Artist Interviews

The DEFA Foundation has been doing interviews with artists since its founding. So far, there are around 100 interviews with actors, directors and film officials, as well as other artistic occupations such as camera, editing, sound and costume. These include Fred Düren, Angelica Domröse, Gojko Mitic, Dagmar Manzel, Winfried Glatzeder, Lothar Warneke, Kurt Maetzig, Sieglinde Hamacher, Peter Kahane, Horst Pehnert, Gerhard Dengler, Angel Wagenstein, Christian Steyer, Doris Borkmann and Ulrich Illing. With these eyewitness accounts, the DEFA Foundation wants to capture memories of the history of DEFA in sound and vision and make them available to the public.

Since 2014, FTV Fischer-Teubner Film and Television Production has conducted these interviews on behalf of the DEFA Foundation. They are mainly published as bonus materials on DVDs.

PROGRESS Film-Verleih  (world distribution) and the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation  (theatrical production) have exploitation rights to the holdings.

EYEWITNESS INTERVIEW: Kurt Maetzig

In the eyewitness account from January 28, 1999 with Kurt Maetzig, which was recorded in Wildkuhl and conducted by Ralf Schenk, Maetzig reports on the situation of the film industry after 1945, the foundation of DEFA, and the establishment of the “Eyewitness” newsreels. He describes his film work a feature film director until his departure from DEFA. In doing so, he considers cultural-political intentions, as well as his own understanding of film as art.

EYEWITNESS INTERVIEW: JUTTA WACHOWIAK

The actress Jutta Wachowiak talks about her film and theater work, about the DEFA movie THE FIANCÉE (1980), and about working with directors Günter Reisch and Günther Rücker at different locations.