In its "Artists in exile" program, the DEFA Foundation is presenting eight short documentaries that depicted the lives of famous artists, including the writers Erich Fried, Arnold Zweig, Egon Erwin Kisch, Erich Weinert, and less famous ones such as the photographer Walter Ballhause, the artist Leo Haas and the actor Martin Brandt. One of the key jobs of the GDR's official anti-fascist film policy was to examine the lives and views of left-wing and liberal artists who had been forced into exile by the National Socialists. The documentaries and their perspective on the lives of the exiled artists were shaped by contemporary political conditions. This explains why certain sections were shortened, compressed or left out altogether. These small pearls from the DEFA documentary film studio were directed by Volker Koepp, Roland Steiner, Karlheinz Mund and Eduard Scheiber among others. Scheiber will be our guest. (jh) (3.4.)
