Seminar: Online portal „The GDR in Film”

At this PoSoCoMeS seminar Holger Pötzsch (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) and Ute Hirsekorn (University of Nottingham) discuss how the GDR past is constructed in features films, series, and documentaries, with Daria Gordeeva (University of Munich), editor of the online portal The GDR in Film.

The starting point of this project is the key role of historical films in the memory-shaping process. As soon as the Berlin Wall fell and the GDR collapsed, filmmakers began to deal with the socialist past as well as social and economic consequences of the German unification. More than hundred films set in the GDR have been shown in cinemas, on TV screens, and streaming platforms since 1990. The online handbook “The GDR in Film” deals with filmic narratives and interpretations of the former socialist state and investigates political and social contexts, in which these films are produced and received. The online portal is aimed at scientists and students, journalists and educators, as well as people who are interested in films, memory politics, and the GDR. “The GDR in Film” also provides easy-to-understand information on the current state of research, the theoretical background, and the methodological approach.

Daria Gordeeva is a Research Associate at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany). She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communication studies and Economics at the University of Munich. Since January 2019 she is a research associate and doctoral candidate at the Department of Media and Communication. Her doctoral project examines the reconstruction of the Soviet Union and the GDR in films and critically explores structures lying behind certain images. In the interdisciplinary research network “The Media Legacy of the GDR”, she is working on the project “The GDR in Film”. Her research focuses on media discourses, cinematic constructions of reality as well as cultures of remembrance and politics of memory in international comparison.

Ute Hirsekorn is Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of Nottingham. She took her MA in English and American Studies at the University of Jena, her MA in International Relations and her PhD in German Studies at the University of Nottingham. She has worked on the autobiographies of former East German elites, and her current project looks at graduates of the Bogensee College of the GDR’s Free German Youth. Publications include “Thought Patterns and Explanatory Strategies in the Life Writing of High Ranking GDR Party Officials after the Wende” and forthcoming in 2023 “Perpetrator Testimony” in the Palgrave “Handbook of Testimony and Culture”.

Holger Pötzsch is Professor in Media- and Documentation Studies at Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. He studied Scandinavian Studies, Russian, German, and Political Science in Berlin and Tromsø. He received his master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Transformation and a doctorate degree in Media- and Documentation Studies. His research interests are in the areas of media, film, game, and memory studies. His latest publications include the special issue “Algorithmic Governance in Context” and the anthology “War Game: Memory, Militarism, and the Subject of Play” (as co-editor). From 2022 he is editor-in-chief of “Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture”.

 

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/98470815842?pwd=VGE0cmpab3lmeHM4Uy9jaS9wYXNLZz09

Meeting ID: 984 7081 5842
Passcode: ykwL3f

Date

Nov 07 2022
Expired!

Time

5.30 pm CET
5:30 pm
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