New German Cinema: Images of a Generation explores the context within which films made by Fassbinder, Wenders, Herzog, von Trotta and others emerged during the late 1960s through to the mid-1980s. It examines the American dominance of the German market place, the notion and politics of an Autorenkino, the framework of European art cinema, and distribution and exhibition initiatives that helped facilitate the birth and shape of a new national cinema. The author discusses the way in which the New German Cinema engaged with contemporary West German reality and how the films raised important questions about West Germany's self-understanding in the postwar era.