Will traditional documentary film genres survive i f television rarely gives them a slot nowadays1Only 3sat, thejoint German-language channel, has taken its cultural responsibilities as a public broadcaster seriously from the outset, offering a regular forum for this endangered species with its series ,,Dokumentarfilmzeit“.The channel also commissions productions and helps fund projects which are difficult to implement, for example because they monitor their subject over a long period, like„Mama General" (Dir: Peter Heller/Sylvie Banuls, Cam: Otmar Schmid, Prod: Peter Heller Fllm,D 1997,98 min.).
The director made his first two camera portraits ofa big family in Cologne, on the margins o f „the rat race in our transformed country", in 1976 and 1986 for the channel ZDF. 20years later he returned to the theme: „The film doesn't moan, but vividly shows us something else concealed behind the statistics on rising poverty: people who have strength, a senseofhumour, solidarity, dignity and a lo t o f hope - which sometimes, like in this case,proves warranted..."
After this Festival premiere we w ill be screening a workshop discussion with the authors which was broadcast on 28/12/1997 after the film (25 min., Edit:RudolfBlank/Margit Schreiber).