Film Screening of Bernd Sahling's documentary "It'll Be OK" (1987-1990)

The DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst and Deutsches Haus at NYU present a film screening of Bernd Sahling's documentary It’ll Be OK (GDR/Germany, 1987-90, 78 min., documentary, EN ST), which will take place on October 15, at 6 PM. Bernd Sahling will be present to introduce and discuss the film.

Attendees are encouraged to visit the accompanying exhibition following the screening.

About the screening:

In 1988, director Bernd Sahling released his documentary Living My Way tracing the punk Stummel’s life in East Germany from November 1987 to March 1988. It was the first film featuring the officially denied punk scene in East Germany. It’ll Be OK includes the earlier film, and additional footage shot after the fall of the Berlin Wall and until March 1990.

About the photographer:

Bernd Sahling was born in East Germany in 1961. He graduated from the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1991 with his groundbreaking thesis film It’ll Be OK (1988-90), an almost four-year observation project of the East German punk scene. Sahling has worked as a director, screenwriter and assistant director. His collaboration with director Helmut Dziuba, who was known for his outstanding children’s and youth films, was a big influence on Sahling’s career. The theme of his awarded films is young people faced with difficulties and conflicts. Sahling, who has documented the work of the Berlin-based dance company Cie. Toula Limnaios since 2021 and has held many media workshops for kids, is currently working on his latest children’s film, a first-love story, I’ll Brave from Tomorrow (release in 2025).

The exhibition is made possible through an endowment established by Roger J. Schnetzer and the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA).

Special thanks to filmmaker Bernd Sahling, Savannah Champion (translator of the texts), the Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Detlef Fiedler (exhibition design, print) and Hiltrud Schulz (DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst).

Host or Publisher Deutsches Haus at NYU