Synopsis
Love and revolution, primal screams and meditation, RAF and Baghwan: Gerd Conrad was an avowed searcher throughout his life, always interested in the extreme, the transgression of boundaries. The very first images of his ‘electronic testament’ reveal where his conditioning came from. Born in 1941 in the war, raised in East Germany, crossed the border in the 1950s. The Cold War, the ’68 generation and the divided city became his home – and source of friction. He moved on the fringes of the RAF, erected a monument to his friend Holger Meins in a touching film. Video art, among whose pioneers he may be counted, became his ideal medium. Dziga Vertov, the man with the camera who knew how to combine the documentary with bold effects, became his teacher. Conradt looks back on 50 years of living and working and doesn’t spare himself. He bares his soul, confesses trials and tribulations.But only the man who does nothing makes no mistakes, and anyway, the slogan of the ’68 generation still applies: the private is political - certainly when it comes to his biography. The wild life, the diversity of technical formats from Super 8 to 16mm to Video and HD and his passion for experiments have fallen into a convincing and thought-provoking order in VIDO VERTOV. Gerd Conradt is living proof that it’s worthwhile to get involved. (Cornelia Klauß / DOKLeipzig)
