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A portrait of the former Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Even frequent visitors to Venice, the lagoon city still offers numerous hidden sides that are worth discovering. The historical significance of some places cannot be read in any travel guide.

4.5 million records sold, founding member of Söhne Mannheims and five-time Echo winner: Xavier Naidoo is one of Germany's most successful musicians. Filmmaker Harold Woetzel - himself from Mannheim - accompanied him. He has known Xavier Naidoo for many years and is therefore closer to the artist than almost any other journalist. It is a portrait of a great star, of his incredible love of his homeland and his roots in Baden-Württemberg's second largest city. The film shows how a song lyric is created from a small sound idea, shows Xavier Naidoo's collaboration with his closest friend Michael Herberger in the Mannheim studio. And it shows what an incredible success the idea of turning a group of friends of young multicultural Mannheim musicians into the Sons of Mannheim has become.

Between 1933 and 1945 roughly 1200 films were made in Germany, of which 300 were banned by the Allied forces. Today, around 40 films, called "Vorbehaltsfilme", are locked away from the public with an uncertain future. Should they be re-released, destroyed, or continue to be neglected? Verbotene Filme takes a closer look at some of these forbidden films.

He is a living legend in Germany, but never became known to a wider audience in France: Winnetou actor Pierre Brice. Director Oliver Schwehm sensitively traces the career of the French actor, whose career only took off very hesitantly in the 1950s before he experienced a meteoric rise through the role of the noble Apache chief. Brice reflects on his role as "Winnetou" and visits the original locations in Croatia 40 years after the last filming was completed. Statements from colleagues and former companions (including Mario Adorf and Marie Versini) as well as numerous film clips round off this entertaining documentary.

In a long-term observation of Große Bergstraße in Hamburg Altona, residents, activists, shopkeepers, and artists describe the changes taking place on the street. The planning and construction of the first inner-city IKEA store has sparked differing visions and interests in urban development. Demolition and new construction are reminiscent of failed revitalization strategies for Germany's first pedestrian zone.

When Hamburg University was founded in 1919, it was proud to be the first university of a new, democratic Germany. But the university didn't come from nothing.

Berlin. Summer 2018. They are 17 years old. The diverse neighborhood they grew up in is one big construction site, where people have to give way to the dreams of others. They drift through the city and wonder how anyone will be able to live in this city in the future. They are always in discussion: about everyday sexism, the individual's responsibility for the system in which we live. What is happening and what should happen is in contradiction, but they keep the faith.

A documentary about the life and work of german philosopher Martin Heidegger, born and raised a Roman Catholic in Messkirch, Baden-Württemberg.

In the Kabul Museum, archaeologists piece together fragments of millennia-old works of art. This endeavor seems surreal amid the destruction. The cinematically fascinating landscape is mined. How can one survive without legs? The Kabul Orthopedic Center, the focus of the film, is a place of hopes and dreams. "One leg is not enough," says its dedicated director, "you have to create prospects for life."

Documentary about the obstacles handicapped people face when looking for love

The film story follows the international group of researchers who are performing the scientific expedition in a remote high altitude Kyrgyz village named Sary Mogol.

Documentary about Hollywood.

Under the sign of the swastika, it was, amongst other things, turned into a naval base, it got heavily destroyed in two waves of attack in April of 1945 by British bombers. After the war, Heligoland was made available as bombing training ground for the English army by the West-German government. Seven young people occupied the isle and began to repair the emergency shelter for sailors who got in danger. This and further major actions eventually ended the bombing exercises. Back then, the watchword was: “Heligoland to the Germans! “ – “Heligoland for peace!”

New forms of manipulation and the inundation of stimuli from new media pose a great risk to children’s mental health. Finally, society has started to respond. A secular culture of consciousness is arising: meditation and new forms of resilience and mindfulness training have formed part of the curriculum in many of Europe’s schools. Can systematic inner development genuinely enable young people to take responsibility – for their own lives, for society and for the world? Can openness, compassion and an ethical attitude in children be increased by mental training?

Continuation of Andreas Voigt's Leipzig films.

Cafe Waldluft is a rustic hotel in the picturesque Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden, near Hitler's former mountain retreat. Over the past few years, tourist numbers and the business have started to decline, so when Flora Kurz, the cafe owner, was approached by the German authorities to house refugees, she decided to fill her rooms with asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.

A documentary about retired art museum guards and their perception of life and art.

How do you find your place in an ableist world as a person with a disability? Disabled Hugo Schmidt talks to the almost 90 year old Franz-Josef Sauer, who was left with a walking impairment by a tuberculosis infection in his childhood. In the 1990s Sauer received the German Federal Cross of Merit for his achievements in the disabled community. As a public servant in Münster and Düsseldorf he worked on several projects which still benefit his disabled peers. Sauer and Schmidt discover that, although they were born almost 70 years apart, their paths in life are not that different from each other.

Short documentation about the South African artist William Kentridge and his very unique animated films.

Tom Angelripper narrates the struggles of the band in the mid-Nineties, his many side projects, and yet another drastic line-up overhaul.

This short documentary presents an early scientific visualization of X-ray technology, documenting the discovery of Röntgen rays and their application in medical diagnostics. Through staged demonstrations and instructional imagery, the film illustrates the principles of radiographic imaging and its emerging role in modern medicine.

Documentary film.

Philippe Pilliod interviews Max Frisch in 1985/86.

The rough, unkempt facades in Prenzlauer Berg – as if the skin had been peeled off the houses, says photographer Tina Bara. Having grown up in a prefabricated building, the young woman was drawn to East Berlin. She quickly got in conflict with the state, just like the artists Cornelia Schleime and Gabriele Stötzer, whom director Pamela Meyer-Arndt questions in her film about memories, traumas and creative genesis.

For thousands of years, people were able to live in synch with their "internal clock". In the modern world, however, this is scarcely possible.

Featurette about the restauration of Der Schut and Durchs Wilde Kurdistan

In "What Remains: Die Toten Hosen – The Last Album", director Eric Friedler exclusively follows the iconic rock band over the course of two years as they create their final studio album. Never before has the band allowed themselves to be observed so intimately in the studio. The film crew also goes behind the scenes of a European tour that the band scheduled in between their studio sessions. The result is a moving tribute to a band that has written German music history and continues to inspire generations to this day.

With a travel guide tucked under the arm photographing visitors walk into narrow alleys and then reappear. Children, who start to chase each other in between the columns, adults, who try their jumping skills. This refers to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.

A nobleman, Mr. Waller von Wallerstein, is fatally ill. He places an advertisement for the adoption of a child who is to continue the old noble line. A child comes forward, a young Russian. However, it brings with it its entire entourage: the Russian mother, a pianist, and later also the father. The nobleman, who actually only wanted to occupy one child, is occupied by an entire family. Amidst wrangling and misunderstandings, a happy moment arises. This is the external plot of the new novel by American author Irene Dische, who lives in Berlin. The novel has caused a great stir. In its formal structure, it follows the "33 Changes on a Theme by Diabelli" written by Beethoven. It is, says Irene Dische, about a novel of "cold-hearted kindness". The heat of emotions offers too little chance for kindness in the family war: Report on a happy exception in the slaughterhouse of love.

The first full-length city portrait in German film history shows how peaceful and modern, but also hectic and happy at the same time, Berlin was in 1925.

Director Carolin Genreith takes a warmly ironic look at her mother and her female friends but also addresses her own fears and vanities. A vibrant portrait which looks beyond the borders of one twentysomething’s coolly urban lifestyle in Berlin to examine the travails of menopause – as well as the art of banishing one’s fear of ageing with a well-placed hip thrust.

Short educational film about desserts.

In March 2022, the war between Ukraine and Russia is raging. While Russian troops are at the gates of Kyiv, this documentary films events in a paediatric hospital in Lviv treating the victims of the conflict. A powerful portrait of a doctor’s daily life in wartime.

The history of Europeans in North America, from the arrival of Columbus in 1492 to the business success of German immigrants such as Heinz, Strauss or Friedrich Trumpf, Donald Trump's grandfather. During the 19th century, thirty million people — Germans, Irish, Scots, Russians, Hungarians, Italians and many others — left the old continent, fleeing poverty, racism or political repression, hoping to make a fortune and realize the American dream.

Various amphibious pond dwellers, including grass frogs, tree frogs, common toads and other amphibians are shown moving around, feeding, mating, fertilizing and evolving. Also on display are natterjack and midwife toads, yellow-bellied toads and water frogs.

An overview of the generation and use of electricity.

Wunderkind, scandalous author, traitor to the fatherland, fury of the theater, feminist, fashion-lover, communist, pessimist, language terrorist, rebel, enfant terrible, nest fouler, brilliant, vulnerable artist, Nobel laureate. This film about Elfriede Jelinek, who in 2004 became the first Austrian author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, focuses on her artistic approach to language. The montage of archive material with voiceovers and interviews, some of them recently recorded, is told from Jelinek’s point of view.

Documentary film.

A parallel of the life and work of two Volkswagen workers, one in Brazil and the other in Germany, who perform identical functions in assembling the VW Beetle.

An ad agency creates a new campaign for a shoe company.

Soma/Homa unfolds within the confines of a modest student flatshare in a small Iranian town, where a group of young people navigate the fragile terrain of everyday life. Between moments of laughter, silence, intoxication, and quiet despair, the film traces their shared routines, longings, and disillusionments shaped by the unseen pressure of state repression. It is a meditation on life and death, drugs and dreams, where survival is both physical and emotional.

Comprehensive classic piece that looks at the process of creating the movie, told with a strong, well-constructed narrative that plays almost as a movie itself, a detailed retelling of how the movie was made and the dedication to authenticity that's evident right down to the finest little details on the ship. After a narrator sets the scene for various segments from the film, the piece takes its time to take a closer look at all of the elements that are necessary to create the movie and the challenges of shooting such a labor- and authenticity-intensive picture.

A small town in Japan's exclusion zone searches for normalcy in the five years following the greatest nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.

Will man go beyond biology? It's an age-old dream to create intelligent machines that equal their human creators. Computer experts around the world, like Raymond Kurzweil and Hiroshi Ishiguro, strive to fulfill their bold visions. Meanwhile, of all people one of the pioneers of the computer age, Joseph Weizenbaum, battles against the limitless faith of society in the redemptive powers of technology. A fascinating yet uncanny and sometimes grotesque journey into science reality.