Alum Premieres Documentary to Rave Reviews at SXSW
Film Examines East German Secret Police Through Victim’s Eyes With Surveillance Implications for Today
In a new documentary, "The Spies Among Us," co-directed by UMD alum Gabriel Silverman '05, former East German political prisoner Peter Keup shares evidence that his late brother was secretly informing on their family.
Photos courtesy of SideXSide Studios
Few of us think twice about posting our favorite meals to social media. Or logging a daily run in an app. Or sharing real-time snaps from a weekend away. But during the Cold War, such seeming minutiae is the type of information that the German secret police would—and did—kill for.
Now, a new full-length documentary by University of Maryland alum Gabriel Silverman ’05 examines the “long-lasting effects of a surveillance state” in “The Spies Among Us,” which premiered Saturday at the SXSW Film & TV Festival
in Austin, Texas.
Gabriel Silverman '05
The East German Stasi “understood the power of data, keeping personal files on their own citizens to dissuade political dissent,” said Silverman. The film follows Peter Keup, a former German political prisoner who learns that his late brother once spied on him, as he interviews former officers—including the last living Stasi leader, Heinz Engelhardt—about their roles in the oppressive system.
Silverman co-directed with his wife, Jamie Coughlin Silverman, through their company SideXSide Studios (one of their previous films, “TransMilitary,” won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at SXSW in 2018). The former journalists were inspired by a 2013 trip to Germany, when both were selected for a broadcast fellowship in Berlin. They learned in-depth for the first time about the Stasi’s decades-long reign of terror that stoked paranoia and tore apart families and communities.
The film has struck a chord: IndieWire called it “a vital resource in understanding how these global conflicts can reach into the home,” and Den of Geek said it was “fearless but empathetic” and “should be essential viewing for anyone worried about the world today.”
Getting positive reviews is exciting, said Silverman, who spent six years on the project. “Even though you get into a top film festival, you always think: How will that art be received in person? Do people understand what you’re trying to communicate? Does this translate well to an American audience?”
A successful run at SXSW, where the documentary is being screened three times, is just the beginning, said Silverman. Amid the glitz and fun, he and his team have been working nonstop to promote it and find a distributor. “As independent filmmakers, not backed by studios, this is our opportunity to make an impression that determines the fate of your film.”
One of the events he joined during the festival, which ends Saturday, was a panel on how Cold War data surveillance tactics are reemerging in today’s society—a topic he hopes viewers will take seriously as they consider its implications on our lives.
“The Stasi spent billions … to collect the same data we trade away for free for modern convenience,” he said.
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