's apartment", in which the Tuch couple are accompanied in their everyday work.