Film Series for Made in Germany?—Intergenerational Identities

This event requires registration; see further details below.

Although Black German history spans centuries, it was only in the last four decades that it has been studied as such. This history is overwhelmingly one of racist violence: colonialism, enslavement, sterilization, and legal discrimination. Artists, activists, and scholars have aimed to recover the complexity of Black German identity after World War II, often through individual accounts that examine the manifestations of anti-Black racism during this period. Their work has largely focused on relationships between Black men, white German women, and their children. These relationships transformed the demographics of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany), raising new questions about German identity. Eschewing the idea that these questions can be definitively answered, the two films being shown offer reflections as responses.

Magda Korsinsky’s KNITTING, the Documentary (2020; original German title: STRICKEN, der Dokumentarfilm) features interviews with six Black German women whose fathers were Black and mothers were white. Focusing on their relationships with their white grandmothers who lived during the Nazi regime, the women detail how racism shaped their family histories while also articulating how categories like race, gender, and heritage fail to define who they are.

James Gregory Atkinson’s 6 Friedberg-Chicago (2021) is set in the American Ray Barracks in Friedberg, Germany, where Atkinson was raised by his Black American father and white German mother. Through pose, gesture, and choreography, the 17 men in the film—whose fathers or grandfathers were also stationed in Friedberg—reactivate the military space and complicate the notion of belonging to a distinct identity.

Viewers may find the content of these films disturbing.

About the films:
KNITTING, the Documentary, 2020 (Magda Korsinsky; German with English subtitles; 78 min.)
6 Freidberg-Chicago, 2021 (James Gregory Atkinson; English; 6 min.)

This film series is curated by Peter Murphy, the Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and is offered in conjunction with the special exhibition Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation (September 13, 2024–January 5, 2025).

Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is required. You can register by clicking on the event on this form, beginning Thursday, October 10, after 10am.

The event will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open at 1:30pm.

The Harvard Art Museums offer free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

Support for this program is provided by the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund.

Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation is made possible by the Daimler Curatorship of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Fund, the Carola B. Terwilliger Bequest, German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Care of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Collection Endowment. Additional support was provided by the Goethe-Institut Boston and the Dedalus Foundation. Related programming is supported by the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund and the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.