♦♦ Amos Vogel’s “Film as a Subversive Art” ♦♦
In a Refugee Reception Center for migrants in Eisenach, the director gets to know 21-year-old Doris S., who moved to West Germany and returned. When her mother died in 1961, Doris went live with her father. Driven by her desire to see the world, she ended up working as a hostess at the “Pa-pa-Club” at an American army training ground in Baumholder. This film interview tells the story of one person’s fate in a divided Germany.
This short film traces the story of a man from birth to old age. The magical dreams of his youth sometimes appear, but daily routine quickly takes over. His striving for material wealth leads him to betray his youthful ideals.
An idealistic teacher is shocked to discover her pupils are already cynical and opportunistic. Her colleague soon grows resentful when she uses new and challenging techniques to help her students overcome obstacles.
A close-up of Berlin coal carriers from Prenzlauer Berg. No portrayal of heroic workers or progress here. Instead, bright, deeply-felt sketches of rough men and their resolute female boss.
Compilation film, tracing the political career of Dr. Hans Globke, allegedly a former Nazi and Secretary of State in West Germany. Included in Amos Vogel’s classic book Film as a Subversive Art.
The last decade (1937-47) of the poet Hans Fallada’s life. He lives with his family in Carwitz. His craving for harmony collides with the circumstances of the times and his own inner turmoil. He writes already anything of note, drinks and takes pills. His wife Anna sees him through his times of darkest depression, tolerating his overt aggression and his affair with the house maid Anneliese. But once he begins a relationships with the manufacturer’s widow Ursula Losch, Anna finally calls for a divorce. His love for the pretty, young Ursula delivers him a new thirst for life, but only for a brief time.
Trapped in a Polish Ghetto with thousands of other Jews facing starvation or deportation to the death camps, Jacob is detained one evening at Gestapo headquarters. Eavesdropping, he overhears a radio report about a nearby Russian victory. At first he is silent, but circumstances compel him to pass on the good news of hope. In order to be believed, he feigns access to a hidden, strictly forbidden radio. Quickly he becomes a one-man bulwark against despair, a reluctant hero, but a tragic figure still-a man ultimately powerless to see or change the fate of his people.
