Filmscreening (online) and Film Talk (online) on the occasion of German Unity Day on 3 October 2021, presented in collaboration with the International Festival of Films on Art:

THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE

Director: Tom Ehrhardt
Documentary
Germany, Brazil | 2019 | 78 mins
Original version with English subtitles

A treasure is stored in a secret location in Brasilia: the largest private collection of non-conformist art from the GDR. Its collector, the Brazilian diplomat Chagas Freitas, is the key to an almost forgotten chapter of German history.

United in silent but stubborn resistance to the dictatorship and yet linked to it in passionate disloyalty, populated by highly qualified, introverted individualists – that describes the scene of non-conformist artists from the former GDR. At the time, 30 years ago, many experts had predicted a breakthrough for this scene, and yet these artists and their works never made it into the general public’s field of vision: neither under socialism nor in reunified Germany.

Directed by Tom Ehrhardt, this documentary tells the story of a collector’s attempt to preserve an important piece of German art history, but also of artists who struggled to work freely at a time when art was dominated by socialist realism and strictly controlled by the East German regime.

The film will be presented online for free across Canada from October 1 to 10 on www.arts.film.

Film talk with documentary filmmaker and director of The Forgotten Treasure, accessible online from October 3, 2021.