Using Time to Navigate East German Censorship: Thick Descriptions in The Children of Golzow (Winfried & Barbara Junge, 1962-2007)

The East German longitudinal documentary Die Kinder von Golzow (The Children of Golzow, Winfried & Barbara Junge, 1962-2007) offers insight into navigation of censorship and documentary filmmaking praxis in the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990). This paper examines how the films made during the GDR challenge censorship through “time shuttling”, a characteristic of longitudinal documentaries coined by Richard Kilborn (2010) were footage from past films are edited together with footage from present time. Through “time shuttling”, we are given a “thick description” (Geertz, 1973) of ordinary lives, challenging the state-driven narrative.