Though well established within the East German movie making community, Heiner Carow had to manoeuvre when his candid, realistic work upset officials, but the popularity of some of his films and the recognition he got at festivals (like the Silver Bear in West Berlin in 1990) put him in a comfortable position, he was Vice President of the Academy of Arts in the DDR from 1982 through 1993. He was born in Rostock in 1929 and he had as his mentors veteran DEFA directors Slatan Dudow and Gerhard Klein when he was in the studio class for young filmmakers from 1950 to 1952. His The Legend of Paul and Paula was said to have played longer than any other movie in German theatres, and his Coming Out dared to treat the subject of male homosexuality for the first time in an East German film. Carow died in 1997.