Film Descriptions

All My Girls
Original Title: Alle mein Mädchen
GDR, 1979, 83 min., color/b&w, DVD with English subtitles

Film student Ralf is assigned to make a documentary about a team of women workers at a light bulb factory. At first glance, the team seems problem-free, but soon tensions between the women become apparent. When one of Ralf's interviews reveals that the team leader keeps records on workplace discipline, it unleashes a strong reaction among the workers. All My Girls was filmed on location at the NARVA Glühlampenwerk (light bulb factory).

[Gusner's and Kotte's] film seems to comment ironically on the male colleagues' fascination with female worker protagonists.
                                             —Joshua Feinstein, The Triumph of the Ordinary

 

If the Earth Weren't Round
Original Title: Wäre die Erde nicht rund
GDR, 1981, 87 min., color, DVD with English subtitles

Christiane, from East Germany, and Hatem, from Syria, meet, fall in love and have a child while studying geology in Moscow. As they contemplate a future together, they realize that Christiane would not be able to work as a scientist in Syria at all. But Hatem feels that he is expected to return to his homeland. A semi-autobiographical drama by the director, who studied filmmaking at the famous VGIK film school in Moscow.

The director's most personal film and at the same time, a new step into a new thematic and stylistic territory—incidentally, it is for DEFA as well.
                                                                          —Heinz Kersten, film critic

 

Film Screenings:

Monday, Oct. 8
All My Girls
CNS C101 7 pm

Tuesday, Oct. 9
If The Earth Weren't Round
CNS C101 7 pm
with Q&A after the film with director Gusner and Sociologist Schroeter

CNS = Center for Natural Sciences