Events & Calendars Screening: Award winning doc about the first Black Policeman in Saxony

Branwen Okpako’s graduation film from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin, Dreckfresser documents the rise and fall of Sam Meffire, the first Black police officer in the former East Germany. Son of a white mother and a Cameroonian student, he posed as “the Saxon” for an advertising campaign in the early 1990s and was frequently featured in public appearances with the Minister of the Interior. But Meffire resigned from the police force to set up a security firm and later turned to crime, eventually receiving a sentence of nine years in jail in 1996. Dreckfresser does not offer any explanations. The film centers on the eloquent Sam Meffire, but the filmmaker also talks to his mother, former colleagues and people working in the media. Their perspectives vary, contradicting or reinforcing each other, which is one reason why the film triggered a lot of debate at certain festivals. “I’m not into documentaries that try to tell the truth. That’s not possible because film is something that is made,” commented the director at the 2001 Berlinale Forum.

The screening will be followed by a Q & A with the filmmaker, moderated by Professor Lise Sanders.

Presented by FAMS. Dreckfresser was released in 2000, run time 75 minutes.