Jürgen Böttcher – Ma Vie/My Life
A Film by Christian Beetz
Commissioned by ZDF in collaboration with ARTE
The portray-series “Ma Vie” – My Life following the tracks of the greatest artist of the GDR: The documentarian and painter Jürgen Böttcher alias Stradewalde. With his innovative and experimental style he became guidance for and entire generation of artists.
News
Related Films
Look at Me – How to be beautiful by being ugly
A film by Jan Tenhaven
AFGHANISTAN - Land of the Enlightened
How children master their lives in war-torn Afghanistan by engaging in ingenious commerce
„Land of the Enlightened“ tells the story of (a number of) Afghan children and their daily survival strategies. Forming gangs, being resourceful, fearless, desperate and courageous. Never having experienced their country in peace and yet supposed to somehow create a future for their lives.
A Letter to Nelson Mandela
A film by Khalo Matabane
The film explores how diverse global leaders interpret Nelson Mandela’s message of freedom, forgiveness and reconciliation. Trying to avoid the danger of a single true story, the film combines Khalo Matabane’s personal reflections with the thoughts of the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Joachim Gauck or Arundhati Roy as well as artists, thinkers and activists from around the globe.
Invisible Cities
A film by Memi Koupa In co-production with Stefi Productions
Generation lost in European crises - 'Invisible Cities" is a unique portrait of young protagonists living in different European capitals united in their fight against the crises and recession - speedy, emotional and using the language of these young people.
Jürgen Böttcher – Ma Vie/My Life
A Film by Christian Beetz
Commissioned by ZDF in collaboration with ARTE
Jürgen Böttcher alias Stradewalde is one of the greatest documentarians and painters of the ex-GDR. He tended to be experimental and was a strong influence on artists of the following generation.
Jürgen Böttcher appearance doesn’t reveal his age, but he will celebrate his 80th birthday at July 8th 2011. He is someone who seems to stay young forever.
He is a man who has lived in three German state systems and his anger rises when he speaks about the shallows of German history. He was influenced by the terrible experiences of fascism, disappointed by the system of GDR, a system he would have loved to believe in. But instead his art was banned and his friends were expatriated. The state collapsed and he was thrown into a new period he never really found himself in. Jürgen Böttcher is woven into German history in his very own unadjusted way and a convinced anti-capitalist.
The double Adolf-Grimme-laureate Christian Beetz accompanied Jürgen Böttcher back to the village of his childhood: Stradewalde in Oberlausitz/Saxonia and spoke with him about his childhood and youth. Memories of his youth at Hitlerjugend return – and the constant feeling of guilt that never left him.
Both meet up in Böttcher’s studio-loft in Berlin-Karlshorst, where Böttcher shows his pictures. Friends, like Dieter Kosslick, the manager of Berlinale, drop by.
In GDR and also in FRG Jürgen Böttcher was the star among the documentarians in the 1970is and 80is. His films invented styles, were guidance and the secret ideal for an entire generation of German filmmakers.
Böttcher’s paintings were banned right at the beginning of his carrier and he was also confined in his creativity as a filmmaker. Nevertheless he stayed in GDR unlike his friend Wolf Biermann. The pictures he gained fame with using his pseudonym Stradewalde are hanging in places like: Nationalgalerie Berlin, Sammlung Deutscher Bundestag in Reichstag, Albertinum Dresden, the castle in Dresden, Albertina in Vienna, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ludwig Museum Cologne, The Boston Public Library.
After the breakdown of GDR Böttcher was already considered as an important part of European film history. 1992 Böttcher received the greatest award for German filmmakers, the “Goldenes Filmband”, by the German Minister of the Interior for his lifework. Short before he had been honored with the European documentary price Felix for his film DIE MAUER (1990).
1994 the French president awarded him with the title “Officier de l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres” for his artistic lifework, 2001 the Federal Cross of Merit followed and in 2006 he got the Golden Camera at Berlinale.
Though his paintings were rejected in his early carrier, he never gave up his passion and concentrated on painting the past years. His pictures play with surreal elements – they are a search for hidden truths. In GDR he was banned for his aestheticism, today he is internationally renowned for his art. His paintings have a current market price of 50.000 Euro and sell all over the world.
Scenes of “Wäscherinnen” (Laundresses) (1972), “Rangierer” (Shunter) (1984), “Barfuß und ohne Hut” (Barefoot and without Hat) (1964) or “Die Mauer” (The Wall) (1990) tell the story of his other life, a period that seems surreal today. Scenes of “Verwandlung 1-3” (Transformation 1-3) and “Potters Stier” (Potter’s Bull) (1981) and the DEFA-commissioned productions like “Straffilmen” or the “Tierparkfilm” (1968) will be shown. His only feature film “Jahrgang ‘45” (Born in ’45) will demonstrate his individual style, the problems of the “wild youth” in GDR and give and idea why the system had to fail.
Book/Director: Christian Beetz
Photography: Lars Barthel, Thomas Plenert
Sound: Nic Nagel, Agnetha Lang
Editor: Lars Späth
Composer: Nils Kacirek
Line production: Kathrin Isberner, Philipp Weigold
Commissional editor: Ann-Christin Hornberger
Coproduction
Cooperation
-
Jürgen Böttcher - Ma Vie/My Life
arte
03 July 2011 at 4.30 pm -
Jürgen Böttcher - Ma Vie/My Life
Filmkunstfest MV - Schwerin
05 May 2011 at 6.00 pm -
Jürgen Böttcher - Ma Vie/My Life
Martin-Gropius-Bau - Berlin, Germany
23 June 2011 at 8.00 pm -
Jürgen Böttcher - Ma Vie/My Life
arte
09 July 2011 at 6.45 am
Social Media
Facebook Youtube