Continuity and Change in GDR Cinema Programming Policy 1979–1989: the Case of the American Science Fiction Import

This article explores cinema programming policy with regard to the American film import in the last decade of the GDR. Taking the science fiction film as a case‐study, the mechanisms of censorship scrutiny of western imports in the GDR are examined on the basis of interviews with officials employed by the ‘Hauptverwaltung Film’ in the Ministry of Culture as well as the documents they produced. Prior to the decade under consideration, the science fiction genre had only been represented in GDR cinemas by indigenous productions and imports from other Eastern Bloc countries. Their designation as ‘utopische Filme’ was representative of the fact that these films were clearly demarcated from their western equivalents. The consideration and subsequent import of the American science fiction film would appear to suggest that there was a shift in policy towards the western import film. A close examination of the science fiction films’ distribution history confirms this in part, although it is concluded that the individual films do not represent a significant departure from the established cinema culture norms.