FRG 1970 | Director, screenplay, editing: Gisela Tuchtenhagen, Maurice Taszman | Camera: Gisela Tuchtenhagen | Collaboration: Christina Perincioli, Gust Verschueren, Alfio Franchi, et al. / Unitelefilm | Production: Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) | b/w | DCP | 45 min | DF | NDR One Gate

"New tasks are emerging for filmmakers on behalf of the labour movement" – this early work by Gisela Tuchtenhagen, Wochenschau 4, was produced as a collective effort within the highly politicised DFFB (German Film and Television Academy, Berlin). It not only documents the "Hot Autumn"– the strike movement in Italy in 1969/1970 – but is itself a contribution to the "campaign for counter-information" to reporting on middle-class radio and television.

The film shows a spirit of optimism – trade union organising, factory occupations, demonstrations – and displays opposition to the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno and the distribution of public funds to large companies, Italian television broadcaster RAI ("Television is a public institution, so it should be available to us – or at least to us too") [KA1], and NATO – which is described as a good deal for American President Nixon at the expense of the working class. "Peace is revolutionary," and film was recognised at the time as a weapon. This is a memorable historical document, with excerpts from agitprop films by Ugo Gregoretti (CONTRATTO / CONTRACT, IT 1970) and Giuseppe Ferrara (LA NATO. IL NEMICO IN CASA / NATO. THE ENEMY IN OUR HOUSE, IT 1968). (Borjana Gaković)