01/04/08 @ the Center for Architecture, 6:30 pm
536 La Guardia Place, NY NY 10012 (between Bleecker and w. 3rd)
Free

Part of the Berlin/NY film series curated by Beth Stryker + Prem Krishnamurthy

«Hommage à La Sarraz»
1981, East Germany, black and white, 10 min. Director: Lutz Dammbeck
First exhibited as part of a program of GDR Underground Films, Dammbeck's short relocates the Leipzig-based artists' circle known as «Herbstsalon» to La Sarraz palace in Switzerland. In 1929 La Sarraz was the venue of the legendary congress held by protagonists of a new, independent cinema to discuss issues such as individual expression and innovation versus working as an instrument of the state, the taste of the masses, and the relationship between art and life.

Followed by feature screening:

Die Architekten (The Architects)
1990, East Germany (DEFA), color, 97 min. Director: Peter Kahane
German with English subtitles

Daniel Brenner, a promising architect in his late thirties, is struggling to produce work under the Communist regime. Granted the opportunity to design a development on the fringes of Berlin, he seeks out his fellow idealists from his youth in architecture school. Together they envision a new and innovative design which soon brings them into conflict with the authorities overseeing the project.

Shot in September 1989, as multitudes took to the streets throughout East Germany, the film was deemed irrelevant by the time it was released. Many of the DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, the state film monopoly) studio executives who initially approved this picture are no longer working.

to RSVP ...

http://www.aiany.org/calendar/event.php?id=1005006