| Project Detail |
How East Germany used film festivals to advance its interests
The German Democratic Republic (GDR), simply known as East Germany, existed from 1949 to 1990 as part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) PGDRS project aims to examine how the GDR used film festivals in the West as a type of cultural diplomacy. It will look at the various ways governments, artistic bodies, and individuals perceived the opportunities of the Berlin, Cannes, and Venice film festivals as vehicles for the GDR to attain cultural status and political clout in the West. It will also study what roles artistic institutions, filmmakers, and festival organisers played in forming communication channels.
This project explores how the German Democratic Republic used film festivals in the West as a form of cultural diplomacy between 1949 and 1989. For the first time in scholarship, this project considers the different ways in which governments, artistic bodies and individuals viewed the opportunities of the Berlin Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival as ways for the GDR to achieve cultural prestige and political capital in the West. Instead of presenting cultural diplomacy as a ‘top-down’ process instigated and tightly controlled by state officials, this research foregrounds the roles of artistic institutions, filmmakers and festival organisers in establishing lines of communication in-between and outside of formal channels. The significance of this extends beyond the Cold War: by focusing on the role of state and non-state actors, the research allows for better understandings of how cultural events can be used to transcend political impasses today and in so doing also speaks directly to the European Commission’s New European Agenda for Culture.
Led by an outstanding researcher with a proven publication record, this project will allow Dr Ward to develop further the core research, training and professional skills needed as leading international academic in the humanities and emerge as an independent researcher. By working with sector-leading cultural historians at Leipzig University, Dr Ward will hone her specialist research skills and undertake a targeted training programme to equip her with key research and professional skills needed to excel in academia. These skills will be complemented by a carefully designed communication and dissemination strategy to ensure that, upon completion of the fellowship, she has the key markers of academic success (publications), interdisciplinary collaboration (the organisation of an international workshop) and public engagement (public film screenings, publishing for non-specialist audiences). |
