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An American of Swedish origin and oil trader, Eric Erickson allegedly maintained business relations with the Nazi regime for the sole purpose of passing information to his country's secret services and working towards the defeat of the Third Reich. But what reality lies behind the heroic myth he himself created?

Documentary portrait of the actress Romy Schneider, in which director Frederick Baker tries to form an overall picture from the facets of image, myth, real life and screen persona.

Documentary about Svetlana Geier, a Ukranian who has translated the great works of Dostoyevsky into German. First her father ends up in one of Stalin's prison camps, then young Svetlana herself experiences the German invasion. In order to survive she learns German at home in Kiev. She is good and gets work as a translator before ending up in a German camp in 1943. Now, 65 years later, she is a renowned translator who in her twilight years has translated the great works of Dostoevsky. For the first time in all these years, she returns to Kiev together with her granddaughter.

The sea nomads of Indonesia believe that with every newborn there is a twin brother in the form of an octopus. Rituals are carried out to appease the brother in the water and prevent misfortunes. When dishonor occurs, Jakarta is portrayed as the apocalyptic revenge of the brother octopus.

Martin is rejected by his mother with callousness and beaten by his father: a childhood without love. The story sounds like a case study from the book "The Drama of the Gifted Child" by the world-famous Swiss psychoanalyst Alice Miller. But Martin is the son of the committed child rights activist...

An investigation of Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous film production of “Tiefland” during the Holocaust, one which used Sinti extras under forced labor conditions. After filming finished in 1944, these extras were sent to Auschwitz. Nina Gladitz interviews the survivors and perpetrators, wondering if Riefenstahl knew this would happen at the end of production. Tiefland was filmed from 1940-1944 but was not released until 1954. Leni Riefenstahl sued Gladitz over the documentary.

Hand luggage is stuffed into a bag; one last cigarette before the guard knocks on the door. A prisoner is about to go on a journey. René is to be transported in a prison bus to another town for a court hearing. "Raumfahrer" describes the curious procedure of the transfer of a prisoner – or ‘Verschubung’ as it is known in German – from the point of view of the prisoner. It’s a case of constant stop and start in front of closed doors and gates, as well as endless periods of waiting around. As the bus travels through town and country, the world moves past René’s narrow observation slit in cinemascope. Everything seems close enough to touch and yet so very far away.

The NAGRA (Swiss National Association for the Storage of Radioactive Waste) plans to build a permanent waste disposal site in Wellenberg, Canton of Nidwalden. A regional citizens’ action group is formed to protest against it.

September 11, 1898: The imperial family’s personal physician, Dr. Herman Widerhofer, is deeply shocked by the news that an anarchist has assassinated Empress Elisabeth in Geneva. He then shuts himself up in his private rooms and recalls the empress’ fateful life. We learn the truth about Elisabeth, as the doctor knew more about her than anyone else.

An overview of the interconnecting relationship between the most important TV award in Germany, the Grimme-Preis, and the town Marl where it is handed out once a year.

TV-Documentary on German history

Reveals the life and current (1978) muses of Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan.

An essay film in which filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim interviews "the willing victims of Rainer Werner Fassbinder."

The age group in a group portrait of the fifth grade. They make suggestions for filming at school, in their free time and at home. Growing challenges through the lessons that bring knowledge and new questions and broaden their horizons.

Let yourself be enchanted by this exciting diving adventure! Down into the deep blue, down into a beautiful and alien world. Meet unique creatures such as the spotted eagle ray, the Hawaiian Prussian fish, moray eels and, of course, the popular clown fish. Swim through coral reefs with an extraordinary fauna in the beautiful Egyptian Red Sea.

They are passionate hackers and are constantly looking for new problems and their solutions. They live in what appears to be an infinitely accelerated state of data and information, to which the young Leipzig filmmaker Alexander Biedermann adapted for the time of the film. In doing so, he managed to gain astonishing insights into a scene that the “common user” would otherwise never get to see.

Not everyone who nowadays drives on the A73 between Nuremberg and Bamberg knows that they are travelling on a former waterway. Still half a century ago, the old Ludwig-Main-Danube-Canal (in short: Ludwig-Canal) was located here, which represented the last puzzle piece to a navigable connection between the oceans. Build within a remarkable ten years’ time of construction, the canal, which was opened in 1846, was the realization of a small dream of humanity as it finally connected the North Sea with the Black Sea. Unfortunately, the idea could not support itself financially: Too powerful were the railroads, which saw its rise simultaneously, and which soon undermined the ambitious canal project’s future as they were in every regard the faster, more comfortable, and better means of transportation of the hour.

"If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world's most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.

Documentary on the history of gay and lesbian film.

A documentary about the life and work of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Scenes from the life of an aging homosexual couple - Wilfried Friedrich and Kurt "Kuddel" Schmidt. A relationship-comedy and at the same time, a trip into the German past and provincial life. The two men lead a life full of passion for trivial things, and they lead a pretty good marriage. Their story began before the fall of the Wall: one was a salesman in the west, the other was a waiter at a train station restaurant in East Berlin. The days of employment are long gone and the two men, both in their mid fifties, are confronted daily with the question of the meaning of life. They occupy themselves with various hobbies, like mini-golf, gardening, grilling, and above all, various well-maintained collections. For example, records, video cassettes, decorative plates, model trains, letters, and secret police files. Wilfried and Kuddel open closets to display their unbelievably well-organized collection of things and are themselves overwhelmed by all the memories.

Hanna Schygulla, one of the icons of European cinema and herself a refugee child, meets four young men again after seven years who came to Berlin as unaccompanied refugee minors in 2015.

Super 8 (Color) film by Helga Fanderl

Short by Stuart Schulberg. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Reality in Mozambique resembles an unreal nightmare: South Africa refuses to accept the autonomy and independence of this country. More often than not, children are the victims of this situation. Not because they are killed but because they are made into instruments of death. Children in Mozambique are abducted by the Contras and forced to act as murderers of their own people. Their traumatic experiences (abduction, torture, being trained to kill, flight or liberation) and the efforts of the Mozambique government to reintegrate them into society form the basis of this film.

ME/CFS is a devastating disease that affects around 300,000 people in Germany alone. There has been little help for sufferers to date. Many doctors are not familiar with the clinical picture and treat it incorrectly. However, something has been happening recently, partly due to the coronavirus pandemic: because the late effects of Covid-19 correspond to the typical symptoms of ME/CFS...

Barrage and Bunker is an essay film about the (narrative) space imagined by fiction films. Reflections and associations about movement in space are the basis of every kind of story-telling. The film is sometimes referred to as part of Bitomsky's Cinema Trilogy. Sequences from over 20 movies are quoted and commented on by a team of three "researchers" (Bitomsky, Petzold, Tanner) in a sort of laboratory. TV-monitors, production stills and screenshots are used as well as quotations from books. A long night's work.

A young German climber and Gino Soldà, a well-known mountain guide from Recoaro, meet in Lavaredo to repeat one of the most difficult routes on the north face of Cima Ovest, known as the Direttissima by the Swiss and the Scoiattoli di Cortina. The film manages to document the entire difficult ascent.

The Alps – wild mountains, extreme lives, but also a magical world. This majestic mountain range connects eight countries and reaches heights of up to 4,000 metres above sea level. At a length of 1,200 kilometres, the Alps form both a connecting bridge between western and eastern Europe and a high barrier between southern and central Europe. The mountains act as a mighty water reservoir and continental watershed, feeding innumerable rivers that flow into three different oceans. Their highest peak, Mont Blanc, is surrounded by long, soaring mountains with ice-covered slopes. These great summits are just one reason the so-called “Roof of Europe” continues to fascinate – across the continent and around the world. The incredible diversity of landscapes, flora and fauna makes the Alps a unique natural treasure at the heart of Europe.

A documentary about the Hamburg Towers basketball team.

From the manipulation of the London interbank interest rate to the Epstein affair, a look back at the scandals that have shaken the financial world over the last twenty years. How can we assess the extent of bankers' responsibility?

An examination of bodies, movement and the stillness of landscape brought to you by the entrancing Circus Debre Berhan.

A documentary short examining the language and performance of auctioneering, filmed at the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in Pennsylvania.

Blind, ins Auge examines the targeted violence during the 2022–23 Iran protests and sheds light on the powerful role of images in the political context. The film shows the editing process in which the authors mix subjective and objective narratives.

An audiovisual experiment that shows how oil is refined into gasoline and ultimately powers cars and other vehicles, accompanied by classical music and experimental synthesizer sounds. Filmed in the Libyan desert, the film traces the path and development of the gasoline, from the extraction of oil as it is drilled in the Libyan desert to the pump at the gas station, making road construction machines dance and convertibles roar through the Spessart forests. This film also drew Herbert von Karajan and Leo Kirch's attention to Hugo Niebeling, in which the director has road bulldozers "dance" to the music of Vivaldi.

MKI and Bela live alone with their dogs. The relationship to their animals is not only emotional, it also includes sexuality. Man Loves Dog presents an intimate insight into the world of two German zoophiles, their understanding of themselves and their idea of love.

This nature documentary takes a mesmerizing journey into the incredibly diverse marine life supported by coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific.

Marie, Arthur, Emine, and Christian are ten years old. They live in Berlin. Strolling through the city with them, we experience their freedom as well as first notions of opposition.

No profession, no say, no freedom of expression. Life as a prince consort is not exactly pleasure taxing. No constitution ascribes any function to the husband of a queen. Nowhere does it say what he must or must not do. A life in the shadow of the crown. Can that go well?

Why are men two or even three times less likely than women to be diagnosed with depression? Why are the figures reversed between the sexes in suicide statistics—some 47,000 people in Europe each year, more than three-quarters of whom are men? In men, the signs may differ from those generally identified with depression: anger rather than sadness, hyperactivity (at work or in sports) rather than asthenia, antisocial or addictive behavior, greater difficulty in asking for help due to modesty or shame, etc. But whatever form it takes, mental suffering is still often overlooked by those affected, misdiagnosed by many practitioners, and therefore generally underestimated.

Former heads, senior officers and the rector of the MfS law school explain how the ministry functioned. The interviewees see themselves as legitimate actors with a clear mandate and political enemy image. They provide an insight into the techniques and routines of secret service work, psychological tricks during interrogations and the management of “unofficial collaborators”. What they all have in common is that they are not aware of any moral guilt. The directors contrast their footage of prisons and archives with the statements of former Stasi employees in an attempt to expose their evasions and efforts at suppression.

This story sounds too crazy to be true, and yet it is. For three years, Berlin film students Julius and Moritz poured their hearts into their animated short Butty, hoping it would launch their careers. But when a festival disqualifies their film, they make a shocking discovery: Butty is already circulating online under the name of an American filmmaker. As they dig deeper, they uncover the unbelievable rise of a mysterious “Mr. F.”, a man hailed as the next Walt Disney who built his success on a stolen film and a web of lies.

The documentary tells the exciting story of the beginnings of surgery through to its specialization - a fascinating journey through time from the Stone Age with the first skull openings through antiquity and the early modern era to the first heart operation. The film was shot at the most important locations in the history of surgery - including Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary and the USA. The film contains fascinating and partly unpublished archive material.

The dancer Fatima is the main attraction of the Oasis Bar. Two villainous couples are planning to kidnap her. Bruno Sukrow, the eccentric Scheherazade of German cinema, was born in Berlin in 1927. Initially working as a machine fitter, he started animating films using the program iClone at the age of 82, following the death of his wife. He died peacefully on Easter Sunday 2022, having directed around 80 films. “Fatima” is his last finished work.

Should all drugs be legalized and regulated? Documentary shows surprising facts about drug prohibition.

Masao Adachi, the author and director of experimental works and pinku-eiga in the 1960s, was a member of the Japanese New Left that shifted from being a filmmaker to a guerrilla fighter. In 1974, he joined the Japanese Red Army in Lebanon, which worked closely with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck met Adachi in Tokyo in 2018 and talked with him about a wide range of topics, including art, revolution, the influence of western avant-garde art and American underground; the Japanese Red Army; collaboration with secret services; the role of the Left after 1968; and the reasons for failures of leftist ideas and strategies.

Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965.

Early Alexander Kluge short film that follows the career of a German policeman from World War I into the 1960s.

A tour of Hamburg's hotels, entertainment venues, and St. Pauli.

In February 1945, American troops launched a major offensive intended to bring about the end of the Third Reich. Accompanying them were two dozen cameramen from the U.S. Signal Corps, who documented the downfall of Nazi Germany on 35mm celluloid. A two-part SPIEGEL-TV documentary by Michael Kloft.