Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films

Konzert im Freien
Günther ”Baby“ Sommer, Dietmar Diesner (photo © 2001 Ö Film)
Genre History Category Documentary
Cinema Year of Production 2001
Director Jürgen Böttcher Screenplay
Jürgen Böttcher Directors of Photography
T. Plenert, L. Lenski, L. Böttcher,
G. Becher Editor Gudrun Steinbrück
Music by Günther ”Baby“ Sommer,
Dietmar Diesner Producers Frank
Löprich, Katrin Schlösser Production
Company Ö Filmproduktion, Berlin, in coproduction
with WDR, Cologne Principal
Cast Günther ”Baby“ Sommer, Dietmar
Diesner Length 88 min, 2408 m Format
Digi Beta Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.65
Original Version German Subtitled
Versions English, French Sound
Technology Dolby SR International
Festival Screenings Berlin 2001
(Forum), Visions du Réel Nyon 2001 With
backing from BKM, Mitteldeutsche
Medienförderung German Distributor
Basis-Film-Verleih GmbH, Berlin
Jürgen Böttcher, also known under his pseudonym “Strawalde”,
was born in 1931 and grew up in a small village in the Oberlausitz.
His childhood being overshadowed by the terror of the Nazi regime,
he had a great desire for social change, and joined the Communist
Party at the age of 17. He studied Painting at the Art Academy in
Dresden. However, as a result of rising ideological turbulence, which
led to his being blacklisted from the Association of Fine Arts, he
was legally prohibited to continue his work as a painter. He then
registered to study Film Direction at the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy
for Film & Television in Potsdam in 1955. It wasn’t until the 1980’s
however that his original work as a painter was finally recognized.
With more than 30 films, he has attained cult status among cineasts
and has become a moral and aesthetic authority for his East German
film colleagues at DEFA, the state-owned film studios of the former
GDR. In 1991, he was awarded the Silver Ribbon for his film work,
and is also honored with a portrait in the German Parliament. His
films include: Ofenbauer (short, 1962) – winner of the Silver Dove
Award, Jahrgang 45 (1965), Martha (1978), Die Frau am
Klavichord (short, 1981), Rangierer (short, 1984), In
Georgien (1987), Die Mauer (1990) and many more. Today,
he lives and works again as a freelance painter in Berlin-Karlshorst.
World Sales: please contact
Ö Filmproduktion Löprich & Schlösser GmbH · Frank Löprich, Katrin Schlösser
Lychener Str. 82 · D-10437 Berlin
phone +49-30-4 46 72 60 · fax +49-30-44 67 26 26
email: mail@oefilm.de
A PLACE IN BERLIN
Like a fossil, the ”Marx-Engels-Forum,“ a large, ambitious monument project from the former
German Democratic Republic (GDR), adorns a central and historical spot in the middle of Berlin.
Jürgen Böttcher’s experimental documentary incorporates his own footage from 1981–1986
about the creation of this monument into new material, shot exclusively on location at the Marx-
Engels-Forum. A vast collage with numerous levels: documentary shots of the artists involved at
the time, and above all, intense observations of today’s visitors to this square’s anachronistic
monument ensemble. Groups, families, couples, tourists from around the world often have their
pictures taken in front of the stiff, stoic figures of Marx and Engels.
Percussionist Günther ”Baby“ Sommer and saxophonist Dietmar Diesner are the musical guides
through the film, giving it structure, propelling the different kinds of material – partly brittle,
strange and even grotesque – to dance. A confrontation with history and art in Berlin’s new center.
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