A causality between breaking-up and pain is there, just as it is painful to give birth a something new. Yet East-Germany, more than the eastern countries, has seen a radical dismantling of grown structures of production. Studios in Poland, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria and the CSFR continue to function - like the TV-stations freed from the burden of political censorship, commission documentary or artistic video productions. In addition to that newly founded smaller groups and a growing number of indepen-dent video producers have appea-red that, in a smaller number, emer-ged from the “underground scene”. From the East-European videomakers, exempting the Hungarian works that look back on a longer tradition of video, a direct line stretches to the respective national traditions of documentary films continued with other means. Due to the risen availability of technology, the advantages of video technology (mobility, cheaper costs of production, better opportunities for broadcasting, individual forms of distribution etc.) have led to a growing use. Thematically, docu-mentations concentrate on the reflection of social change and the interpretation of the past, e.g. the Stalin era; besides that, topical events are described with great authenticity. Persons involved or affected are interviewed and perso-nalities from politics or culture analyse the events. The form is always linear without using the intrinsic qualities of video for the visual composition. Another thematical approach is concerned with everyday life. Problems new to eastern countries such as unemployment, prostitution, drug addiction, anxieties about the future, social gaps mirror the painful conditions of revolts. Again the form is borrowed from documentary film. Then again there are poetic, quiet works on ethnic minorities or on the rise of traditional values that mirror the concern for the environment or the longing for a better future.
Something else has changed: the continuity of exchanging experiences among filmmakers is interrupted.