in production:
I DO NOT HOLD MY BREATH
Editor Rolf Bergmann RBB / Foundation Processing of the SED dictatorship / Production Medea Filmfactory GmbH Berlin / Producer Irene Höfer/ Camera Lars Barthel / Sound Nic Nagel/ Editor Andreas Zitzmann/ Music Composer Ulrike Haage / Screenplay & Director Pamela Meyer-Arndt
above copyright: Cornelia Schleime, below copyright: Tina Bara
“i WILL NOT HOLD MY BREATH” accompanies the three photographers and artists Cornelia Schleime, Gabriele Stötzer and Tina Bara. The three grew up in the GDR, in East Berlin and Erfurt. Like most women, they were looking for themselves as young women, but they were lost in a country that gave them no space. Each of the three came into violent conflict with the SED state, be it through a collection of signatures against Biermann’s expatriation, be it through subversive art that did not correspond to the official doctrines, or simply through their photos and self-portraits, which often show young women as nudes in pain and despair.
ROGER MELIS – PHOTOGRAPHER
A film by Pamela Meyer-Arndt / for the series LEBENSLÄUFE on behalf of MDR / camera Chris Trieloff / editor Vinzent Kutsche / speaker Anna Tahlbach / producer Gregor Streiber / a werwiewas media production
He photographed Wolf Biermann as Icarus, Sarah Kirsch sitting cross-legged on the exit crates, Anna Seghers as a doubting woman. He did not show the models for the GDR fashion magazine Sibylle as fashion dolls but at eye level. Roger Melis was an exceptional artist, his life between rebellion and adaptation reflects the fate of many who lived in the GDR. A portrait.
VILLAGE LOVE
A film by Pamela Meyer-Arndt / MDR / TV Editor Beate Schönfeldt / Kulturstiftung des Bundes / Defa Stiftung/ DOP Peter Badel / Sound Jürgen Schönhoff / Montage Gudrun Steinbrück/ Composers Marius Schneider & Cornelius Renz / Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion/ 2010
The documentary VILLAGE LOVE portrays everyday existence in the small Thuringia village of Berka over the last 60 years. The local miller’s son, Ludwig Schirmer, photographed his village’s daily life before moving on to become an advertising executive. His photos of Berka possess an aura of stunning authenticity. His daughter Ute Mahler and her husband Werner Mahler, both previously known for photography prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain, continued this photographic documentation. The result is a visual time capsule of a community over the course of decades. Where once there was small town community, today there is merely isolation.
JUST AN ORDINARY LIFE
A film by Pamela Meyer-Arndt / MDR, WDR, 3sat / Kulturstiftung des Bundes / Defa Stiftung/ DOP Andreas Höfer / Sound Andreas Gläßer, Peter Schmidt / Montage Hanka Knipper / Composer Jan Tilman Schade / Sound-Mix Hans Schumann / A Pamela Meyer-Arndt Filmproduktion/ 86 min. / 2006
The documentary relates the life and work of Helga Paris, Sibylle Bergemann and Gundula Schulze-Eldowy, three photographers living in East Berlin during the GDR era. All three worked freelance in their own unique way, sometimes on the very edge of illegality. Censored and forbidden to work, they created a critical and sensitive portrait of the GDR. The photographers remember the genesis of their photographic series, their exciting lives, their roles as women and their experiences with censorship and the Stasi.
WENDEZEITEN
A Film by Pamela Meyer-Arndt / Screening at Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Kampnagelfabrik Hamburg / DOP Hanno Kunow / Sound Michael Fiedler / Montage Hanka Knipper / Filmproduction Radial System Berlin / 30 min. / 2009
Can music be an adventure? If you were a GDR musician and the Wall suddenly fell, then yes! From one day to the next, a whole new world opened up. WENDZEITEN looks at the careers of composers and musicians in East and West Germany. Among the interviewed are the composers Helmut Lachenmann, Helmut Oehring and Georg Katzer and the musicians Georg Kallweit and Stephan Mai.
DIE MÄRCHENHAFTE
A Film by Pamela Meyer-Arndt / MDR / TV editor Elfi Schmidt / DOP Andreas Höfer / Sound Andreas Gläßer / Montage Hanka Knipper / A Pamela Meyer-Arndt Filmproduction/ 30 min. / 2006
The photographer Sibylle Bergemann takes a look back. As a GDR photographer, she worked for the legendary magazine “Sibylle” and as a freelancer. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she took photos for many reputable West German magazines such as Geo and Stern and saw the world – Yemen, for example. There she created dreamlike images of women in haute Couture.