Cynthia Beatt, FRG 1983, digital file, OV/EnS, 25 min
Sep 1–8, 2021 Foyer Arsenal Cinema

Cynthia Beatt’s Böse zu sein ist auch ein Beweis von Gefühl (Fury is a Feeling Too) is a personal and cathartic confrontation with her position as a foreigner in Berlin, a city burdened by the weight of its history, during the 1970s and ‘80s, posing questions and provoking reflections on a range of issues related to language, culture, politics, and history. Filmed in the area around Potsdamer Platz, the torn-up area right next to the Wall where post- war buildings grew out of the bomb craters, the film laments the loss of an architectural space whose destruction also meant the disappearance of a cultural context. Shrapnel-pitted facades alternate with rooms activated by staged social altercations about and with Germans scarred by their history. The somber, elegiac music of Maurice Weddington underscores the discordant character of this unsentimental film. The film will be shown as a loop in Arsenal’s foyer during the festival week.

The digital restoration was made possible through the film heritage support program (FFE) financed by the Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the states of Germany, and the German Federal Film Board (FFA). It premiered at the Berlinale Forum Expanded in 2021. More information about the film is available here.