Former East / Former West

Former East / Former West

Shelly Silver

US
1994
Documentary
64’
Focus

Made up of hundreds of street interviews done in Berlin two years after the Reunification, Former East/Former West is a vital, surprisingly open, and at times disturbing documentary about what it means to be German at this particular moment in history. For forty-five years, residents of this divided city lived radically different lives, both in terms of ideology and everyday experience. Silver questions the very notion of a shared language, focusing on changing definitions of words for political and economic systems – democracy, freedom, capitalism, socialism ‒ as well as words used to describe nations and identity, like nationality, Germany, history, foreigners, home.

Director / Cinematography / Editing/ Contact

Shelly Silver

WWW

vdb.org

Shelly Silver

Die New Yorker Künstlerin Shelly Silver erforscht das Span­nungsfeld zwischen Öffentlichem und Privatem, Narrativem und Dokumentarischem sowie das Verhältnis zwischen Subjekt und Objekt der Betrachtung. Ihre Arbeiten wurden weltweit ausgestellt und waren u. a. im MoMA in New York, in der Tate Modern, am Centre Pompidou, dem Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, dem Yokohama Museum, dem Londoner ICA und auf den Filmfestivals von London, Singapur, New York, Moskau und Berlin zu sehen.


Filme von Shelly Silver (Auswahl)
5 Lessons and 9 Questions about Chinatown 2009 | In Complete World 2008 | Suicide 2003 | 37 Stories About Leaving Home 1996 | Former East/Former West 1994 | April 2nd 1994 | We 1990 | Getting in. 1989 | Things I Forget to Tell Myself 1989 | Meet the People 1986