This is the international MySpace for "DER ROTE ELVIS" (The Red Elvis), the strange story of Dean Reed, socialisms biggest popstar
Director: Leopold Grün
Producer/Photographer: Thomas Janze
Produced by Totho Productions
DigiBeta/HDV, 90 Minutes
The documentary premiered in the „Panorama“ section of the 57th International Film Festival Berlin (Berlinale 2007)
The film has been enabled by the support of Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg and DEFA foundation. Further support came from Sony Deutschland GmbH.
TERMINE IN DEUTSCHLANDINTERNATIONAL SCREENINGS:4th PLANETE DOC REVIEW, WARSAW
11.-20.05.200729. Moscow International Film Festival
21.-30.06.2007Film Festival Athen
20.-30.09.2007Festival deutschsprachiger Filme Prag, Brünn
04.-12.10.200712e Édition du festival du cinéma allemand, Paris
10.-16.10.2007MOFFOM. Music on Film - Film on Music, Prag
18.10.-22.10.2007Deutsche Filmwoche Rom in Zusammenarbeit mit German Films
21.10.2007STARZ Denver International Film Festival
08.-18.11.2007German Films Go North! - Kopenhagen
26.-29.11.2007International Film Festival Turin
23.11.-01.12.2007International Film Festival Bratislava
30.11.-08.12.2007Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival
30.11.-09.12.2007Goethe Institut Washington
10.12.2007Goethe Institut San Francisco
Filmfestival Berlin & Beyond
10.-16.01.2008
WATCH THE TRAILER:
INFO:
On the 17th of June 1986 a man is dragged out of a lake in the outskirts of East Berlin. He turns out to be the American singer and actor Dean Reed, one of the most mysterious legends of global pop culture during Cold War times.
Dean Reed was a good friend of Salvador Allende and Yasser Arafat, throughout the whole world he protested against military regimes and the Vietnam war, he acted in spaghetti westerns in Italy, he was the first US-American to tour across the Soviet Union, he sang country songs on GDR television and posed for photographes in Lebanon with a machine gun in his hand.
As a young man from a small town in Colorado he moved to Hollywood to record a handful of singles. „Our Summer Romance“ conquered the charts in South America. Dean Reed was a cowboy and an entertainer, he was admired like a teen idol and a heartthrob, he was a freedom fighter and a rebel, who travelled around the globe with endless energy – thereby not only challenging his own limits, but also the boundaries of the contemporary map of ideologies. When he moved to the GDR in 1972, Dean Reed was a celebrated star of socialism. His myth has survived the Cold War era until today.
Leopold Grün portrays this fascinating rebel by carefully balancing the different episodes. Among others Isabel Allende Bussi, Armin Mueller-Stahl and GDR director Günter Reisch express their experiences with Reed. „The Red Elvis“ is a heartfelt, but at the same time also critical documentary about an exceptional phenomenon, trapped between succes and tragedy, between political engagement and naivity. Furthermore, the unique soundtrack makes the memory of the „Red Elvis“ utopia not only sensitively tangible, but also shows its emotional liveliness.
THE REDELVIS.comOnly on the Web: Tom Hanks visits Günther ReischPressebilder bei Mücke Filmpresse
International Press
REVIEWS / PRESSESTIMMEN (Check the section for 2007!)
NEWS & STORIES:
English:
Wikipedia: Dean Reed
Hollywood.com: "Comrade Rockstar" : Tom Hanks is working on a feature film about Dean Reed for Dreamworks
Colorado Heritage 1999: The Singing Marxist
NPR: The man who rocked the iron curtain
BBC Radio 2: Dean Reed – Death Of A Comrade
The Guardian: From the land of the free
The Sunday Times: Death in Berlin for defector who changed his tune
Randomwalks-Discussion
International:
DeanReed.de - Fansite No. 1 (mostly German, but they have an excellent Press Archive
The Prague Pill: Looking back at Dean Reed, the American Soviet Superstar
Svenska Dagbladet: Dean Reed - stjärnan som klev ut i kylan
LaMujerDeMiVida.com: DEAN REED - YANQUI COME HOME
La Nacion: CON DEAN REED EN LA MIRA
Russian article
Japanese article with cool pictures
DeanReed.de Press Archive
