Baldiga – Unlocked Heart

When the artist and photographer Jürgen Baldiga died of AIDS-related causes in 1993, he left behind what was probably the most extensive body of work on HIV, AIDS, homosexuality and subculture in West Berlin in the 1980s and early 1990s. This includes thousands of photographs and 40 diaries, over 7500 pages, which begin with his arrival in Berlin and end with his death there. Based on his early art, his equally poetic and unsparing diary entries and, above all, his haunting photographs, the film tells the story of the artist in all his contradictions and provides an insight into a Berlin subculture that would have been forgotten without him.

It is the portrait of a unique artist – at a time when an HIV infection was not only a certain death sentence, but also led to a renewed stigmatization of gay lifestyles. The film tells the story of how Jürgen Baldiga stood up to this – and was able to create something lasting with his art, even in the face of his own transience.

Credits

DIRECTOR > Markus Stein | SCREENPLAY > Ringo Rösener | DOP > Florian Lampersberger | EDITOR > Brigitte Maria Schmidle | PRODUCTION MANAGER > Jonas Giese | PRODUCTION > Hoferichter & Jacobs GmbH
mit dem RBB

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