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.

In collaboration with:
ZDF/3sat (German Public TV) - Commissioning editor Katya Mader
Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public TV) - Commissioning editor Lili Kobbe
Filmförderung Hessen hr (German Film Board)
Filmbüro NW (German Film Board)
Cine Impuls (Berlin)
Chicago Underground Film Fund
Other Music (New York)
Reel Life (New York)
Anthology Film Archives (New York)

AWARDS
Grimme Award 2008
"monks-the transatlantic feedback achieves nothing less than a precise ethnography of the 60's, a portrait of an atmosphere of departure with the sky full of timbals and guitars."

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

PRESS REVIEWS
“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)

“It takes more than just documenting a great band to make a great movie: the band has to be unique in spirit and story and fit into a larger picture of the rock canon, and the filmmakers have to find the cinematic language to bring that essence to the screen. Never have these rarities all come together more beautifully than in "monks - the transatlantic feedback". Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios have given us a brilliant journey with the most extraordinary rock band to ever cut vinyl!”
Allison Anders, Filmmaker, Los Angeles

“Fantastic film! Respect! Full of facts and details, wonderfully tied into the art net, interwoven brilliantly with the band-member interviews. It reminded me of the beautiful film by Fechner* about the Comedian Harmonists – in its mix of intelligence, sensitivity and the description of the greatness of a band, which for a few years was the essence of the (art) world.”
Berthold Seliger, Seliger Concert Agency

“This film is absolutely astonishing for one simple reason. The revelations and connections made by the film are so completely new that the history of popular music not only needs to be reconsidered but most probably to be rewritten. The Monks invented in 1965 punk, prog and political rock and techno. Now they are considered a mega-60’s legend: obscure, raw, brutal, angry, political, just ANTI...! References are, among others, The White Stripes, Schorsch Kamerun and the founder of German Beat-Club, Mike Leckebusch. The film is not only a must for every music fan but also for all people interested in recent German-American history.”
Johnny Bottrop, Terrorgruppe, Germany

“It is a funny, fascinating and hugely enjoyable documentary.”
Filmink Magazine Australia (5/07)

“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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Parallel to the film release, play loud! put together the compilation album "Silver Monk Time - a Tribute to the Monks", in which 29 international artists take on the legacy of the monks. With FSK, The Fall, Faust, Fehlfarben, Doc Schoko, Gudrun Gut, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Chicks on Speed, Psychic TV, International Noise Conspiracy, Alexander Hacke, Barbara Manning, S.Y.P.H., Alec Empire, Silver Apples, Alan Vega, Mouse on Mars, The Raincoats, Jason Forrest, Singapore Sling, 27/11, Mense Reents, 5.6.7.8's, Cycle, The Gossip, Jon Spencer, Solex, Charles Wilp and the original monks.

Compilation of the year 2007 in Wire Magazine

Listen or purchase "Silver Monk Time" here: https://orcd.co/silvermonktimetributetothemonks

OTHER LINKS
Official movie site: https://playloud.org/themonks.html
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880571/
Purchase the DVD: https://www.playloud.org/archiveandstore/en/dvd/57-monks-the-transatlantic-feedback.html