BALDIGA – UNLOCKED HEART
by Markus Stein
synopsis
West Berlin, 1979. Jürgen Baldiga, son of a miner from Essen, has just arrived in the city and decides to become an artist. Working as a rent boy and cook, he writes poems and a diary. After learning that he has HIV in 1984, he discovers photography. He intends his images to stop time and capture reality. They reveal his friends and lovers, wild sex, life on the street and the camp queens from the SchwuZ gay club who become his adopted family. Oscillating between despair and desire, rebellion and the will to survive, Baldiga becomes a chronicler of the queer West Berlin subculture in the face of his own imminent demise. When he died at the age of 34 in 1993, he left behind thousands of photographs and forty diaries – a unique artistic legacy. Using poetic diary excerpts, stark images and memories from companions, Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz depicts not only a ground-breaking photographer but also an AIDS activist and committed fighter against the stigmatisation of gay people’s lives.
international title: | Baldiga – Unlocked Heart |
original title: | Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz |
country: | Germany |
sales agent: | Autentic |
year: | 2024 |
genre: | documentary |
directed by: | Markus Stein |
film run: | 92' |
screenplay: | Ringo Rösener |
cinematography by: | Florian Lampersberger |
film editing: | Brigitte Maria Schmidle |
art director: | Bianca Bluhm |
costumes designer: | Marie-Luise Wolf |
music: | Manuela Schininà, Eike Hosenfeld |
producer: | Olaf Jacobs |
production: | Hoferichter & Jacobs Fernsehproduktionsgesellschaft |