I am a film historian who specialises in twentieth and twenty-first century German film, in particular East German cinema. I explore the intersections between film, politics, and society to reveal how film often opens up a space for more complicated engagements with the past and present than first meets the eye. My research frequently incorporates hitherto unknown archival documents from a range of figures—the state, the film studio, filmmakers, reviewers—to investigate the production contexts and behind-the-scenes discussions that informed the images we see on screen.
Read more about my current research and my research specialisms below.
Current Research
In 2023, I will begin a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action at the Universität Leipzig on the research project, “Projecting the GDR on Screen. Film Festivals and Cultural Diplomacy in Cold War Germany”.
My research will examine how the GDR used film festivals in the West as a type of cultural diplomacy. It will investigate 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 and political prestige in the West. Furthermore, I will explore what roles artistic institutions, filmmakers, and festival organisers played in forming communication channels beyond official diplomatic routes.
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are the European Union’s flagship research funding programme for postdoctoral researchers.
Research Specialisms
East German Cinema
East German films were not simple affirmations of state politics. I am particularly interested in the ways filmmakers negotiated the relationship between politics and art, and how East German films frequently created a space on and off screen for the discussion of social, political, and historical questions.
My research covers the entire existence of the state-owned film studio, DEFA. I have extensive knowledge of archival research pertaining to East German cinema.
Historical Film
Depicting the past on screen is never straightforward. The lens through which the past is presented in the present for future audiences creates a complex picture which goes far beyond questions of historical verisimilitude. How to depict is more pressing than what to depict. Understanding how filmmakers have approached these issues is a key theme in my research.
Post-1945 German Cinema
Alongside my specialism in East German cinema, I work more broadly in post-1945 German screen studies. I have published on West German historical film and have particular expertise in New German Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s.
I have published on German cinema following German reunification cinema and I have a particular interest in how Berlin is represented on screen.
Film Festivals
My current research examines the ways in which film festivals became alternative arenas for the playing out of political rivalries and for public diplomacy during the Cold War. My research focuses on East and West German participation at the Berlin, Cannes, and Venice film festivals.
German Streaming Series
Since the mid-2010s, German production companies have been reorientating their high-end content away from “Event Television” broadcast on domestic channels to transnational streaming series designed to appeal to both domestic and international markets.
My research examines not simply what travels, but how it travels from the connotative communities of the domestic market to the global streaming market.
Holocaust on Film
Film has played a unique role in changing public conversations about the memory of the persecution of Jews during National Socialism and the Holocaust. Films such as Schindler’s List have also exercised a lasting legacy on how the Holocaust is depicted to the extent to which films today frequently incorporate interfilmic references to Spielberg’s 1993 film. Such is the proven critical – and often commercial – success of Holocaust films today, it is sometimes easy to overlook the challenges that faced filmmakers who wanted to depict Jewish persecution in the immediate postwar decades, especially in Germany. My research examines how filmmakers have approached these challenges since 1945.
Research Services
I have experience of working as a research assistant for projects examining the German film industry from 1933 onwards. I can undertake archival research on your behalf if you cannot travel to Berlin and/or provide assistance locating documents for your research.
I also undertake copyediting and indexing work.
Please contact me to discuss any of these services.
Elizabeth Ward 