“[The author] consistently deploys a variety of distinct, yet complementary, source materials (archival resources and oral interviews, as well as the documentary films themselves) to make an argument for the festival’s significance to Cold War, East German, and documentary film history. This lucid, deeply contextualized account of the Leipzig Festival’s history will be valuable to scholars interested in Cold War history, film studies, and German studies. - Highly recommended” • Choice“A highly readable, supremely well-researched and fascinating account of the Leipzig Film Festival… a knowledgeable and engaging analysis of an event that comprised a multitude of voices – those of reformers, apparatchiks, iconoclasts and conformists – and where key international developments and crises were echoed in films screened (or not) and discussions staged (or silenced)…More than that, the book offers a valuable guide to East German history, situating as it does the film festival in the context of the GDR’s foreign, domestic and cultural policy all of which had implications for filmmakers and curators.” • Studies in Eastern European Cinema