Regulating Leisure in State Socialism

Abstract

This article will argue that the popularization of the amateur genre ‘family film’ in guides, manuals and a leisure film festival became a paternalistic strategy to regulate individual moviemakers in state socialism. It reveals the benefits of historical research on guiding literature and guidelines at an amateur festival in East Germany. Analyzing promoted norms diachronically points to a changing understanding of leisure in socialism. Additionally, it reveals a complex media history that is not reduced to top-down orders. On the contrary, guides display constant negotiations between state regulation and individualism. Thus, this paper questions a perspective on private media production in the GDR that is often politicized by categories such as propaganda or subversion.