Synopsis
The BOWLINGTREFF is a bowling alley situated right in the centre of Leipzig opened in July 1987. At that time the quality of life in Leipzig and the whole GDR got worse. Houses collapsed because of poor conditions, public life and amusement was on a very low level.
The “Bowlingtreff” was not merely an urban entertainment centre but a revolution in those days. Built with the help of hundreds of volunteers without permission of the state authorities in Berlin the building expresses a free and international architecture known as postmodernism. It is an architecture that was never seen before in Leipzig. Marble and parquet on the floor, a glass roof and beautiful pink pillars. The atmosphere was western as time witnesses remember it.
This documentary tells the story of this building and the people behind it. Beyond that international experts estimate the postmodern architecture of the BOWLINGTREFF as one of a kind in history. Postmodernism-Icon Denise Scott Brown profoundly evaluates the BOWLINGTREFF as a remarkable sign of the time that anticipates the Zeitgeist of 1989 when people had the bravery to claim for freedom.
This documentary reconnects beautiful file footage with high-end sequences from the BOWLINGTREFF that is abandoned today.
