Collect Films!

Our Collect Films! series typically focuses on private and independent film collections dedicated to preserving the analog film heritage, which have been established through the initiative of private individuals or organizations. This new edition introduces a relatively little-known film archive: the collection of Berlin’s Charité Hospital, which is likely unknown to the general public. Why was this collection created? Who worked at the Charité film studio? For whom were the films produced? Our guest, Carolin Pommert, a research assistant at the Medical Humanities Library & Collection of the Institute for the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Charité, will help us answer these and other questions.

During the GDR era, the Charité hospital in East Berlin had its own university film studio, which became increasingly professional in the 1950s and produced some 430 medical educational, instructional, and research films by 1990. In collaboration with various university film and image archives, the GDR ministries responsible for health and public education, and the DEFA Studios, a wide variety of productions were created at the Charité hospitals—ranging from scientific works to popular educational films, and from practical applications to cinematically ambitious creative endeavors: Exterior and interior views of the large hospital complex, glimpses of everyday medical life, surgeries, therapies, and unusual long-distance trips during the era of of the GDR. The five films selected for our program showcase a variety of productions and illustrate the breadth of the collection; some of these films will be screened for the first time since 1990.

Please note that some of the films contain detailed footage of surgical procedures, including scenes with blood and medical instruments.