Exercises, discoveries, encounters
Short film selection featuring selected films from foreign students of the Film and Television Academy of the GDR

Today’s Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf) was founded in 1954 as the Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst (German Academy of Film Art) in Babelsberg and renamed in 1969 as the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen der DDR (Film and Television Academy of the GDR) or HFF. It was the first film school in Germany and the only training centre for film-makers in the GDR. From its founding it also accepted students from socialist states and so-called ‘developing countries’. This approach was designed to fulfil an important aspect of GDR foreign policy: the strengthening of scientific-cultural cooperation with the Bruderländer through the training of foreign specialists and executive staff. Bilateral agreements as well as treaties with communist parties and national liberation movements made these study visits possible.

The short film selection brings together little known films from foreign students who studied at the HFF in Babelsberg and thus creates a space for unusual cinematic perspectives which, in their full range, have received virtually no attention to date in the history of German film. On the one hand, the selection presents perspectives on the GDR that were typically absent from the country’s ideological and public discourse. On the other, it evidences entanglements with the Bruderländer through political events or struggles that took place outside the GDR and which have flowed into these films. The encounters with these films are not only designed to contribute to a new consideration of German film history, but also provide an opportunity to expose ideological patterns and identify internationalist ideas, as well as critically question them.

Marhaba Rostock, Riad Ali Saad, GDR, 1970, 16 mm, b/w, 19′, German with English subtitles
Olingo, Emile Itolo, GDR, 1966, 35mm, b/w, 11′, German with English subtitles
Begegnung mit Berlin [Encounter with Berlin], Charles Owusu, GDR, 1965, 35 mm, b/w, 7′, mute
Der Student aus Accra [The student from Accra], Donald M. Acquaye, GDR, 1966, 35 mm, b/w, 12′, German with English subtitles
Meine Erlebnisse [My experience], Nguyễn Lương Đức, GDR, 1962, 35 mm, b/w, 20′, German with English subtitles
Internat II [Boarding school II], Ivan Cibulka, GDR, 1979, 16 mm, b/w, 7′, no dialogue
Carlos, Humberto López, GDR, 1966, 35 mm, b/w, 12′, German with English subtitles
Ausflug [Excursion], Kais al-Zubaidi, GDR, 1966, 35 mm, b/w, 6′, German with English subtitles
Total runtime: 94′
All films © Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF

With friendly support by Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF

The film selection runs on loop every day during the opening times of the exhibition.