History on screen: East Germany through its filmmakers' eyes
In this Wednesday, June 17, 2020 photo Gunnar Dedio, German film producer and managing director of PROGRESS Film GmbH poses for a photo between rolls of film in the archive of PROGRESS Film, in Leipzig, Germany. A new project is underway to digitize thousands of East German newsreels, documentaries and feature films 30 years after Germanys reunification. The East German Augenzeuge, or Eyewitness, newsreel on the Kennedy visit trumpeted the prank as a triumph, scoffing that the American president got an “unexpected surprise instead of the great view into the East German capital promised by his Secret Service” and allegedly had to cut his visit from “20 minutes to five." Germany was divided into four occupation zones after World War II, the Soviet-influenced East Germany and West Germany's American, British and French sectors. In 1950, the year after East Germany was established as a country, the authorities formed another company, Progress, as a state monopoly to distribute DEFA films and to import foreign productions.
Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee dies at age 84
Former President Pranab Mukherjee, who was a key troubleshooter in managing fractious coalitions as a member of India's long-governing Congress party died Monday evening. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)NEW DELHI Former President Pranab Mukherjee, a senior leader of India's Congress party who served in multiple Cabinets during five decades in politics, has died. Mukherjee was president from 2012 to 2017, at the end of a long period when the Congress party held power. He lost his position as finance minister after Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 and her son Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister. Mukherjee formed his own party but later reconciled with Rajiv Gandhi and returned to the Congress party in 1989.