Born in East Berlin in 1955, Thomas Heise took his first steps as director’s assistant in East Germany’s DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft) Film Studios between 1975 and 1978. From 1978 to 1983, he studied to become a TV and film director. His first film, Why a Film about such People?, was made using black market materials. It was only allowed to be released in 1990. Since then, Heise has worked as a freelance writer and director of documentary films, theatre plays and radio shows. As a documentary maker, he portrayed the underprivileged in East Germany in the 1980s, before the fall of the Wall. After the fall, he set out to show the most devastating effects of the unification of Germany on the same people. In the past few years, Heise has broadened his scope, moving on to other topics and locations.
The retrospective at Punto de Vista will include Heise’s most important works from his different periods. Mein Bruder/My Brother, on denunciations in East Germany and Eisenzeit/Ironage, about the underlying Nazi ideas after the unification of Germany, draw a complex picture of contemporary Germany, whereas Die Lage/Condition or his latest documentary, Gegenwart/Consequence, reflect his critical view of the German society facing the new dynamics of the twenty-first century.
