The Sound of Friend­ship: Warm Wave­lengths in a Cold, Cold War?

A Film on Radio Berlin Inter­na­tion­al in India

A Film by: Anan­di­ta Baj­pai
Fea­tur­ing: Arvind Sri­vas­tav, Friede­mann Schlen­der, Mahesh Jha, Sabine Imhof
Edit­ing and Cam­era (Berlin, Ger­many): Daniel Gatz­ma­ga
Co-writ­ing and Cam­era (Mad­hep­u­ra, India): Jyoth­idas Kelam­bath Vadakkina

Description:

The doc­u­men­tary film ‘The Sound of Friend­ship’ traces the tra­jec­to­ry of Radio Berlin Inter­na­tion­al (RBI), a GDR based inter­na­tion­al radio broad­cast­er, from the per­spec­tive of its jour­nal­ists and lis­ten­ers, based in present day Ger­many and India. The film is a sto­ry of the radio station’s Hin­di Pro­gramme aired from 1967–1990. It takes view­ers from locales in Berlin, where the sta­tion was locat­ed, to Mad­hep­u­ra, Bihar in India where a Lis­ten­ers’ Club called the Lenin Club was active. How were transna­tion­al ties of friend­ship per­formed among actors from India and the GDR through the son­ic medi­um of short waves dur­ing the Cold War? How are those ties remem­bered today, 30 years after the shut­down of the station?

Trailer: