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Berlin Tales


2017. NĂ©stor Bayona, recording video from Berlin. Dominique St. John, text adaptation. Video files: Das Bundesarchiv, The Berlin Wall, Lemo Lebendiges Museum Online, ZDFinfo Doku, History.com, UbuWeb. Podcast: Richard Huffman. 20:13

Albert Bayona takes us on an alternative journey through the city of Berlin and films places where events related to the birth of the terrorist group "Baader Meinhof" took place, using collective footage extracted from the Internet.
The film is about places, where everyday life has erased the memory of the recent history that occurred in the city. The work looks at signs with names of streets that we do not know about and the moments where no one would usually take a photo. 
"On 2 June 1967, students and activists, who were protesting against the visit of the Shah of Iran and his wife to Berlin, were forced behind barriers.
After the Shah entered the "Deutsche Oper" just opposite where the students were held, the students broke through the police lines".
"On 11 April 1968, Rudi Dutschke was shot three times outside his home, just above the SDS (Socialist Students Federation) offices. "
"Today the location of the infamous riot, which sparked when students felt that Axel Springer's newspapers influenced the attempted assassination of Dutschke, can be found at the junction of Rudi-Dutschke Strasse and Axel Springer Strasse".
"The first commune (also known as Kommune 1 or K1) in Germany was created in 1967 in Berlin. Students from the "Munich Subversive Action" group and members of the SDS (Socialist Students Federation) came up with a very new way of living together".
"On Mother's Day in 1976, a depressed Ulrike Meinhof hanged herself in her jail cell in Stuttgart's Stammheim prison. It was the end of a six year run.
She was one of the most infamous women in the world: a famous former journalist, mother of twin daughters and noted public commentator, who threw it all away to create a radical terrorist organisation".

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