We present two documentaries by Marc Bauder that expand on two themes he addressed in his feature film debut
The System, which we showed as part of our Goethe-Kino series on 27 January. Bauder’s interest in the GDR, its aftermath and continuous impact on the present also inform
Jeder Schweigt von Etwas Anderem (2006, Last to Know). However, in contrast with his fiction film, in which his young protagonist has to deal with his parents’ collaboration with the GDR system, this documentary focuses on those who opposed this system and were punished as a consequence. His depiction of the connection between finance, politics and old Stasi networks in the fiction film already shows his interest in the complex systems formed by the connection of power and money. For his award wining
Master of the Universe (2013) he has managed to get the investment banker Rainer Voss in front of his camera who gives detailed insight into the banking system.
Every family has a secret, a darkness no one wants to touch. For some, their secrets lie buried in a country that doesn’t even exist anymore: Three families from out of the GDR’s estimated 250,000 political prisoners wrestle with the question, how much of the past do they want to allow in their present?
Across three generations marked by separation, repression and guilt, some wounds are so deep no one dares to reopen them, even after decades. But now the kids are grown, and pressure to break the truce of silence is growing – from both sides. Yet, how do you ask your parents the right questions? Do you really want to know the whole story? And who’s responsible for taking the first step?
As it sheds light on the controversies within just three families impacted by the GDR’s inter-generational consequences, this film becomes a record of how Germans are dealing with recent history.
Germany 2006, colour, DVD (mini-35mm), 72 mins. German with English subtitles.
Direction and script: Marc Bauder and Dörte Franke. With Anne Gollin, Utz Rachowski, Tine and Matthias Storck.
MARC BAUDER
Marc Bauder was born in Stuttgart in 1974, and studied business in Cologne, St. Gallen and New York. He began working as a director during his studies, and founded the production company bauderfilm in 1999. After embarking on a degree in production from HFF Konrad Wolf in Potsdam-Babelsberg in 2001, he broke off his studies after three semesters in order to concentrate on directing full-time. Intermittent forays into theatre included the transformation of his documentary grow or go into the play Under Ice, which premiered at the Schaubühne Berlin. At the end of 2009, he presented is own theatre adaptation for grow or go, which premiered in 2010 at the Théâtre National in Brussels. In 2011, he presented his award-winning feature film debut The System, and his documentary MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE (2014) won the jury prize competition at the Semaine de la Critique in Locarno. Among other projects, Marc Bauder is currently working on the feature film The Mentor for television (HR/ ARD). In an interview Bauder said: “Firstly it sounds strange that I always deal with money, or rather economy, but if I want to know how our society functions I can’t avoid this topic.”
Source: www.bauderfilm.de, Interview with Marc Bauder on YouTube about his film MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE
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