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In May 1968, no one passes him by: day and night, Peter Ernst Eiffe, who grew up in a Hanseatic family, is on the road in Hamburg with the felt-tip pen and covers toilets, traffic signs, mailboxes with his sayings. Presumably he is the first graffiti tagger in Germany. Highlight of his career: He drives a Fiat Topolino into the Wandelhalle of the main station and proclaims the "Free Republic of Eiffe". Forcibly admitted to psychiatry, he founded the party »Eiffe Brothers«. Christmas 1983 he escapes from the institution and is found frozen months later. In the 1990s, the filmmaker Christian Bau and Artur Dieckhoff began to deal with Eiffe.

In February 1986 they received the call of a fatherland that no longer exists: four young GDR citizens on the verge of adulthood see themselves forced, like so many others in East and West Germany, to do their one and a half years of military service. What is special: Their service area is the border system, an anti-imperialist protective wall according to their superiors, death strips and prison bars for a population incapacitated in naked reality. Now, seventeen years later, there is a reunion with the comrades and the old post. This feature film, which was the first in reunified Germany to deal with the inner workings of the GDR border troops, tells of life on the fence, the associated contradictions and some hot phases in the Cold War.

This fly-over features Germany filmed from helicopters and small airplanes. Footage was released as a multi-episode tv series over several years and this feature-length movie.

Round table discussion with film historians Rolf Giesen, Gerd Naumann, and Matthias Künnecke.

Lydia - filmed in the late 1970s and written down in diary sketches in 1992, the movie tells the story of the lives of Lydia and Wolfgang B. over two decades. She, translator of French literature, he, Romance studies professor. Between life crisis and "joie de vivre", full of passion and disciplined work, driven by convictions and doubts and the fear of a fatal second tumor, their film recordings and Wolfgang's diary texts fragmentary report about the beauty and the adversity of a symbiotic marriage and yet at the same time about a whole life.

As the first part of our investigation, the CORONA.FILM prologue will delve into the science behind the pandemic. Starting at the very beginning, we shine a light on the responses. The aim is not to point the finger; our aim is to tell the whole story in all its complexity, as we believe that justice cannot prevail if only one side of the story is told.

Zarah Leander was one of the greatest film stars of the Third Reich. Adored by the Nazis, she rose to become the highest-paid female film star of National Socialism. To this day, she remains inextricably linked to our collective memory, reviled as a "Nazi siren" but also loved unconditionally. At the same time, there are files in Sweden that claim she was a Russian spy. Extremely contradictory rumors that continue to shape the myth of Zarah Leander to this day. She herself described herself as completely apolitical. "The Zarah Leander File" delves into the life of the Swedish film diva and asks: Who was the woman behind the mysterious gaze, the frivolous songs, and the pompous gestures? Who was "Leander" really?

Constantine the Great, son of General Constantius Chlorus, rose to power during the Tetrarchy, a division of the Roman Empire among four emperors. After succeeding his father in 306 and being acknowledged as the sole Emperor of the West in 310, he enacted significant military, economic, and religious reforms that unified the empire. This documentary explores his life and reign, highlighting his role in ending the persecution of Christians and the transition from polytheistic beliefs. It also touches on his personal intrigues, including the murder of his concubine Fausta, showcasing his complex legacy of power and grandeur.

20 short films about human rights.

"Bad Woman Blues - Beth Hart" celebrates the music and voice of a woman who enriches rock and blues with emotion, authenticity, and honesty.

The documentary play reconstructs the backstory of the so-called “Röhm Putsch”, during which a few hundred people got killed, depicts the intrigues between the Reichswehr (German army) and the SA, and draws an image of the character of Röhm who, prior to Hitler’s accession to power, was his friend but later got pushed more and more into the background and eventually was disposed of. Röhm, captain during the 1st World War, organisational talent, daredevil, and one of the ‘discoverers’ of the corporal Hitler, was the central figure in the secret power struggles in the just established Hitler state. He demanded a ’second revolution’ and wanted to unite the million-man army of the SA and the Reichswehr under his leadership…

Released from prison, former oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky expounds on his newfound freedom and complex relationship with Vladimir Putin.

A documentary directed by Christopher Buchholz and Sandra Hacker.

According to Harun Farocki, today's photographers working in advertising are, in a way, continuing the tradition of 17th century Flemish painters in that they depict objects from everyday life - the "still life". The filmmaker illustrates this intriguing hypothesis with three documentary sequences which show the photographers at work creating a contemporary "still life": a cheese-board, beer glasses and an expensive watch.

La empresa is a strange creature of a most ambiguous nature: a fiction film about documentary filmmaking as fiction filmmaking, and what it all does to a region’s economy as well as a collective psychology. Or is it? Isn’t it more to the point to say that... But before we get lost here, let’s state what La empresa talks about: how the caminata nocturna, the illegal crossing of the border between Mexico and the United States, was turned into a business that ranges from four-hour night-time tours for tourists out for a sick thrill to reenactments for film and television crews. The latter, of course, is at the core of André Siegers’ casually ironic look at this economy of disaster. When the Germans arrive in town, they meet a workforce already in place and willing to play to any national stereotype – as the French seem to get other kicks out of presenting the caminata nocturna than the Netflix internationals.

Short artistic documentary film showing a match factory

This grandiose concert, held in Krakow (Poland), brings together Hans Zimmer's greatest film scores: ‘Gladiator’, ‘Interstellar’, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Dune’ and ‘The Lion King’.

Tim Berners-Lee programmed the first web server, the first website and the first browser almost single-handedly. Today, Time magazine lists Tim Berners-Lee as one of the 100 outstanding personalities of the 21st century. The magazine compares his invention to Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in terms of its significance. The "neues spezial" documentary by Winfried Laasch uses historical archive material and interviews with Tim Berners-Lee, among others, to guide us through the history of the internet and the web based on it.

A time-travelling Android from the future seeks the Last King to record his beautiful voice which will deliver existential answers to the machines of the future. It’s the year 2022 and the King is about to sing.

Documentary about the films of John Ford.

Wednesday afternoon was deliberately chosen. There were a lot of customers in front of and in the brothers Özcan and Hasan Yildirim’s barbershop on 9 June 2004, when 700 three-inch carpenters’ nails turned into projectiles with a 250 metre range. 22 people were injured. The attack was infamous; the course of the investigations was equally scandalous: the victims were suspected. CCTV material was not analysed and Federal Minister of the Interior Otto Schily decisively ruled out a right wing background. It was only in 2001 that this crime was solved in the course of the revelations concerning the right wing extremist terrorist “National Socialist Underground” group. The trial continues until the present day.

A short drama about a former Auschwitz prisoner who tries to saves animals from an abattoir.

The number of smokers in Europe is declining, yet the tobacco industry is still making considerable profits. Electronic innovations such as e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters play a significant role in this. Both are said to be far less harmful than conventional cigarettes. But is the aromatic steam really not a danger to our health?

A documentary about an East Prussian refugee family whose children lost each other while wandering from their homeland and were miraculously reunited. Eberhard Fechner interviewed them and describes the exciting experiences of the siblings and gives an insight into an eventful period of history.

"Bunny & Claude" combines skiing, artistic choreographies and music.

The simple staple bread has become a branded product with an increasing number of varieties and providers. The film provides authentic impressions in today’s world of bread. We encounter small craft bakers as well as corporate CEOs whose professional work is our daily bread and ask the question: how do you see the future of our bread? And: what are we actually eating?

Florence Foster Jenkins is known as "the worst singer of all times" and yet she is a cult figure whose recordings still outsell many contemporary singers. Opera superstar Joyce DiDonato interprets the flamboyant "queen of dissonance". The involvement of the celebrated virtuoso makes it possible to contrast two different musical perspectives and gives viewers a vivid impression of the film's key conflict between inner delusion and external reality.

Uli Köhler and Nick Golücke have visited the protagonists of the 1990 World Cup 20 years after their championship win and looked back together. The Writers Nick Golücke and Uli Köhler have, 20 years after World Cup triumph of the German national soccer team in Rome in 1990, visited the protagonists of back then once again and indulge with them together in memories.

"Cause of Death Unknown" - Carola Neher (1900-1942) actress, singer and feminist. Brecht wrote the role Polly Peachum for her. She practiced boxing with Marlene Dietrich. After Hitler seized power, thousands of German communists and anti-fascists fled to the Soviet Union, the "fatherland of the working people". The tragedy of German communism is that the vast majority of them perished or were lost during Stalin's "cleansing". Carola Neher is one of the fate figures of that time. In the 20s, she belonged to the narrow circle of Brecht actresses. The film accompanies her son Georg Becker in search of his mother's traces in the sinking Soviet Union.

A documentary about the life of a German citizen abducted by the CIA in 2003.

Is living as a mythical creature, mouse or furry not the most radical form of self-realization? In her film, Masion moves through VR spaces as an avatar to explore touch.

Documentary about the 2004 movie 'Der Untergang' aka. 'Downfall'

The film tells of the radical life-search by the Swiss writer Paul Nizon, born 1929 in Bern, Switzerland, who became what “he was meant to be” in Paris. Now 90-year-old, Paul Nizon grants insights into his life and work in a self-ironic, direct manner. The intimate portrait of a great literary outsider emerges, for whom the risk of life and the risk of writing merge into one and the same work of art.

The achievements of the Reichspost in the motor transport service are presented in the form of a story (a student has to write a dissertation on the achievements of the Reichspost in the motor transport service, and his friend introduces him to a postmaster who is related to him and explains everything he needs to know).

Two friends travel to Belgrade to explore a music scene that exists outside state funding and institutional support. Moving through trap, hardcore, and alternative rock collectives, they meet artists who create their own creative spaces under difficult conditions. The talent, ambition, and hospitality of Serbia’s musicians leave them deeply impressed.

Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, The brothers Koeman… These were some of the superstars from Holland whose blazing talents made the European Championship of 1988 so memorable and one to log indelibly in the whole recent legend of outstanding international football. Eight teams qualified for the tournament finals, including England who scored more goals than any other side, 18, to reach the final stages – and the Cinderella side from the Republic of Ireland, managed by Jack Charlton. But most of all Euro ’88 had a winning side who swept all before them in a colourful and passionate series of displays that will be viewed again and again by anyone fascinated and intrigued by the way the world’s most popular game is so sumptuously developing as it enters its second organised century. It is a must for fans and serious students alike.

Taking the demise of a textile factory in Austria’s Waldviertel region as its starting point, with the antiquated manufacturing plant initially shown in full operation, this film poses the question of what work means for people’s self-image and character. After the factory goes bankrupt and closes, the filmmaker accompanies some of its employees as they continue to make their way, questioning them about their daily routines, the circumstances in which they live, about looking for work or the new jobs they find. One woman’s situation is precarious, but that doesn’t prevent her from bringing up her grandchildren. Another woman works here and there, flexible and resourceful. One man blossoms visibly in his newly unemployed state. Bit by bit, different aspects of their private lives and personal misfortunes emerge.

An exclusive insight into the journey of the German sailor Boris Herrmann in the legendary Vendée Globe: sailing around the world, all by himself, without any stops

A Berlin street corner is slowly changing: an aging supermarket turns into a construction site and finally a new building. People restock shelves, demolish walls, take breaks and count money. Those who work here participate in the making and unmaking of the place. How does it shape the conditions of their labor? Between supermarket aisles, construction scaffolding and exposed concrete, different versions begin to overlap. Repetitions appear like echoes between worlds, both playful and eerie.

The climbing couple Heinz Mariacher and Luisa Iovane abandon their usual winter training spot to go in search of places more conducive to free climbing in Algeria in the Sahara desert, more precisely in the Hoggar massif, which saw pass the cream of world climbing Lionel Terray, Roger Frison-Roche, Lucien Bérardini, Michel Vaucher, Pierre Mazeaud, Guido Monzino, Patrick Edlinger, Patrick Berhault and many others. Their objective, to climb the east face of Garet El Djenoun, 500 m high, failed because the wall was too smooth and the cracks unstable. The journey continues in the Hoggar massif towards other peaks, where they find the climbing conditions they were hoping for. An overhang in the face of Tizouyag Nord will prove to be a major challenge for Heinz Mariacher.

Whoever came up with the term 'bird brain' never met these feathered thinkers, who use their claws and beaks to solve puzzles, make tools and more.

Alongside Rembrandt and Vermeer, Frans Hals was one of the key figures in 17th century Dutch art. But unlike his contemporaries, who tended to paint gloomy or pensive pictures, Hals was entirely devoted to joy. He painted people who could barely conceal their zest for life - at a time when it was frowned upon to show teeth.

In the wake, among others, of Joris Ivens (the testamentary Une histoire de vent , 1989), Martin Putz seeks to frame the wind. Or the impossible bet, however successful, to capture its hypnotic manifestations, by filming the things and humans that stand in its way and use their driving forces.

Brecht′s 100th birthday is being celebrated on 10 February, 1998. A good enough opportunity to examine his life closely again. The film director Jutta Brueckner is mainly concerned here with the question of the kind of person Brecht was. We have known him until now as the brilliant author and theatre director, through his plays themselves; we also know him as the cultural flagship of the GDR along with his world-famous Berliner Ensemble.

TV-Documentary on German history

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.

Harry Belafonte wrote music history. How did the black boy from Harlem manage to become one of the greatest artists of the 20th century in the middle of racist America? The film portrait tells the story of the famous singer, actor, producer and activist.