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Black dust, shrill metallic noises, dark tunnels, muscular bodies – all that is the past. At the end of 2018, extraction of coal throughout Germany came to an end. That same year, the voices of the emerging climate protest movement Fridays for Future grew louder. Against the backdrop of these media and socio-political events, the film follows five miners on their tragic, humorous and heartwarming search for a new role in life.

Raised in an environment where socialism and the pursuit of justice in Egypt were central, the filmmaker navigates through mixed emotions—pride, burden, and alienation—stemming from his and his parents' intense activist lives. His journey to trace back his family's history highlights the substantial emotional and psychological toll this activism took the thee of them.

Documentary about a steelworker strike on New Year's Eve 1978/79.

The painter Otto Dix (1891-1969) dissected and exposed his time like no other. The portraits from the world of the milieu of whores and suitors, of sexual violence, were a taboo break. His brutal depiction of war shook society - he was a ruthless chronicler of his day. In contrast, private life with his wife and children shows the gentle side of the provocative painter. Nicola Graef's film "Otto Dix - The Ruthless Painter" is dedicated to this interplay of life and work. Like few other artists, Dix used his personal experiences and experiences as the basis for his work.

In 2011, the director and screenwriter Wolf Gremm receives the diagnosis - prostate cancer. According to the doctors, he has not much longer to live, maybe eight months. Wolf Gremm is torn by these devastating news in the midst of an active, fulfilling life, but he decides to deal with the disease offensively and to fight. From now on smartphone and mini camera are his constant companions.

A documentary-feature film mix detailing the life of famous German dadaist Kurt Schwitters.

Jasmin and Jastrip are both 12 years old and live in Kiev. Jasmin is a girl from a loving family, who wants to excel at all cost. Jastrip is a boy, who is neglected and simply wants to find a place where he is loved. They both visit the Azovez camp which aims to raise a new class of patriotic warriors for a Ukraine of tomorrow. There the kids learn how to be real Ukrainians, to fight, to shoot, to yell, to get orders and to give orders. And over time this changes them.

Following the journey of fossils from their discovery in remote corners of the earth to laboratories, museums, auction houses and collectors’ living rooms, the film weaves together interlocking stories of eccentric characters caught between the demands of commerce and the basic human drive to unlock the most profound mysteries of life. THE BONES takes us deep into the Gobi, Sahara, and North American badlands, and through laboratories, museums, high-end auction houses, and grungy hotel rooms at the Tucson gem show. Wrapped in elusive questions about the origins of life on earth, and its potential future demise, THE BONES unearths the deep passions at the heart of the dinosaur world.

Among the "political" filmmakers who got their start in the student movement, Harun Farocki is perhaps the most formally brilliant and conscious, and today he is exploring new documentary territory with his video installations.

Gender activist Diane Torr’s worldwide appearances and workshops are now legendary. For the past thirty years, the main focus of this performance artist’s work has been an exploration of the theoretical, artistic as well as the practical aspects of gender identity. Katarina Peters’ documentary observes a Diane Torr workshop in Berlin in which a group of open-minded women come together to discover the secrets of masculinity. What makes a man a man and a woman a woman? Precisely when and where is gender identity formatted? How much is nature and how much nurture? Each of Torr’s workshops represents an open-ended laboratory experiment in social behaviour in which the question is posed: is it possible to deliberately play out different roles and create a space in which to transgress both masculine and feminine characteristics?

On September 14, 2012, a deflating lifeboat with thirteen people onboard was rescued in the Mediterranean. Working from a video filmed by a cruising tourist, the cineast Philip Scheffner offers a concentrated view of the situation in this region, echoing today's violences.

Arrowplane is the multiplication of a one-directional, horizontal 180-degree-panning shot with itself, applied to three landscapes – mound, city and beach.

Documentary about the pleasures of the world.

This film shows the splendor, enormous scope and indescribable beauty of this untouched land far to the north of Alaska, one of the last havens for caribou herds and polar bears. Shot over a period of four years, this film offers a unique insight in the lives of the most charismatic arctic animals.

Portrait of the Italian sculptor Donatello (1386-1466), a precursor of the High Renaissance who considerably influenced sculptural art with his innovative way of conceiving space. Donatello is already a legend in his own lifetime. The sculptor is the forefather of the High Renaissance and pioneer for artists such as Raphael or Michelangelo. His bronze sculpture of the "David" or the "Pazzi Madonna" in marble are icons of art history and testify to his sculptural power of renewal.

Explore the impressive underwater landscapes and fascinating species of one of the biggest wonders on our planet - The Red Sea. Filmed in stunning 4K, this mesmerizing nautical journey features, many of the 1,200 different sea creatures that have made the naturally and artificially formed coral reefs their home beneath these mystical waters.

Joe Luga was a singer and accompanied the German soldiers in women's clothing on the Russian front. Nothing happened to him. It was only in the 1950s and 1960s that he was sent to prison in West Germany because of his homosexuality.

A German Film Award winning short documentary.

A film on the surveillance and the control in East Germany also speaks about it - representing extreme and almost unbelievable image of a society which has acquired one super-narrative and developed a system which makes it impossible to even speak about the possibility of anything outside it.

In 1921, in the Danish town of Egtved, on the Jutland peninsula, was discovered one of the most important Bronze Age burial sites: the tomb of a girl who lived around 1370 BCE. Who was that girl and what was her daily life like?

Udo Kier dies his way through film history. He screams, falls, lies, is cut into pieces, shot or commits suicide. Again and again his empty gaze, again and again his rigid body. In 54 years as an actor, Udo Kier played in more than 170 feature films, 120 series episodes and 50 short films. More than 70 times Udo Kier tried to give an expression to dying and death. In Staging Death, these representations of death merge into a montage of the most diverse shots, film formats, special effects and sound designs. "Directors are now thinking increasingly strained about what new ways they can kill me. […] At some point, somebody would have to make a montage of all my film deaths." Udo Kier (Interview Subway Magazine #145, December 1999)

German Documentary about the Austrian-American Movie Director Otto Preminger.

Almost 70 years ago, the then director of Frankfurt Zoo, Prof. Bernhard Grzimek (1909-1987), shot this famous animal documentary about the African continent with his son Michael. The documentary was considered an impressive plea for the preservation of Africa's animal paradises at the time. It vividly illustrates the far-reaching consequences of the impending loss of what were then still largely untouched natural landscapes. Despite visible signs of age, the film has retained much of its fascination as a contemporary document to this day.

Single is not a theoretical treatise; it just uses clips to show how a single is produced. The song is Time to Love, the singers call themselves Witchcraft. Also involved are the composer, arranger, producer, the studio musicians and later on the strings. At the beginning the off camera narrator points out a scandalous discrepancy. The film crew spent two days in the recording studio observing a three minute piece of music being produced. The film itself condenses the duration of production: 15 minutes into the film, the narrator announces that the producers are satisfied with the basic backing-track, after a four hour test. After 24 minutes we learn that the crew has left the studio after nine hours filming, whilst work on the guitar tracks continued for some hours.

A three-part documentary about four young men who were active members of the Zurich youth movement in the early 1980s and died tragically as a result of “accidents” with the involvement of the police. The exuberant Dani and Michi stole a motorbike to go on a joyride; a police car gave chase and caused their fatal crash. Renato, a young junkie raised in orphanages, was shot by the police while driving a stolen car. Max, an innocent bystander at a youth demonstration, was clubbed on the head by a police officer, and later died of complications caused by his head injuries. Taken together, these three incidents reflect the tense and violent atmosphere of the time and the conflict between repressive authority and a young generation desperate for freedom

Commissioned by Philips, Europa Radio celebrates the company’s experimental PCJJ shortwave radio station in Eindhoven that went on air in 1927 and broadcasted to Europe as well as the rest of the world in various languages. Hans Richter’s film covers one day from morning to night, showing the range and scope of the daily radio programs – from stock market news and sports events to live concerts and a speech by Albert Einstein.

By accompanying 20 very different individuals in today's Berlin, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and filmmaker Ciro Cappellari sketch a portrait of a modern, stimulating metropolis.

A highly subjective documentary about the life of “professional criminal“ Bernhard Kimmel, who became a serious criminal as a teenager after the end of the war in 1945 by committing petty crimes with found weapons and made a name for himself as the head of the Palatinate Al-Capone gang in the early 1960s. Peter Fleischmann observed Kimmel between 1970 and 1987, interviewing acquaintances, police officers and repeatedly Kimmel himself, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1985 for the murder of a police officer. The grand design of the long-term observation of a human life itself contributes to the creation of legends and is criminologically and psychologically unfounded.

Nazi propaganda film contrasting Germany in the days before Adolf Hitler became Chancellor with the Germany of "today" and how much better it is.

Tracing biographical lines, Volker Koepp steps into his oeuvre, rich in encounters. Returning to Lithuania, Moldova and Chernivtsi, he looks back and brings things up to date, as the war against Ukraine becomes a determining element of the present. Epic.

A documentary camera journey along a tourist route through well-known winter sports centers from Garmisch to Lake Garda.

Since the summer of 2020, boats along the Atlantic coast from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay in the north have been repeatedly attacked by orcas. The whales purposefully attack the rudders and destroy them. Researchers are trying to find out what drives them. Curiosity? Competition for food? Or play?

Bintou is from Burkina Faso and loves to lead a modern lifestyle. She dreams of becoming a famous dressmaker.

A short documentary about Jörg Buttgereit's father.

A German Film Award best short documentary on the first President of West Germany.

Documentary about the planning of, and resistance to, the nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf (Upper Palatinate). The resistance of the local population and many activists ultimately prevented the construction of this project. During the demonstrations, conditions at times resembled civil war in the area around the construction site.

“Don’t ask me what I mean, ask me what I’ve made” – inspired by this motto, the documentary accompanies the American composer Alvin Lucier (1931 - 2021) on concert travels to The Hague (Netherlands) and Zug (Switzerland). Lucier explains and comments on his œuvre – from his early live electronics performances (MUSIC FOR SOLO PERFORMER,1965 and BIRD AND PERSON DYNING, 1975) up to the premiere of his ensemble piece PANORAMA 2 in 2011. One of Lucier’s key works, I AM SITTING IN A ROOM (1969), is introduced as a central structuring device in the film. At home in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier offers rare insights into the beginnings of his pioneering works, his time as a member of the Sonic Arts Union, his relations with John Cage and David Tudor, as well as his teaching practice at Wesleyan University.

Ten years after breaking off the film "Anka and ..." nearly all the protagonists of that time have disappeared. Mario and Tilo hung themselves in the final phase of the GDR, Frank is surviving in West Berlin addicted to drugs, and Karsten is doing pretty well there. Anka, however, who once was in love with each of them, lives alone with her danghter in Eisenhüttenstadt. A film about normality in life.

Rex Gildo’s songs and musicals made him very popular. His best-known song was “Fiesta Mexicana” from 1972. Rosa von Praunheim tells the story of his life in the context of the gay pride movement, the normative pressures of the Schlager music industry, and the profound changes currently underway.

The mineral oil tax and its use are taken as an opportunity to examine the topics of road construction and motor vehicle traffic using the example of West German federal highways.

Live and Let Live is a feature documentary examining our relationship with animals, the history of veganism and the ethical, environmental and health reasons that move people to go vegan.

Until the age of nine, Matan never knew his older sister had a rare syndrome. When she chooses to undergo plastic surgery to change her syndrome-induced appearance, it sets him on a 15-year journey to reexamine their childhood and the bond they shared.

In this two-part documentary, Eberhard Fechner reconstructs the story of a class of pupils who passed their A-levels at Berlin's Lessing-Gymnasium in 1937. The starting point for the research is the class photo that gives the film its title. The conversations with the men, which revolve around their lives, bring back memories. However, it becomes clear how many of them have repressed the events of the Nazi era. Apologies, excuses and trivialization of the violence and crimes come out of many mouths.

A Germany Film Award Golden Casket winning short documentary.

Even today it is considered one of the greatest military feats ever. In 218 BC, a Carthaginian army of ninety thousand men and three dozen elephants set out to cross the Alps to challenge the might of Rome. The exact route chosen by Hannibal, its charismatic commander, has been a matter of dispute ever since. Now, researchers believe they might be able to track his route. It is one of the mysteries of history, which way the Carthaginian commander Hannibal took in 218 BC to cross the Alps.

Wunder der Schöpfung is an extraordinary, fascinating Kulturfilm trying to explain the whole human knowledge of the 1920s about the world and the universe. 15 special effects experts and 9 cameramen were involved in the production of this film which combines documentary scenes, historical documents, fiction elements, animation scenes and educational impact. It its beautifully colored, using tinting and toning in a very elaborated way. Some visual ideas in the sequences with a space shuttle visiting different planets in the universe seem to have to be the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Featuring interviews with daughter Nicola Lubitsch, film historians Enno Patalas and Jan-Christopher Horak and filmmaker Tom Tykwer (among others), Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin documents the life of the legendary filmmaker from his birth in 1892 to his departure for Hollywood in 1923. The documentary is sprinkled with excerpts from Lubitsch's rarely-seen early work (both as actor and director) and offers fascinating insights into the German film industry in the silent era.