The short documentary “Memory Is Not About the Past” seeks to understand how members of the so-called Third Generation East, individuals who experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall as children or adolescents, remember East Germany 26 years after reunification. The research focuses on the city of Berlin and all its former East German districts. Walking, as a performative practice, is at the centre of this ethnographic journey. With every step, the individuals reclaim their childhood neighbourhoods and, at the same time, position themselves in the present. The urban space functions as a sounding board for the individual’s inner thoughts and embodied experiences and is closely intertwined with stories of former communal solidarity, social change, and an underlying estrangement from these areas.
The documentary was part of my MA thesis in the Visual and Media Anthropology Track at Freie Universität Berlin and was also featured in the programme’s final exhibition. The project was funded by a grant from the Freie Universität Film and Media Fund.
Featuring: Jana Grohs, Dinah Wilde, Kay Kowarsch, Stefan Rink, Steffie Hemberger, Katrin Lück, Mike Schade, Djamila Grossmann, Nico Polensky. Mixing and mastering: Khalil Chahine Subtitles: Katrin Bahr. Archival footage: Family Hemberg, Groh, Wilde, Rink, Lück, Schade
