FROM 1994 TO 2004 KLAUS KEIL directed the Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH (FBBB), the film-funding body that sought, in those years, to improve the capital region’s film development, production, and post-production infrastructure as well as the market value of features made there. Formerly a production manager and professor of production and media economics at the University of Film and Television in Munich, Keil was known for his emphasis on German cinema’s commercial success. His perspective on the post-unification German film industry offers a helpful counterpoint to the Eastern film industry’s experience of the Wende. In particular, his account introduces the exigencies of an industry poised between divergent historical working models, local and regional cultural politics, and an imagined urban future.

BRIGITTA WAGNER: Why was it important to forego the existing Berliner Filmförderung (BFF) for the newer model of the Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg (FBBB)?

KLAUS KEIL: After the Wende, there was great agitation in the Berlin film community. People weren’t happy with how things were decided— the process, the excessive bureaucracy, the high-handedness, the little amount of money, the length of time, and so on. The concept of the managing directorship (Intendantenmodell) had been kicking around for a while, but had never been pursued, probably because the time wasn’t ripe yet. But in the early post-Wende years there was a spirit of breaking new ground. The FBBB came from the film industry, not from politics. Politics just allowed for it.

` All the regions were beginning to found modern limited liability companies with strong executives or a managing directorship. The NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) model with a film foundation began in 1991 with Dieter Kosslick [later head of the Berlin International Film Festival] at the helm. In 1996 came Bavaria, the FFF (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern). It was a time when people began to realize that the old subsidy system wasn’t working very well: the needs were different; the direction was different; and the competition was greater.

BW: What were the duties of the FBBB’s managing director (Intendant)?

KK: The managing director took responsibility for the decisions about which films would be made. The politicians did not really understand that. So the first managing director left after half a year.