They filmed the Wall standing. Then history threw a party.
In 1986, Ross McElwee (Sherman's March) and Marilyn Levine were making a film about the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, when the imposing structure was still very much intact as the world’s most visible symbol of hardline Communism and Cold War lore. They thought they were making a documentary on the community of tourists, soldiers, and West Berliners who lived in the seemingly eternal presence of the graffiti emblazoned eyesore. But in 1989, as the original film neared completion, the Wall came down, and McElwee and Levine returned to Berlin, this time to capture the radically different atmosphere of the reunified city.
Direction
McElwee's wandering eye finds poetry in tourists and rubble.
Editing
Juxtaposing 1986 permanence against 1989 euphoria—chef's kiss.
Director
Marilyn Levine
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
McElwee's previous doc 'Sherman's March' became a cult classic; this was supposed to be its quick follow-up before history intervened.
The Wall's fall happened so fast that no major documentary was in production—making this amateur footage accidentally precious archival material.
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