Film Archive

Black Box Germany (Black Box BRD)

Black Box BRD steps back into German history, showing the Federal Republic of Germany of the 70s and 80s. The country is polarized due to the power struggle of the German state and the "Red Army Faction", and thus on a constant brink of civil war. Society is torn, the fronts are irreconcilable.

The life stories of both Wolfgang Grams and Alfred Herrhausen are tragically linked to this era. Grams is the one who takes up arms for moral rigor; Herrhausen however seizes power and dies when powerful. Their curricula vitae lead through the enemy camps of the Federal Republic, through opposing worlds that have had a speechless and uncomprehending attitude towards each other until now. The fight is over, but the wounds are still open.

Andres Veiel was born in 1959 in Stuttgart and studied Psychology in Berlin from 1982-1988. He then attended seminars in Directing and Dramaturgy at the Artist House Bethanien in Berlin from 1985-1989. Since then, he has been active writing film and theater scripts and lectures at the Free University in Berlin. His films include: A Winternight's Dream (Winternachtstraum, documentary, 1992), Balagan (documentary, 1993) - winner of the IFFS Main Prize and the German Film Award in Silver, The Survivors (Die Ueberlebenden, documentary, 1995/96) - winner of the Main Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Munich and the Adolf Grimme Award in 1998, and the highly-acclaimed Black Box Germany (Black Box BRD, 2001), for which he received the German Film Award for Best Documentary in 2002.
 

Genre Drama
Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2001
Director Andres Veiel
Screenplay Andres Veiel
Director of Photography Joerg Jeshel
Editor Katja Dringenberg
Music by Jan Tilman Schade
Producer Thomas Kufus
Production Company zero one film/Berlin, in co-production with ARTE/Strasbourg, HR/Frankfurt, SWR/Baden-Baden
Length 107 min, 3,020 m
Format 16 mm
Blow-up 35 mm, Color, b&w, 1:1.66
Original Version German/some Spanish
Subtitled Versions English, French, Italian, Spanish
Sound Technology Dolby SR
Festival Screenings Locarno 2001, Vienna 2001, Amsterdam 2001, Berlin 2002 (German Cinema), Gothenburg 2002, Jerusalem 2002, Warsaw 2002 (German Panorama)
Awards Prix Arte for Best Documentary, German Film Award 2002 for Best Documentary Feature
With backing from FilmFoerderung Hamburg, MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hessische Rundfunk-Filmfoerderung, Kulturelle Filmfoerderung des Landes Hessen

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