The German Emigration Centre recently opened the special exhibition:

“Über die Grenze muss man nicht weit.“ Polnisch-deutsche Geschichten (1871 bis heute)

(‘You don’t have to go far to cross the border’. German-Polish stories from 1871 to the present days).

The neighbourhood between Poland and Germany is loaded with history and has experienced many events that have marked the two countries up to the present day – this history is exemplified in the exhibition on the occasion of Poland’s accession to the EU 20 years ago in 2004, when the border between the two countries became more permeable and fluid than it had been for a long time. Now it is changing and tightening again with the political development of migration and border policy in Europe.

This time I collaborated with the museum by editing the interviews with the protagonists, for whom the complex relationship between Poland and Germany is part of their life or family history.

Much of the material is from the interviews we conducted last year for the documentary ‘Wroclaw/Breslau’. Mostly unused material.

I also made the trailer that can be seen at the entrance of the exhibition on a double screen. And other versions also for the social media.

I have learned a lot by making the documentary and now the audiovisual content of the exhibition.

It is said: ‘You should film what you know’. However, documentary filmmaking is always an exploration in which you can find the familiar in the unknown.

Visitors

Pictures ©Deutsches Auswandererhaus