Films and Film History
To find DVDs of films about Berlin, use the Advanced Search in HOLLIS, search for Berlin (Germany) as a Subject, and limit the Resource Type to "Videos/Film." DVDs can be watched at viewing stations on Level A in Lamont, or by checking out a DVD drive for your laptop at the Lamont front desk.
Special streaming collection:
Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda
An unparalleled collection of documentaries, newsreels, and feature films produced in the Communist world, including the German Democratic Republic. Use the Advanced Search and filter by date, place, country of production, etc. (The films don't have English subtitles.)
We Understand Each Other: Documentary focusing on co-operation between Soviet and German children in a bilingual kindergarten in the German Democratic Republic.
The Eyewitness (Der Augenzeuge): Newsreel about an international youth festival held in East Berlin in 1951
Secondary Sources on Cold War German Films
Use these books to find films you'd like to watch, as well as history and criticism of them.
Take Two: Fifties Cinema in Divided Germany by
This anthology focuses on popular genres, famous stars, and dominant practices, by taking into account the complicated relationships between East vs. West German, German vs. European, and European vs. American cinemas; and by paying close attention to the economic and political conditions of film production and reception during this little-known period of German film history.
The Triumph of the Ordinary: depictions of daily life in the East German cinema, 1949-1989 by
Beginning in the late 1960s, East German films dwelled increasingly on everyday life itself, no longer seeing it merely as a stage in the development toward communism. By presenting an image of a static rather than an evolving society, filmmakers helped transform East German identity from one based on a commitment to socialist progress to one that accepted the GDR as it was.
