"Hans-Loch-Straße": Jay Leyda in East Berlin (1964–69)

In the program “HANS-LOCH-STRASSE“: JAY LEYDA IN EAST BERLIN (1964–69),  Tobias Hering and Florian Wüst draw on documents and films to reflect on the difficult, yet productive years that Leyda spent in East Germany with his wife, dancer and choreographer Si-lan Chen. Excerpts from two DEFA features show us the area where they lived, the pre-fab Hans-Loch-Viertel housing estate (today’s Sewanviertel) in Friedrichsfelde that was still being constructed at the time. From East Germany’s Staatliche Filmdokumentation, there is footage of Leyda’s office at the SFA, while Standish Lawder’s RUNAWAY (USA 1969), in which merciless dogs chase a fox in loop, also has a place in this speculative approach to this period.

Films:
Zwischen Ankunft und Abfahrt Emile Itolo GDR 1964 Digital file 8 min.
Excerpts from: Jahrgang 45 Jürgen Böttcher GDR 1966
Excerpts from: Mein lieber Robinson Roland Gräf GDR 1970
Excerpts from productions of the Staatliche Filmdokumentation der DDR and the Deutsches Fernsehfunks/Fernsehen der DDR
Runaway Standish Lawder USA 1966 16 mm without dialogue 6 min.

The films and materials from GDR productions shown were provided by the Bundesarchiv, the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and Progress Distribution. The print of RUNAWAY comes from the Arsenal archive.