Historian Brian Ladd, who holds a doctorate from Yale University and has written two books and numerous articles on the German urban landscape, puts his expertise to good use in sketching the physical development of Berlin from its modest origins in the 12th century to the present in Berlin's Hidden History, a rather homespun, barebones travel documentary that turns out to be surprisingly informative. Ladd reads his own text--an intelligent script that looks at the city under the Prussian monarchy and the Second and Third Reichs, as well as during the post-war and contemporary eras--in professorial style, sounding (and looking) more like a rumpled campus lecturer than the sort of ultra-smooth spokesman often found in similar efforts, while the camerawork by director and Rensselaer professor John Woods is similarly functional and unpretentious. The result is a film that treats its viewers like adults, rewarding their attention rather than trying to impress them with technique and showmanship. The DVD also includes two interesting mini-lectures, one with Berlin professor Johannes Helmrath on the early history of Berlin and the second with Peter Pulzer of Oxford University on the history of Berlin's Jewish population. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Berlin's Hidden History
(2002) 53 min. DVD: $29.95. Woods Productions (dist. by Instructional Video). PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 0-9703681-1-9. Volume 18, Issue 3
Berlin's Hidden History
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