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The endless expanses of the Indian Ocean are home to the last natural paradises: Remote atolls surrounded by coral reefs in crystal clear water. Whole regions of this ocean are still unexplored, many reefs are not marked on any map. The departure of the research vessel Agulhas II from the island of La Réunion marks the beginning of one of the greatest scientific adventures of our time. The expedition, initiated by Monaco Explorations with the support of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, lasted six weeks and led into the Western Indian Ocean along the Mascarene Plateau.

We Were Kings is a documentary about the legendary German grunge band Union Youth. 15 years ago they made it from the province to L.A., and then failed in the most brutal way. Now attempting a comeback as the band "Pictures" with some new members, they face their demons in order to make music once again. A gripping musical drama about drug addiction, responsibility and the power of friendship.

The docu-fictional companion piece to Robert Bramkamp's feature ART GIRLS. NEUE NATUR (New Nature) explores the power of imagination for a better world and how media art, science and the promise of collective storytelling impact the magic of a fairy tale coming true in a modern metropolis.

The film shows the work and life on the German banana plantations in Cameroon and the shipment of bananas to Hamburg by German banana steamers

After getting caught in a fight, Vahid needs to sell one of his kidneys to avoid a prison sentence of many years. While waiting for the liberating call from a buyer, a wish for a better life starts to grow within him.

Journalist Daniela Dahn interviews the East-German author Christa Wolf during the German reunification: reflections on history, changing politics, life and work.

What Swiss director Stefan Schweitert did for accordion music and for yodeling (Accordion Tribe, Cinequest, 2005; Echoes of Home, Cinequest 2008) he now does for traditional Balkan music. This wonderful film is also a love story – and a door into a world of musical wonders.

During social and political turmoil, what is the manifestation of divine intervention? How do the gods and goddesses act in the volatility of the contemporary world? If they walk on earth as men and women, how do they endure the chaos of modernity? Centering on the terrible and majestic incarnations of Goddess Kali and her celestial avatars, this film is a metaphysical contemplation in times of perpetual emergencies. Avikunthak’s remarkable sense of forms finds expression in the extraordinary combination of performance and essayistic cinematic practices.

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.

Documentary about monarchy and royal courts around the world.

In the summer of 1996, Farocki filmed application training courses in which one learns how to apply for a job. School drop-outs, university graduates, people who have been re-trained, the long-term unemployed, recovered drug addicts, and mid-level managers - all of them are supposed to learn how to market and sell themselves, a skill to which the term "self management" is applied.

Meetings with readers, acquaintances and contemporaries of writer Uwe Johnson at the places where he lived. Volker Koepp, who is also from Pomerania, looks for Johnson’s sophisticated literary voice in the landscapes of the region they both stem from.

A flare shoots through the night. "Red brothers" against right-wing extremists; immigrant groups against right-wing "louts"; knives and tear-gas against baseball bats. "WADADENG, WADADENG, listen to my 9 mm go BANG" ... Rap and hip-hop in Vienna.

The debut documentary by Bulgarian-born German resident and renowned photographer Pepa Hristova is set in the Strandzha mountains, the natural border between Bulgaria and Turkey. In that sparsely populated land and in one of the last primeval European forests is a crossroads between ancient rituals, nationalism, migration and anarchy, as the bleak past blends with modern-day threats in a terra incognita for the West.

Germany 1923: Inflation, starvation, unstable political conditions. During this time, 24-year-old Paula Schlier goes undercover at the “Völkischer Beobachter”, the Nazi Party’s official newspaper, and gets caught at the centre of Hitler’s attempted coup.

They grew up in the land of dictators and surveillance, where images are censored, photos are burned, thoughts are discreet, and mouths are kept shut. They grew up in Syria.

Retraces the roots of the escapade of a group of Georgians in their twenties who hijacked an Aeroflot passenger plane on November 18, 1983 from Tbilisi.

Documentary about three painters painting cities.

Harun Farocki sits down with Vilém Flusser to discuss the front page of the German tabloid newspaper Bild Zeitung.

For young Muslims who live in a free society, how is the culture of origin of the parents compatible with their own wishes? What significance does the commandment of virginity have?

A film that came with a book in the same name, The Future of Art; A manual. The film contains documentary and interviews on acclaimed artists about the direction of art towards the future.

Documentary about German comedian Loriot alias Vicco von Bülow, who would have been 100 years old in 2023.

With his ultra-conservative policies, US President Donald Trump is disrupting the global order as well as US institutions and society. Filmed less than one year after the start of his second mandate, this documentary analyses the concrete impact of his policies on the American people.

Over a dozen current and former pilots take us into the cockpits of legendary fighter planes and into the heart of legendary battles. They come from various nations, and their service ranges from the air battles of the First World War to the front lines in Ukraine. Some are well-known names. Others have had to keep their activities—and even their identities—secret. Some have broken down barriers and forged new paths. All have exciting stories to tell.

The documentary follows the trail of fruit and vegetables from the shopping cart back to various cultivation areas throughout Europe. The entire supply chain is revealed via a system that includes the inhumane exploitation of harvest workers and agricultural businesses. The aggressive pricing policy of the supermarket groups, their "lowest price promise", has established a modern form of slavery in Europe.

An insight into the construction and operation of the Raistinger Earth station for telecommunications satellites in the middle of an old cultural landscape on Lake Ammersee.

The authors have meticulously traced the prehistory of September 11, the tragic fate of agent John O'Neill and the day of the attacks - with the help of contemporary witnesses, scenic reconstructions and numerous original recordings.

Extreme life-and-death situations that happen every day around the world, captured by journalists and amateur videographers with great courage and nerves of steel.

6 people researching & experimenting for empowerment in their sexuality – which actions are tempting & helpful to deconstruct shame and be more self-confident?

It is an unknown chapter of the German post-war history: On April 23rd, 1949, the kingdom of the Netherlands occupied German soil as a pledge for demanded war reparations. Part of the annexed territories was also the small municipality of Elten. While the people of Elten were initially afraid of the occupation, the time “with Holland” actually became a miracle of prosperity and economy about which many people from Elten still rave today. The occupation period ended with the largest organized smuggling in the history of the federal republic of Germany. The Documentary shows this in never before released 8 mm footage!

Julia von Heinz’s 80-year-old father dies completely unexpectedly. From his estate, the filmmaker discovers that the former reserve officer was homosexual and had led a double life. The director seeks out Rosa von Praunheim, an icon of the gay movement, to talk about it. The outcome is the portrait of an extraordinary, lonely man.

What would be the shortest route between Entre Rios in Argentina and the Chinese metropolis Shanghai? Simply a straight line through the center of the earth, since the two places are antipodes: they are located diametrically opposite to each other on the earth's surface. During his visits to four such antipodal pairs, the award-winning documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky captured images that turn our view of the world upside down.

Charles Louis Schulmeister (1770-1853) was a smuggler and a revolutionary, but also a chief of police and Napoleon Bonaparte's favorite spy. A look back on his adventurous life with the purpose of unraveling the many mysteries of his unique path.

In seven decades, Udo Jürgens composed more than 1,000 songs and sold more than 105 million records - including immortal classics of pop culture. The documentary ‘Udo!’ shows the gripping profile of a restless man who, at the proud age of 80, still filled the halls on his ‘Mitten im Leben’ tour and conquered the audience. Udo Jürgens and his breathless biography: musical genius, heartthrob, dream dancer, self-doubter, a character with many facets. The entertainer balanced effortlessly between high gloss and depth. Previously unpublished material such as photos, letters, diary entries, tape recordings and private films provide exclusive insights into his dazzling life.

La Sagrada Familia – although still under construction in Barcelona – is a cathedral without any flaws. Almost 100 years after his death, experts are convinced that Gaudi was a mathematical genius and that each embellishing ornament of the Sagrada Familia actually serves an architectural purpose.

Rudolf Schündler, who played the role of Hardy, describes his experiences on Fritz Lang's Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse.

The film SAME SUN tells the story of Wiebke Lühmann's journey from Freiburg to the Cape of Good Hope. Honest, raw, and close to the inner and outer challenges of a 430-day bicycle trip. Her journey takes her through 22 countries, Sahara storms, the rain season, the Congo Basin, and the deserts of Namibia.

In the Philippine jungle, on the river of the same name, lies the small town of Pagsanjan, about 100 km from the capital Manila. Here, boatmen transport tourists daily in narrow dugout canoes upstream over rapids and past cliffs and rocks to the mighty waterfalls of the Pagsanjan Canyon, which is over 100 meters deep. However, their hard and, above all, dangerous work barely provides them with the necessities of life, let alone social security.

About a group of door-to-door salesman who try to sell vacuum cleaners from "Vorwerk", a German manufacturer.

The film focuses on Cologne citizens of different social backgrounds and political views, who took different paths to their common anti-fascist commitment in the Cologne National Committee for a Free Germany. They describe the events in Cologne before 1933, the mood of the population when Hitler came to power and the proletarian resistance struggle - despite growing fascist terror.

Although evidence of meat consumption's negative impact on the planet and on human health continue stacking up as animal welfare is on the decline, humanity's love affair with hamburgers, steaks, nuggets and chops just doesn't end. In The End of Meat, filmmaker Marc Pierschel embarks on a journey to discover what effect a post-meat world would have on the environment, the animals and ourselves. He meets Esther the Wonder Pig, who became an internet phenomenon; talks to pioneers leading the vegan movement in Germany; visits the first fully vegetarian city in India; witnesses rescued farm animals enjoying their newly found freedom; observes the future food innovators making meat and dairy without the animals, even harvesting "bacon" from the ocean and much more. The End of Meat reveals the hidden impact of meat consumption; explores the opportunities and benefits of a shift to a more compassionate diet; and raises critical questions about the future role of animals in our society.

When Peter Wohlleben published his book "The Hidden Life of Trees" in 2015, he quickly entered bestseller lists. The forester wrote vividly about his experience that trees are able to communicate with each other, a thesis explored here.

"The trauma of 9/11, the ideology of violent retribution, military service as a patriotic family tradition, the “unfairness” of today’s warfare – in their voice-overs, five young Afghanistan war veterans first establish familiar foundations. Joe, Torrie, Mike, James and Justin from Pittsburgh are slow to show us their faces. Physically unharmed but full of inner pain they have become the misunderstood upon their return. Their violent experiences speak a language that the people at home don’t understand.

Adventurers, explorers and conquerors: the Vikings are considered the greatest heroes of the Middle Ages. Is this interpretation justified? In fact, they left a far darker and lesser-known mark on history: they were ruthless slavers, human traffickers and hostage-takers. „Victims of the Vikings“ is the first TV documentary to investigate this infamous and often horrifying aspect of the Nordic warriors.

Young women made up only five per cent of students at the technical college in Ilmenau. The film devotes itself of this particular situation by conveying impressions of the women's everyday lives.

Her search for identity began with an extremely brutal hate song by the neo-Nazi band "White Aryan Rebels", which called for murder against the black German Mo Asumang: "The bullet is for you, Mo Asumang". Fortunately, the Nazi poison works like a motor for Mo, which in her debut film takes her across Germany and into Africa, and in which Mo talks to her mother and father about belonging for the first time. Roots Germania is a search for the roots, a search for her own identity. The film is also a spiritual journey to African and Germanic ancestors and cult places.

After the brilliant success of her “Mozart y Mambo” project, Sarah Willis is returning to Cuba. This time the Berlin Philharmonic hornist sets out together with the “Havana Lyceum Orchestra” on a musical road trip to showcase the traditional Cuban music, bringing viewers and listeners into even more intense and lively contact with its roots and traditions. With them, the musicians bring a very special commissioned work. Sarah Willis has commissioned six young Cuban composers to compose a “Cuban Dance Suite” in six movements – for strings, Cuban percussion and solo horn in a fresh and modern adaption of traditional Cuban dances: Son, Danzón, Guaguanco, Cha-Cha, Bolero and Changüi.

A man and a woman in a convertible on their way from Giessen to Heidelberg. Numerous traffic obstacles are illustrated: unsuitable town thoroughfares, many curves, confusing railroad crossings, a school, flocks of sheep, a detour, a hay cart, a breakdown. An innkeeper tells the two about the new Reichsautobahn. Traffic moves quickly on the Reichsautobahn.

Rihanna's rise to global pop icon seems like a fairytale and makes her the most important representative of her home country Barbados. The film tells Rihanna's career from the perspective of her home island and traces her dual role as a billionaire entrepreneur and national heroine.

Documentary about Beate Uhse.

A portrait of Berlin’s most famous bouncers – Sven Marquardt, Frank Künster and Smiley Baldwin. The three men have been part and parcel of the capital’s club scene for more than 25 years – from the days after the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present day – but aren’t yet considering calling it a day even though life makes more demands on them as they turn 50.

In her autobiographical documentary, filmmaker Biene Pilavci presents her family's life, which was marked by violence.