JÖRG FOTH WAS BORN IN BERLIN in 1949. He completed his studies at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1977 and premiered his first feature film, Das Eismeer ruft (The Arctic Sea Calls!, GDR), in 1984, followed by Biologie! (Biology!, GDR 1990) and Letztes aus der DaDaeR (Latest from the Da-Da-R, GDR/FRG 1990). The long gap between Foth’s first and second features was characteristic of DEFA’s treatment of its so-called “fourth generation” of directors, and Foth spoke out in favor of more opportunities for these young filmmakers. Letztes aus der DaDaeR was based on the stage work of the same name by Hans-Eckardt Wenzel and Steffen Mensching, who also wrote and starred in the film. Since the closure of DEFA, Foth has continued to work in cinema and television, as well as theater. He was Artist-in-Residence at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s DEFA Film Library in the fall of 2010.

QUESTION: How did you personally experience the Wende? What sort of opportunities did one have, as a director from the East, under the new funding conditions?

JÖRG FOTH: In the beginning everything was fantastic. The euphoria held for a long time, especially in the media. There were an unbelievable number of partners who were curious about each other; a lot of different projects were feasible. For the most part, you could go anywhere and organize any project, and find partners for it. It was an unbelievably productive time for everybody. After about 1995, the money began to disappear. Up till then television networks had gladly given out smaller productions to freelancers. Everyone from DEFA was freelancing by then. This cooperation with freelancers abated. Some people started to work for the theater. Many of the older directors, those who were fifty or even over fifty when DEFA was closed, weren’t really prepared—in terms of energy, of desire for different challenges, different worries, different hopes—so they felt that their lives were over with the closing of DEFA.

Q: In the 1980s, you belonged to the DEFA Nachwuchsgruppe, the studio’s working group for young directors. What did this cohort want to change about DEFA aesthetics?