Theresa George (*1984) is a film anthropologist based in Hamburg. From 2005 to 2013, she studied cultural anthropology, journalism and political science in Leipzig. Since then, she has co-developed films and videos in changing constellations, works for film festivals, curates her own programmes and teaches visual anthropology.  


Former East/ Former West *

Teaching
© picture-alliance/ ZB / Waltraud Grubitzsch
Film and media culture were not unaffected by the transformation processes set in motion by the socio-political events of 1989/90: The widespread use of video technologies significantly changed the production, aesthetics and reception of moving images. In the seminar, we want to trace these developments by focussing on videographies that critically examined German reunification and its consequences in the 1990s. 

With experimental documentaries of that time, we counter the west-centred reading of 1989/90 as the starting point for global democratisation processes and the beginning of a unipolar and post-historical world order. East German and (post)-migrant directors - who in turn were particularly interested in marginalised perspectives - stand at the centre of the curriculum. Through them, we not only learn more about the growing xenophobia, nationalism and unequal accumulation of capital at the time, but also learn about and analyse a range of alternative approaches to history and documentary visual languages: Interview film and long-term observation, educational videos and video installations, through to found footage film and mockumentary.

How did the ‘former GDR’ come into being? How do you protect yourself from the reunified Germans? Where did cannibals and aliens suddenly come from? How did Lenin become a mushroom? And what do we do today with the ‘pile of history’ (Thomas Heise)?

* Title taken from Shelly Silver’s film “Former East/ Former West” (1993)


University of Bremen
Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research
Winter Term 2022/23