Gerd Haag

5 Houses

A portrait of five people who were important to the filmmaker when he was a child. Apart from a few childhood photos, he himself remains out of the picture. He visits a teacher who used to take care of him, and a gay childhood friend. Their combined stories—about exclusion and terror, but also love—paint a portrait of a small, somewhat oppressive community and a boy who lost his sense of security within it, despite the help he was offered. In his wistful look at the past, Barreto transcends his personal experiences; anyone can identify with his bittersweet journey.

Schocken, on the Verge of Consensus

Salman Schocken was the King of department stores in Germany. Before WWII, he owned 22 department stores with 6,000 employees. He possessed a unique collection of 60,000 rare books in German and Hebrew and founded a modern, Jewish publishing house. He was the lifelong supporter of Shmuel Yosef Agnon and he owned the Haaretz newspaper which still survives on the border of consensus. He supported secular, Jewish culture and identified with humanist, liberal Judaism, a relic of 19th century Europe. Today, in an age of unscrupulous market economy and militant Judaism, Salman Schocken’s ways point to an alternative, perhaps not entirely lost.

Roundabout Art

In Europe, road junctions have become public art galleries. A road trip across France, Switzerland, the Canary Islands, Greece and Germany exploring the glorious world of roundabout art.

Bellini and Mantegna: Renaissance Rivals

The mysterious parallel story of Italian painters Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431-1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435-1516), brothers-in-law, public rivals and masters of the early Renaissance.

Hans Blumenberg - Der unsichtbare Philosoph

Documentary feature film about the life and work of renowned philosopher Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996). Christoph Rüter gives the word to three of Blumenberg's former students, who today work in very different sectors: As a taxi driver, an ad writer and a philosopher. They give a very personal account of how Blumenberg's thoughts and ideas have informed and inspired them.

Werner Nekes - Das Leben zwischen den Bildern

In conversations with his friends and colleagues, among them Bernd Upnmoor, Helmut Herbst, Alexander Kluge, Klaus Wyborny, Daniel Kothenschulte and Helge Schneider, Ulrike Pfeiffer takes us on a journey into the broad expanse of Nekes' cabinet of wonder and his cinematic works. At the same time, this documentary provides an insight into the history of experimental film in Germany.

Werner Nekes - Das Leben zwischen den Bildern

In conversations with his friends and colleagues, among them Bernd Upnmoor, Helmut Herbst, Alexander Kluge, Klaus Wyborny, Daniel Kothenschulte and Helge Schneider, Ulrike Pfeiffer takes us on a journey into the broad expanse of Nekes' cabinet of wonder and his cinematic works. At the same time, this documentary provides an insight into the history of experimental film in Germany.

Revolution of Sound - Tangerine Dream

‘Tangerine Dream is science fiction!’ declares band leader Edgar Froese who died in January, 2015 aged 70. For almost fifty years he and his band ‘Tangerine Dream’ explored sound and its effect on our emotions. This film about one of Germany’s first electronic bands kicks off with the young Berlin musicians who were as inspired by the space age of the 1960s, with its rocket launchings and visions of the future, as they were by their own heartbeat, on which Froese also based compositions. Aided by the Moog and other synthesisers Froese (and various band members) revolutionised popular music. His explorations took him into the worlds of classical, new and film music. He preferred to visualise moods rather than create clearly structured songs. A blend of amateur footage, interviews with band members, relatives, friends and colleagues such as Jean-Michel Jarre that creates a comprehensive portrait of an artistic pioneer.

Departure

Hilla grows up in the 60s, her father is a worker and her mother a charwoman. But she wants a different future for herself, wants to study. After a violent incident she needs a strong shoulder. Who of her life will do?

Sonita

If 18-year-old Sonita had a say, Michael Jackson and Rihanna would be her parents and she'd be a rapper who tells the story of Afghan women and their fate as child brides. She finds out that her family plans to sell her to an unknown husband for $9,000.

FEMMEfille

The story of Isabelle Caro, Oliviero Toscani's NO-Anorexia model who rose to fame after his campaign. Diving through different passages of time, with the aid of family photos as well as video diaries left behind, we see a kaleidoscope of Isabelle's life and the world that surrounded her.

Pixelschatten

Pixel (Ben Gageik) is a 22-year-old small-town blogger: Everyone can read about him and his friends online. His blog "Pixelschatten" used to be the hippest thing in town, but now the local fame has faded away. His friends go to college, have new friends and interests, and his girlfriend Suse (Zora Klostermann) is irritated by the private issues revealed on the blog. When Pixel realizes that everyone but him is moving on, he changes all their lives with just one post...

Dancing Dreams

The dance performance “Kontakthof” bears the unmistakable signature of Pina Bausch: it deals with forms of human contact, encounters between the sexes, and the search for love and tenderness, with all its attendant anxieties, yearnings and doubts. It is a dance about feelings, which always pose a big challenge – particularly for young people. Teenagers from more than eleven schools in Wuppertal went on an emotional journey that lasted almost a year. Every Saturday, forty students aged between fourteen and eighteen years of age took part in rehearsals that were led by Bausch-dancers Jo-Ann Endicott and Bénédicte Billiet and intensely supervised by Pina Bausch herself.

Before Flying Back to Earth

Documentary about a hospital ward for children with leukemia in Lithuania.

Gisela

Gisela is a young wife and mother, living in a working class German Housing Scheme. She is a supermarket cashier, her husband a delivery driver. The marriage is stale but together they are working their way up into the middle class. George and Gisela evidently knew each other as teenagers. They live on the same scheme and George introduces her to his friend Paul. There is instant mutual attraction. Gisela spontaneously goes to a party that they invite her to that evening, where she and Paul begin a sexual relationship.

Locked Up

In a German town, teacher Irene leads an inconspicuous, boring, lonely life. One day, a man rings at her door and slips in. It's an armed convict from the prison next door, escaped with a leg wound. He now makes her a prisoner in her own home. Almost without a word, as if she secretly enjoys the excitement or just mesmerized, she obeys Vassily, every single command, even sexual services, submissively or after a symbolic struggle. Somehow that seems to change, but can force initiate love?

Schräge Zeit

This is the story of a handful of people who had long quit believing in real existing socialism. They decided to do something about it. In a climate of continuous repression they were able to express artistic freedom in ways which no one would have deemed possible. Clandestine exhibitions, illegal rock-concerts and excessive partying was part of the programme. A clique around singer Jan Sputnik formed a punk-rock band called Democratic Consumption, as a way to earn money. They toured around Germany, performing shows and partied each day like it was their last.

Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs - The Iraqi Connection

A documentary film about the Mizrahim, or Jewish community of Iraq.

The Fabulous World of Doctor Cadéot

In Gascony, a sparsely populated region in the southwest of France, lives Dr. Jean Cadéot, a ninety-year-old veterinarian who continues to work tirelessly and still enjoys doing so. Although his eyesight is getting worse and worse, he treats his animal patients with all his senses and all his love.