HS/FS 343 - Contemporary German Film

Contemporary German film marks the beginning of a new era in German cinema: In the late 80s, a new desire for invention and investigation emerged in both parts of the divided German film scene. While building bridges to old German film at the beginning of the 20th century, young filmmakers in the East and the West developed new forms of films, filming techniques and aesthetics. Berlin has been at the crossroads of these new developments and has restored its status as THE center of new German film industry. Accordingly, a group of inventive filmmakers initiated the so called “Berlin School” of contemporary filmmaking. In this course, we will watch and study movies made by Berlin school filmmakers and their successors. We will analyze these movies within their aesthetic, technical and performative contexts. Thereby, we will learn about a variety of trends, schools, genres and aesthetic developments within German cinematic history from 1989 until today.