Berlin Metamorphoses

From the horrors of World War II to the reign of Communism to a city and a people divided by a Wall, Berlin has been alternately bound and shattered by its history. But in 1989, the Wall fell, opening the floodgates. In the early 2000s, over a decade later, Berliners are going through the process of reunification, rebuilding and reconciliation. This is where the documentary Berlin Metamorphoses begins to tell the story of the transformation taking place in Berlin.

 

Filmed in the fall 2001 and spring through the fall 2002, we hear and see the changes which have been taking place since the fall of the Wall. Over seventy five individuals living in Berlin, including Germany's President, Johannes Rau; columnist and publisher of the Berlin newspaper Tagespiegel, Hermann Rudolph; speak about the changes. Berliners from every discipline: artists, students, educators, immigrants, government officials, city planners, and entrepreneurs all express their point of view. These voices are woven together with archival and present day footage in an essay to present the interaction of present day Berlin and its history.

 

Robert E. Frye is an Emmy award winning producer and director of documentaries and network news programs for over four decades. His recently completed documentary “In My Lifetime: A presentation of The Nuclear World Project” tells the story of the sixty five year struggle to find solutions on how to dispose of and reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world. Frye has been an independent documentary producer and director since 1988. Before that he spent two decades as a producer in network news in the United States and Canada. In 2008 he was commissioned to produce and direct a short documentary entitled Freedom without Walls commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009. The film was awarded a Gold Plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival’s INTERCOM competition.

 

In cooperation with German University Alliance's North American Alumni Network of Freie Unversitaet Berlin and LMU Munich.

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