Mein wunderbares West-Berlin

My Wonderful West Berlin

Panorama Dokumente 2017

In West Berlin in the 1960s it was possible to find bars where men could be left to themselves – a fact that was to turn the city into a magnet for young gay men. The protagonists of this film, all still active members of the community today, recall those early years in the city. Theirs are memories of a community that fought steadily for its existence, and of its change, right up to the fall of the Wall. Faced with considerable social repression in the 1970s, a collective gay identity began to emerge, and the ‘West Berlin homosexual campaign’ called for the abolition of paragraph 175 and the overthrow of patriarchy. Ruined buildings become the venues for new ways of living together such as all-male communes or the ‘queer house’. Cottaging, East-West affairs, leather bars, drag performances in the subway – an anarchic kind of joy outshines past suffering. A decade later, AIDS was to hit Berlin. After Out in Ost-Berlin (Out In East Berlin) Jochen Hick explores queer lifestyles in the West of the city and the roots of a fascination that the metropolis still holds as a refuge – and not just for gay men. A fascinating journey through time featuring previously unpublished archive material.

by Jochen Hick
with Romy Haag, Maximilian Lenz, Ades Zabel Germany 2017 German 97’ Colour & Black/White Documentary form

With

Romy Haag
Maximilian Lenz
Ades Zabel

Crew

Written and Directed by	Jochen Hick
Cinematography	Alexander Gheorghiu, Jochen Hick
Editing	Thomas Keller
Historical Adviser	Karl-Heinz Steinle
Sound Design	Jörg Theil
Sound Mixing	Michael Kaczmarek
Sound	André Zacher
Commissioning Editor	Rolf Bergmann
Assistant Director	Andreas Strohfeldt
Artistic Adviser	Christoph Weber
Production Managers	Ursula Scheid, Hermann Hick
Producer	Jochen Hick
Line Producer	Rainer Baumert rbb, Berlin
Co-Production	rbb Berlin

World Sales

Galeria Alaska Productions

http://www.galeria-alaska.de http://www.galeria-alaska.de

Produced by

Galeria Alaska Productions

http://www.galeria-alaska.de http://www.galeria-alaska.de

Photos

Jochen Hick

Born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1960, he studied film at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg and also in Bologna between 1981 and 1987. He has since worked as a freelance writer, journalist, director and producer of film and television. In 1994, he founded his own production company, Galeria Alaska Productions. Between 2007 and 2010 he was editor-in-chief and deputy director of programming at TIMM TV channel. A number of his films have screened in Panorama, most recently Mein Wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin) in 2017.

Filmography (selection)

1991 Willkommen im Dom (Welcome to the Dome); short documentary film; Panorama 1995 Menmaniacs – The Legacy of Leather; Panorama 1998 Sex/Life In L.A.; documentary; Panorama 2000 No One Sleeps; Panorama 2003 Ich kenn keinen; documentary; Panorama 2005 Cycles of Porn; documentary; Panorama 2008 EAST/WEST – Sex & Politics; documentary; Panorama 2009 The Good American; documentary; Panorama 2013 Out in Ost-Berlin – Lesben und Schwule in der DDR; documentary; Panorama 2016 Der Ost-Komplex; documentary; Panorama 2017 Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin); documentary; Panorama

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019