PROGRESS
{{Short description|German film company}}
{{About|the film distributor in Germany|other uses|progress (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Progress Film
| logo = File:PROGRESS Film GmbH.jpg
| homepage = [https://www.progress.film/ www.PROGRESS.film]
}}
PROGRESS is a German film distributor. It was established in 1950 to handle the release of films produced by DEFA, the state-controlled production outfit of communist East Germany. Since 1989 Progress distributes the entire DEFA film collection.
Since 2019, PROGRESS has been digitizing and making accessible the complete holdings of DEFA as well as a growing number of international collections by other archives which are being made available to the public on a historically curated platform.{{cite web |title=PROGRESS |url=https://www.progress.film/professional |access-date=2025-02-25}}
History
File:Fotothek df roe-neg 0006550 010 Zwei Pioniere des Bezirks Leipzig sehen sich das.jpg in the Leipzig Cinema Capitol on 12 December 1953.]]
PROGRESS was founded on 1 August 1950 as a German–Soviet company. Like DEFA, PROGRESS Film was a monopoly company, and its films were carefully vetted by the regime for their content. PROGRESS took over this role in the early 1950s from Sovexport, a Soviet-controlled company which operated during the period following the Battle of Berlin in 1945 and the Allied Occupation of Germany. Rudolf Bernstein and Georgri Nikolayevich Nikolayev, later director of Soviet film production Lenfilm, were appointed German and Soviet directors.{{cite web |title=PROGRESS Film-Vertrieb G.m.b.H. (9.1950) |url=https://www.defa-stiftung.de/defa/geschichte/daten-und-fakten/filmwesen-der-ddr/3-distribution/310-filmverleih/3141-progress-film-vertrieb-gmbh/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |work=DEFA Stiftung}}
PROGRESS was the only film distributor in the German Democratic Republic. The repertoire includes more than 12,000 films from nine decades. Almost half of them were feature films and documentaries by DEFA, the only film studio in the GDR:{{cite web|url=https://www.filmportal.de/thema/progress-film-verleih|title=Progress Film Verleih|work=Filmportal|access-date=12 May 2019}} Progress also brought films by famous international directors to GDR cinemas. Among them were Sergei Eisenstein (f. e. Battleship Potemkin{{Cite web |title=Movie Database: BRONENOSEZ POTEMKIN. Panzerkreuzer Potemkin. Release Date (for Cinema): 17.11.1950 |url=https://www.defa-stiftung.de/en/films/film-search/bronenosez-potemkin/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=DEFA-Stiftung}}), Andrei Tarkovsky (f. e. Solaris{{Cite web |title=Movie Database: SOLJARIS. Solaris. Release Date (for Cinema): 20.09.1974 |url=https://www.defa-stiftung.de/en/films/film-search/solaris/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=DEFA-Stiftung}}), Federico Fellini (La Strada{{Cite web |title=Movie Database: La Strada. Release Date (for Cinema): 13.10.1961 |url=https://www.defa-stiftung.de/en/films/film-search/la-strada/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=DEFA-Stiftung}}), Luchino Visconti (f. e. Death in Venice{{Cite web |title=Tod in Venedig. Erstaufführung: 12.4.1974 Kino DDR |url=https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/37247/tod-in-venedig |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=Filmdienst}}), Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries{{Cite web |title=Wilde Erdbeeren. Erstaufführung: 8.7.1966 Kino DDR |url=https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/36303/wilde-erdbeeren |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=Filmdienst}}) and Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in the West{{Cite web |title=Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod. Erstaufführung: 24.7.1981 Kino DDR |url=https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/40283/spiel-mir-das-lied-vom-tod |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=Filmdienst}}).
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, PROGRESS—on behalf of the DEFA Foundation—began marketing the entire collection of films that show a now non-existent country.{{cite web|url=http://beta.blickpunktfilm.de/details/324542|title= Progress Film Verleih vermarktet DEFA-Filme weiterhin|last=Müller|first=Jochen|work=Blickpunkt:Film|access-date=12 May 2019}} Other collections from the 20th century were added. Many of the former East German films were re-released and became cult classics.Heiduschke p.33
In 2019, Progress was acquired as PROGRESS Film GmbH by LOOKSfilm, based in Halle. Since 1 April 2019, the entire film heritage of the GDR has been made internationally accessible on the platform PROGRESS.film.{{cite web |title=PROGRESS.film |url=https://www.progress.film/professional/collections |access-date=2025-02-25}} In addition, PROGRESS evaluates film materials from ministries, parties and authorities as well as other collections on behalf of the federal government. Thus, an increasing number of archive collections are made available to the public on PROGRESS.film.{{cite web|url=https://progress.film/progress|title=PROGRESS|access-date=22 February 2021}}
Collections
In total, PROGRESS' holdings include 20,000 films and recordings from around the world, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present (as of January 2021).{{cite web |title=PROGRESS Highlights. Archival treasures from over 100 years of (film) history |url=https://www.progress.film/professional/highlights |access-date=2025-02-25}}
File:Progress Filmverleih VEB Logo.svg
| class="wikitable" | ||
| Collection | Number of films | Production period |
|---|---|---|
| {{year header}} | DEFA productions | ||
| DEFA cartoons and animated films | {{abbr|approx.|approximately}} 950 | 1955–1992 |
| DEFA documentaries | approx. 2,100 | 1946–1992 |
| DEFA Movies | approx. 700 | 1946–1992 |
| DEFA newsreel Der Augenzeuge | approx. 2,000 | 1946–1980 |
| {{year header}} | Video archives | ||
| Blickpunkt | approx. 180 | 1990-2005 |
| Cintec | approx. 1,500 | 1985-2005 |
| Wydoks | approx. 60 | 1990–1992 |
| The Contemporary Witness Archive Thomas Grimm | approx. 1,600 | 1989-2009 |
| {{year header}} | Cinecentrum | ||
| Newsreel Blick in die Welt | approx. 2,000 | 1945–1986 |
| {{year header}} | Ukrainian Archives{{cite web|access-date=2025-02-25 |title=Ukrainian Archives |url=https://www.progress.film/professional/ukrainian-archives}}'' | ||
| Ukrainian State Archives | approx. 180 | 1917-1930 |
| {{year header}} | Historiathek | ||
| US Archives | approx. 900 | 1905–1992 |
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Sebastian Heiduschke. East German Cinema: DEFA and Film History. Springer 2013
{{Cinema of Germany}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Cinema of East Germany
Category:Film distributors of Germany
Category:Companies of East Germany
{{film-company-stub}}