| Contemporary German films face political and economic pressures to cross more and more borders in their production and distribution. Compared to their Hollywood counterparts, German producers operate with very small budgets, usually assembled from some mixture of regional, federal, and European subsidies. Territorial film funding authorities seek to align their economic and political interests: economically, they aim to attract production and expand markets in the face of Hollywood's domination; politically, they aim to mobilize feelings of commonality and legitimacy by celebrating "cultural diversity." At the same time, however, European expansion and German reunification have led to popular reevaluations of what it means to be "German" or "European." In Germany, this has resulted in a surge of popular "heritage films" that repackage the past for contemporary consumption. How are these conflicting impulses—to cross borders and to affirm them—negotiated?;To investigate this question, I trace appeals to territorial interest and identity in the emergence of three 2003 German films: Rosenstrasse, The Miracle of Bern, and Good Bye, Lenin! Each of these films reframes a nationally significant historical event (in 1943, 1954, and 1989, respectively), I examine territorial appeals in these projects' funding, production, distribution, and marketing discourses. This approach shows the contingency of each step toward a project's success and highlights the reflexive relationship between territorial mechanisms to direct popular culture and the dynamic discursive processes among a variety of stakeholders. To examine territorial appeals at work, I conducted in-depth interviews with industry and government experts. I also analyzed film policy, federal law, industry publications, educational materials, newspaper articles, marketing strategies, and, of course, the films themselves. Although these border-crossing processes have inspired claims of "borderless" and "transnationalizing" culture, I argue that territorial authorities and institutions have adopted more indirect and interdependent strategies to advance their interests. The study challenges arguments about transnationalization of culture by drawing attention to the essentially territorial appeals that constitute the narration of nation, social power, identity, and the geopolitics of culture economies. |
