Documentary film
Germany/USA/Spain, 2008, 100 Min
English & German, with English, German, Spanish, French, Italian & Polish subtitles

The monks were 5 American GI’s in cold war Germany who billed themselves as the anti-Beatles; they were heavy on feedback, nihilism and electrical banjo. They had strange haircuts, dressed in black, mocked the military and rocked harder than any of their mid-sixties counterparts while managing to basically invent industrial, punk and techno music. The genre-overlapping documentary film not only illustrates the pop music phenomenon in its political, social and cultural historic contexts, but also reveals the monks project as the first marriage between art and popular music and this months before Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.
The five protagonists of the film came to cold war Germany in 1961 as soldiers and left the country in 1967 as avant-garde monks. For more than thirty years they were not able to talk about their strange experience. In the film they recount for the first time their adventure.
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Grimme Award 2008
Winner of the Best Editing Award at Milan Doc Festival 2007: "Touching representation of the crossing lives of an anomalous group of musicians, described with a dynamic rhythm of sound and images"
Winner of the Category for Best Documentary at Würzburg International Film Days 2007
Audience Award Berlin & Beyond Film Festival 2007, San Francisco (2nd winner)
A favorite of the Leeds Film Festival audience 2006
Nominated for the Award Hessischer Film- und Kinopreis 2006 in Frankfurt
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“More than simply a music documentary, The Transatlantic Feedback is an affecting account of the journey of a group of friends through one of the strangest trips of the 20th century.” Wire Magazine (10/10)
“A loving and penetrating documentary film.” The Hollywood Reporter (7/06)
"Excellent pic. The filmmakers do a vivid job etching the creatively fervid times, with an editing style whose dynamism echoes that of Monk music." Variety (2/07)
"A fascinating documentary film!" Der Spiegel (2/07)
“A magnificent film” Die Zeit (9/06)
"A wonderful documentary film - a long overdue history lesson. Go and watch it!" Rolling Stone (10/06)
“This absorbing documentary tells the Monks’ story with precision and flair. (...) It’s the witty and unsentimental interviews with the five band members that reveal their focus and idiosyncratic brilliance.” The Chicago Reader (8/06)
“Everyone knows Elvis Presley served Uncle Sam in Germany, but have you heard about the American GIs who stayed after their tour of duty and formed one of the most influential rockbands of all time? Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to meet the Monks, who dressed the part and are seen wigging out in front of amazed German teens priceless TV archival footage. It is a wonderful window into the German-American cross-cultural experience.” Variety Australia (5/07)
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IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880571/
Purchase the DVD: https://www.playloud.org/archiveandstore/en/dvd/57-monks-the-transatlantic-feedback.html