Filmstudio 43: Zeitschrift für Film

Frankfurt am Main: Filmstudio an der Johann- Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität; Filmstudio an der Technischen Hochschule Aachen, 1964. 8vo (23x15cm), staple-bound in illustrated wrappers. 64pp. Text in German. Mild rubbing to spine. Strong but poetic sunning to cover (actually red, like rear cover), creating a thin line, dividing Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. Three small markings with blue ballpoint pen, in the last section “Filmliteratur”, else very good.

Published by the Filmstudio an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main, and the Filmstudio an der Technischen Hochschule Aachen, this Filmstudio 43 issue is dedicated to a censorship scandal in Germany, in which Chris Marker’s film Cuba Si plays the leading role.

Cuba Si was first shown in prime time on ZDF, the second German public televison, on December 3rd, 1963. However, the film was broadcasted under the title Die verkaufte Revolution – Castros Verrat an Kuba [The sold Revolution – Castro’s betrayal of Cuba] with an edit and commentary by Christoph Kaiser. Kaiser, an employee in the department Dokumentation Ausland at ZDF, had shortened the film by fifteen minutes, given it a different beginning and ending, and partially added new dialogue.

These massive intervention and reframing sparked a debate that was picked up by the editorial board of Filmstudio. Kaiser defended himself by arguing that, “bisher sind wir mit allen Filmen, die wir im Ausland einkaufen, so verfahren.” [so far we have done this with all films that we buy abroad], which pointed to a much larger structural problem.

With the invitation of Filmstudio, Chris Marker wrote a text on this scandal in form of an open letter, commenting on the events surrounding his film. This exclusive open letter was printed next to the entire text of Cuba Si, in order to give the reader a better impression of the original film.

Furthermore, in his article Rebels in America, Werner Herzog reports on several films of New American Cinema including Guns of the Trees by Jonas Mekas, Blonde Cobra by Jack Smith, The Dead by Stan Brakhage, Scorpio Rising by Kenneth Anger, and others.

A scarce document of German film history about censorship on public television with a open letter by Chris Marker.

OCLC (10/2021) records no institutional holdings.