Zoo Film

Impressionistic East German documentary filmed mainly in the Georgian countryside in 1986-1987. The director, a painter, wanted to see if similar scenes to those found in the work of Georgian painter Niko Pirosmanishvili still existed there.

A shunter's job is to slow down, link, and unlink train wagons at a central station. The film documents - without any commentary - the working hours of few shunters at the shunting-station Dresden-Friedrichstadt, which was the largest such station in all of the former German Democratic Republic. They work day and night, amidst snow and fog at the railway tracks, speaking only as much as necessary.

This documentary follows a group of women on a typical workday as they prepare meals for a dockyard in Rostock. The viewer never learns their names - there are no interviews. The women are presented simply as workers: cooking, cleaning, hauling, and serving dishes amid clanking pots and hot steam.

Documentary on the 1000-year-old town of Weimar. The film presents an example of the victory of humanist traditions over nazi brutality.

With films including the 'rubble woman' portrait Martha, the three-part experimental film cycle Potter's Stier, Venus nach Giorgione and Frau am Klavichord, the portrait of the artist Kurzer Besuch bei Hermann Glöckner, and also the documentaries Rangierer and Die Küche, noted for their outstanding sound and visuals, Jürgen Böttcher distances himself yet further from the didactic tone and abstract heroic representation of socialist films.

Venus after Giorgione is the the second part of the "Over Paintings" (Uebermalungen) trilogy by painter and director STRAWALDE (Juergen Boettcher). Using various methods of "painting over" or projecting on top of Giorgione's "Sleeping Venus," Boettcher alienates the work artistically. Venus' beauty is seen within a new context and is thereby newly interpreted through the eyes of STRAWALDE. The assorted landscapes behind Venus range from idyllic pastorales to morbid backgrounds. STRAWALDE's art knows no boundaries and makes a strong impression on the viewer with bizarre sound collages.

A documentary dedicated to the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students held in East Berlin in the summer of 1973.

Martha Bieder is the last rubble-woman in Berlin Rummelsburg. Every day, rain or shine, she stands at the conveyor belt - as she has for decades - sorting through rubble. After a retirement party thrown for her by her male colleagues, she tells her story of being a rubble-woman in post-war Germany.

Böttchers film showcases three young workers who learn how to paint, draw, and make sculptures out of stone. The film generated a storm of mistrust, as there is no leading communist party, and the three individuals live blithely and independently of the official dictates. It became one of the first DEFA documentary productions that were not allowed to be shown.

A cinematic visit to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The camera usually observes the visitors and paints their views on scenes of the ensemble of figures. The amazement at the beauty and grace of the antique sculptures is reflected in the faces of the viewers and emotion is palpable. The visitors come from all over the world - one sees Indians, Asians, Blacks. All age groups are represented, from children to old people. They come individually or in groups and communicate about what they see. The film gets along without any comment. You see more pictures of the visitors than of the altar. This means that it is important for the film to show the cultural interest of the people. Gerhard Rosenfeld creates atmospheric music with a classical feel to it. An early and extremely interesting work by the great documentary filmmaker Jürgen Böttcher.