Short films by Kurt Barthel

The name of the director Kurt Barthel (1931-2014) is closely associated with the feature film Fräulein Schmetterling (GDR 1966/G 2020), which was one of the works banned in the aftermath of the 11th plenary session of the Central Committee of the SED. He was then only able to make a children's film at the DEFA studio. Further projects failed, so he switched to the documentary film studio in 1970. He went on to shoot both observational documentaries and innovative short fiction films, which sometimes contained subversive elements. For JUGENDORCHESTER(1988), he interviewed music students from Poland and the GDR about the unifying and divisive experiences of making music together in a transnational orchestra. DER APFEL ALS SOLCHER(1979) is about apple production in the Havelland region and an exaggeratedly humorous take on the historical significance of the fruit for humanity. ZEITSPIELE(1981) is a satire about optimized time management in a company that takes a dig at the socialist planned economy.  (Mirko Wiermann)

Program:
Mensch, halt Dich fest! GDR 1979 35 mm 12 min
Jugendorchester GDR 1987 35 mm 15 min
Ein Apfel mal Millionen oder (fast) alles über den Apfel oder der Apfel als solcher GDR 1979 35 mm 12 min
Zeitspiele GDR 1980 35 mm 14 min
Traumlos? GDR 1989 35 mm 16 min
Zug um Zug GDR 1982 35 mm 11 min