Directed by: Marten Persiel
Producer: Ronald Vietz, Michael Schöbel
Production company: Wildfremd production
Cinematography: Felix Leiberg
Editing: Maxine Gödicke, Toni Froschhammer, Bobby Good
Music: Lars Damm

Format: video
Running time: 90'

Synopsis
“The GDR was not supposed to be that way – the streets were not for playing around,” we hear at one point in the film – just as the “wheel-boards” roll across Alexanderplatz in footage from the 80s: hotpants, sex and music right beside government-organized processions. The story is authentic right down to the production and creative teams, which are made up of East and West German skaters. The arc of the film connects past and present to show how the skaters’ lives (shaped by a repressive system) have their own strength. This Ain’t California has a light-hearted yet powerful soundtrack as limitless as the vitality of its protagonists. Yet it is not a light-hearted film at all. It is a metaphor with its beginnings in the GDR but does not end with the fall of the wall. Life in the GDR as it has never been seen: a film that shows a unique generation from the GDR in the 80s which has never before been shown in a film. It is free from the classic GDR clichés, which are often adopted by the occidental point of view.

Awards and Festivals
Berlin International Film Festival 2012 - Dialogue en Perspective Award
Atlanta Film Festival 2012
Palm Beach International Film Festival 2012
Cannes Independent Film Festival 2012

Directors Biography
Marten Persiel was born in 1974 in Berlin. From 1995 till 1996 he was editing assistant at the HKF Hamburg. 1997/98 he studied Mixed Media Art at the Portsmouth University. 1998 – 2001 he studies directing at the Westminster University in London. Today he is a director and writer for commercials, music videos and documentaries.

Location and screening schedule:
GRIÈ CINEMA, Monday, October 15th at 14.00
GRIÈ CINEMA, Monday, October 15th at 16.00
DOKUKINO KIC, Tuesday, October 16th at 19.30