Archive of films This Ain't California / This Ain't California

Germany
2011, 90 min

Section: Documentary Films - Competition
Year: 2012

A wittily edited movie that makes use of black-and-white animation, a lighthearted retro-soundtrack, and countless archive amateur shots as it takes a closer look at the inception of the skateboarding subculture of 1980s East Berlin.


Synopsis

It wasn’t only in sunny California that young people became enchanted with skateboarding. As Marten Persiel’s movie demonstrates, at the beginning of the 1980s a group of skate enthusiasts came together in the GDR: for them, riding "wheel-boards” was more than just nipping out for a bit of fun. Skateboarding became the ideal means of livening up the overbearing drudgery of life under a totalitarian regime. Using black-and-white animation, a lighthearted retro-soundtrack, and countless archive amateur shots, the moviemakers take a closer look at the inception of the skateboarding subculture in East Berlin. The sudden death of one of the first East German skateboarders, Denis Paraceck, provided the impulse for a group of friends to get together to fondly reminisce about a time when skateboarding was, more than anything, a symbol of freedom and mutual friendship. Mercifully, this wittily edited movie avoids all those romanticizing clichés put to such plentiful use elsewhere for purposes of "ostalgia” – nostalgia for East Germany.

About the director

Marten Persiel

Marten Persiel (b. 1974, Berlin) worked at HFK Hamburg in 1995-96 as an assistant editor, after which (1997-98) he studied mixed media arts at Portsmouth University. In 1998–2001 he studied direction at London’s University of Westminster. He has created numerous commercials and music videos, as well as several documentaries, including Siyempre Amigos (2006), 14000 Finestres (2008), La Chureca (2009), and We Are Surfers (2010).

Contacts

WIDE HOUSE
9 rue Bleue, 75009, Paris
France
Tel: +33 153 950 464
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.widehouse.org

About the film

Color, HD CAM

Section: Documentary Films - Competition
   
Director: Marten Persiel
Screenplay: Ira Wedel, Marten Persiel
Dir. of Photography: Felix Leihberg
Music: Lars Damm
Editor: Maxine Gödecke, Toni Froschhammer, Bobby Good
Producer: Michael Schöbel, Ronald Vietz
Production: Wildfremd production Gmbh Berlin
Contact: WIDE HOUSE
   
www: www.thisaintcalifornia.com

Guests

Michael Schöbel

Producer, Producer

Marten Persiel

Film Director


Ronald Vietz

Producer

Dirk Reiher

Film Crew


Felix Leiberg

Director of Photography

YouTube

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