Markus Stein

Baldiga: Unlocked Heart

Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera.

On the Footsteps of Goethe in Sicily

On April 2nd, 1787, Wolfgang von Goethe arrived in Palermo during a journey that lasted forty days, which he then described in Italian Journey. Peter Stein, a stage and opera director, retraces the footsteps of the German poet, in the company of a film crew. In Sicily, Goethe sought and found classicism, and so does Stein, as he travels to the origins of European culture. After his impressive production of Faust, the high point of Stein's reflections on Goethe, this new journey helps the director compare late-18th-century Sicily to today's, showing unexpected differences and surprising similarities.

The Auctioneers: Profiting from the Holocaust

From 1938-1939, the systematic anti-Semitism of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis led to violence and despotism towards Jewish citizens, along with the exploitation of Jewish property. Tax inspectors, bailiffs, pawnbrokers, and auctioneers were among the major profiteers of the Holocaust. This documentary goes on a hunt for relics of the past and those who've profited most from the injustices of WWII.

Among Men: Gay in East Germany

More than two decades ago, a country in Europe existed that marked the border to a different political and economic system, yet was the very heart of the continent. This country called the German Democratic Republic, made Socialism a reality and was home to 17 million people. Born in the deep eastern provinces, Ringo Rösener witnessed East Germany's collapse as a nation. Ringing in the new millennium, he leaves his hometown of Anklam to live out his homosexuality – something he had never dared to do. Would an openly gay life even have been possible in the real Socialist system? Ringo Rösener meets six gay men who lived in the GDR. Some of them speak openly about their sexuality for the first time in their lives. Little by little, they open up, share their stories, and talk about their lives in the supposedly uniform state.

Balkan Traffic

This documentary feature addresses the question of how gay men lived and could live their lives under 'real socialism'...

Love in Concrete

Franco de Peña's movie deals with three very different love stories, all taking place on the Avenida Libertador, the main avenue of Caracas.