Dammbeck, himself an alumnus of the Leipzig Academy for Graphic and Book Design, presents the origins of the new German realism developed by the so-called Leipzig School, which took place in the context of socialist-realist dogma in the GDR before the Wall was built in 1961. After the Wall came down in 1989, what happened to the major Leipzig School painters Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig, who had been called “Dürer’s red heirs” by West German journalists in the 1970s? In the film, Tübke, Heisig, and former GDR officials who were involved with the cultural scene in Leipzig at the time talk about modernism, conformism, political pressure, party discipline, personal claims, and fading memory. The documentary paints an insightful, often critical picture of early East German art history.

Birth of the Living Dead
2013

Halloween: 25 Years of Terror
2006

The Class of ‘92
2013

Heart of a Dog
2015

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me
2023

Anselm
2023

Night Will Fall
2014

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
2013

Directed by John Ford
1971

Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
2013