Gloria-Palast on Hildesheimer Str. in Hannover after the air raid on 8 and 9 October 1943
Source: Historisches Museum Hannover
A decade of extreme conditions and social unrest: cinefest and the International Film History Conference will bring into focus the cinema of World War II and the early post-war period. Film production in Europe was deeply affected by political censorship, strictly controlled propaganda, a devastated infrastructure, brutal economic conditions, and questionable social values. Looking at the entire decade without using 1945 as a dividing point allows us to observe continuities, contrasts and interconnections between productions of the early and late 1940s.
One focus point of the programme is the multi-faceted use of film for a wide variety of ideologies: propaganda aimed at adolescents (Junge Adler), morale-boosting historical films (Kolberg), melodramas for the home front (Die grosse Liebe) and Nazi newsreels, and on the opposing side, re-education films, DEFA’s early anti-fascist productions (Rat der Götter), and newsreels controlled by the Allied Forces.
Another focus point will be the film policies of the Reich in eastern and western Europe. Particularly interesting is film production in countries such as the Ukraine, France, Belgium and The Netherlands during German occupation, and how it affected post-war film-making in these countries.
A variety of films will share the spotlight, including pro-Nazi films, anti-Bolshevik films from the Axis powers, as well as British home front documentaries. Other films will cover the French Resistance movement and the film control policies of the Allied Forces.
Finally, important aspects of post-war German society will be reflected in numerous films, such as German war trauma (Liebe 47), social questions (Strassenbekanntschaft), the genocide of the Jews (Lang ist der Weg), and the returning emigrant's role in society (Der Ruf). The international perspective will be represented by films such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s debut Le Silence de la Mer and Carol Reed’s The Third Man.
Cinefest and the International Film History Conference will reflect current historical debates and add a specific cinematic perspective.
CineGraph - Hamburgisches Centrum für Filmforschung e.V.
Schillerstr. 43, 22767 Hamburg
Tel: +49-(0)40-352194 / Fax: +49-(0)40-345864
email: info(at)cinefest.de
Parts of the film programme will also be shown in Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Zurich
in Cooperation with
Narodní filmový archiv, Prague
Kinemathek Hamburg - Kommunales Kino Metropolis
Deutsches Historisches Museum / Zeughauskino, Berlin
Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna
Cinémathèque Suisse Lausanne / Filmpodium Zürich
and
Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg
with friendly support of
absolutMedien, Berlin
Arte, Straßburg
Cinecentrum, Hamburg
DEFA Stiftung, Berlin
Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Berlin
Deutsche Wochenschau GmbH, Hamburg
Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF, Frankfurt
Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein GmbH
Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung Wiesbaden
Imperial War Museum, London
MediaDesk Deutschland, Hamburg
Skoda Auto Deutschland GmbH
Stiekun LimousineServices, Hamburg
TaurusMedia, Unterföhring
Transit Film GmbH, Munich
Universität Hamburg – Institut für Neuere deutsche Literatur und Medienkultur
Media partner: FilmDienst
CineGraph – Hamburgisches Centrum für Filmforschung e.V. is funded by the Hamburg department of culture (Behörde für Kultur, Sport und Medien der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg)
cinefest is organized by:
