Helga Reidemeister

On 29 November 2021, one of Germany's most important directors of documentaries died in Berlin: Helga Reidemeister. Born in Halle / Saale in 1940, Reidemeister graduated from high school in Cologne in 1959 and studied painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in West Berlin from 1961. Between 1968 and 1973, she was a social worker in the Märkisches Viertel in West Berlin - a neighborhood of tower blocks developed for public housing between 1964 and 1974. This is where she met Irene Rakowitz, who became her main contributor in VON WEGEN "SCHICKSAL" (Nothing to do with fate) - Reidemeister's graduation film at the DFFB German Film and Television Academy, where she had studied from 1973-78. VON WEGEN "SCHICKSAL" received the German Film Award in Gold for Best Young Director and is considered a milestone of socially committed documentary film. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Helga Reidemeister repeatedly devoted her attention on developments in countries of the former Eastern bloc. RODINA HEISST HEIMAT (Rodina means homeland) chronicles the withdrawal of Soviet troops from East Germany in 1991. Two of her films focused on Ex-Yugoslavia. This part of her oeuvre also includes LICHTER AUS DEM HINTERGRUND (Background Lighting), a portrait of photographer Robert Paris, who had grown up in East Berlin. Paris was 27 when the wall came down. Reidemeister's film about him and his city focuses on the issues of rapid change in the aftermath of the collapse of the Eastern Block. Which effect has the shock of such radical change? How can one live after such a sea change from one day to the next - without losing oneself?

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Helga Reidemeister repeatedly devoted her attention on developments in countries of the former Eastern bloc. RODINA HEISST HEIMAT (Rodina means homeland) chronicles the withdrawal of Soviet troops from East Germany in 1991. Two of her films focused on Ex-Yugoslavia. This part of her oeuvre also includes LICHTER AUS DEM HINTERGRUND (Background Lighting), a portrait of photographer Robert Paris, who had grown up in East Berlin. Paris was 27 when the wall came down. Reidemeister's film about him and his city focuses on the issues of rapid change in the aftermath of the collapse of the Eastern Block. Which effect has the shock of such radical change? How can one live after such a sea change from one day to the next - without losing oneself?

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