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Every Monday, Peter and a few friends meet in the Oberwelt club, a small storeroom in the middle of Stuttgart. There they painstakingly reenact well-known Hollywood movies. It quickly takes a few years to complete a film reenactment. In addition, the actors change constantly, so that sometimes more than 500 people are involved in a film.

Short film by Dagmar Knöpfel.

It's the largest Arctic expedition of all time. In September 2019 the German icebreaker "Polarstern" is on its way to the North Pole. The best scientists of their generation are on board. Their job are to collect data about the ocean, ice, atmosphere and life. The mission is to understand climate change, because the changes in the Arctic have an impact far beyond the region. The documentary provides spectacular close-ups of the MOSAiC expedition under the direction of the Alfred Wegener Institute together with the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and shows the world of the Arctic during the polar night, from which hardly any data and images existed until now. A scientific, logistical and also human adventure of a community of researchers and crew members who let themselves be frozen with the ship for a year in the ice desert near the North Pole in order to use the natural drift of the ice, captured for the audience in impressive images.

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?

A documentary about the political entanglement between the Wagner Family and the leadership of the Third Reich.

Russians bombarded Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and other cities in the region following their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. By the time they retreated a month later, the damage was huge: buildings had been destroyed and there were corpses lying in the streets. Filmmakers Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz went in immediately, in time to film local people emerging from their shelters, but never showing the actual atrocities. That wasn’t necessary, as the trauma of war is clear to see on everyone’s faces, including those of the volunteers who rushed in from far and wide to help.

The vast territories beside the Pinega river in northwest Russia are covered by woods and inhabited by more wild animals than people, besides a few villages who live mostly from the forests, fishing, and gardening. Society here can only be described as a matriarchy, where beliefs, spells, and traditional rituals are passed down the female line. Musical contributions from village residents serve as a leitmotif for the film: unsteady renditions of old songs that reveal performances belonging to a distant past. The population of these communities has aged considerably — but the place itself is timeless.

Can a person be recreated alone based on their search history? Five years of a woman's life have been excavated to create a composite portrait, subsequently played by an actress. The original is then presented to its double. Part experiment, part cross-media project, part documentary, „Made to Measure” is a dizzying project about the surrender of our private lives.

Documentary by Wilhelm Roth about the state of affairs of the Young German Cinema.

This is not merely another film about cinema history; it is a film about the love of cinema, a journey of discovery through over a century of German film history. Ten people working in film today remember their favourite films of yesteryear.

A great traveller always in search of light, Henri Matisse criss-crossed the world, from Morocco to Tahiti, to draw inspiration from far off lands. His travels were reflected in his art, often years later in their mood, colour, or composition. This documentary shows how Matisse’s many trips are crucial to understanding him as an artist.

It was only in the 2000s that the population of Bhutan discovered television and the Internet, as well as the first democratic elections. Near the capital Thimphou, one of the fastest-developing cities in Southeast Asia, live some 20,000 nomadic yak herders.

A portrait of 19-year-old Ekhlas Bajoo, who was captured by IS at the age of 14, survived the unimaginable, was finally able to flee after six months and finally came to Germany as a refugee in 2015.

How can I ‚hunt down‘ the man of my dreams? Or any man at all? How should I glance, how should I move, how should I bend down and obey – to attract male attention? For all these matters, there are special women’s courses and exercises available in post-communist Moscow. In a country where there are 5 millions more women as men, the „battle“ to find a man can sometimes assume existential proportions. They all have one basic insight in common, however: For a woman to find a good man, she has to start by working on herself…

Off The Mark is a documentary about a world-first dog sled expedition in Finnmark, Norway, in the middle of the polar night in search of microplastics and indigenous solutions to the climate crisis.

To mark the 60th birthday of the multi-talented comedian, singer and author Hape Kerkeling, the two documentary filmmakers André Schäfer and Eric Friedler have created a quiet, thoughtful and entertaining portrait of this often anarchic humorist. The film tells of his rapid rise as a teenager, his time and the blows of fate during the AIDS epidemic, the controversial forced outing, his confident exit from the show business and his new beginning. The film is a sensitive insight into the family history and a fast-paced journey through the career stages of a formative figure in German TV entertainment.

A film about the question of what it means to live a life that has no negative consequences.

Hazira survived Srebrenica. She saw the war, it corroded her life. She has been stuck in a refugee camp in her own country for 29 years, working hard and unceasingly to make ends meet and keep the trauma at bay.

The death of a Burkinabé family’s patriarch and the division of his estate unearths conflict between his heirs and larger questions about inheritance, belonging and the communal customs of West Africa versus Westernized courts.

Documentary about a district of Berlin

Leonhard Haskel & Anna Müller-Lincke sing a song.

Documentary about kookaburras

A funny walk through the life story of Billy Wilder (1906-2002), a cinematic genius; a portrait of a filmmaker who never was a boring man, a superb mind who had ten commandments, of which the first nine were: “Thou shalt not bore.”

Schlager is the stalwart of German pop culture and emerges stronger from every modernization crisis. But what are the stories behind the flawless backdrop of the German Schlager world? What makes Schlager stars true artists and German songs a perennial commercial success? The 90-minute documentary "Deutschland Schlagerland" goes in search of the personal stories behind the music, travels to provincial stages and big cities, talks to producers and performers. The aim is no less than to explain and understand the social and cultural phenomenon of "Schlager" in its entirety.

A documentary road movie about the luck of being oneself. In the cosmos of Kaddi, there are no "correct" explanations - Why, how come, how!

Uniform. Boots. Socks. Feet. A short portrait of Wolfgang and his fetish.

Director Junge was commissioned by the GDR in the country for the first time in the summer of 1970; his film In Syria auf Montage accompanies German engineers who train workers in the Homs textile factory. Shortly after filming ended, Hafez al-Assad put himself under the dictator. Twenty years later emerged ... the father stayed in the war over a youth club with Syrian orphans in Bad Saarow, whose fathers had died in the Lebanon war and accompanied them to Syria, where they were housed in separate, elite "schools of martyr children". Multi-faceted documents that oscillate between peaceful and tense, hopeful and unsettled.

After tasteless tweets about the Trump assassination, Sebastian "El Hotzo" Hotz was the butt of everyone's jokes. Now he has the chance to make amends: he is to travel to the USA and apologize to the Americans in person.

The Krautrock band Lokomotive Kreuzberg set itself the goal of combining music with trade union activism. From 1972 to 1977, it toured Germany with cabaret and songs such as ‘Solidaritätslied’ (The Solidarity Song) ‘Lohnpredigt’ (Wages Sermon) or ‘Geldsack’ (Moneybags). The film shows recordings of rehearsals, performances, and political discussions with the audience. The musicians describe their careers from classical music training to political rock.

Schweinsteiger's glittering career, which peaked with lifting the World Cup in 2014.

A portrait of the film-composer David Raksin, made for German television. Released in 1994.

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!”

Percy Schmeiser, a farmer, battles Monsanto after their GMO canola seeds contaminate his fields. Despite losing in court, he countersues and campaigns for farmers’ rights. Monsanto’s resources intimidate him, but he opposes GMOs, questioning their safety. The legal system fines farmers using Monsanto’s seeds, but the Supreme Court rules Percy isn’t liable for $200,000, affirming Monsanto’s ownership. Percy vows to continue fighting.

In 2019, Union Berlin was promoted to the Bundesliga. Four years later, the traditional East German club qualifies for the Champions League and achieves something that few would have thought possible. Despite all the euphoria over the triumph, the pressure to remain strong in sporting and economic terms also increased, as did the fear of falling into a conflict of identity between tradition and change. The fact that the soccer underdog from Köpenick still manages to retain its magic is primarily down to the people who work behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly and enthusiastically. Always at their side: a loyal fan base that is prepared to follow their club's path unconditionally. Hendel follows the team behind Union for almost two years, right up to their entry into the top flight, and takes a unique, particularly personal and authentic look behind the scenes of the club.

There are many myths about octopuses, the fascinating primeval creatures of the oceans. They are said to have torn even large ships into the depths! But researchers are now slowly discovering the secrets of these intelligent octopuses. In many new experiments, which you will witness here, octopuses demonstrate almost unbelievable abilities, they even open vessels to get at their prey. This is the first time that their ability to think abstractly is proven. An ability that we might trust the great apes, but not prehistoric sea creatures! The breathtaking documentary "Octopus - Geniuses from the Deep Sea" provides astonishing facts and turns your opinion about octopuses completely upside down!

Chancellor Adenauer is accompanied on a tour of the United States and Canada.

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

Philippe Pilliod interviews Max Frisch in 1985/86.

Short film on the manufacture of glassware

Fifteen years after the first crypto-currency appeared on the scene, what role do these virtual assets play in the financial system? In El Salvador, where bitcoin is an official currency, and in the United States and Europe, experts reveal what's at stake in this controversial sector.

A documentary about the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records and its German founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. As jews they had to flee Germany and the Hitler regime in the late 1930s. In New York they wrote music history with their record label Blue Note Records.

The film shows one day from waking up in the morning all the way to waking up again the next morning. The everyday situations that many commercials are made of, the little dramas that they create and solve through the product or service they sell, are stitched together into one day. This is a film about the everyday in (German, or Western-European) society because the commercials are part of the everyday of most people (everyone who watches television) and they depict an ideal image of society. The film abundantly uses repetition as an editing technique, in visual ways as described above, but also because commercials can be read in different ways. For instance, Brat baking foil shows up at the evening dinner sequence, when an ovendish is put on the table, and again later on in the sequence about going out to a classic concert, because the clip has classic music.

Portrait of a group of skinheads, some politically left wing, others extremely right wing. One feels the cold atmosphere of the society. The film was controversial. It was praised by some for its inside into the skinhead scene, but attacked by others for giving these radicals a platform for their arguments. Even more confusing were the images in its brilliant black-and-white cinematography.

the connections and energy flow between the various artists populating the 1980s sub-cultures of New York and Berlin. Features Jim Jarmusch, Lydia Lunch, Blixa Bargeld, Alex Hacke, Gudrun Gut, Nick Cave, and others. An important film. Bravo, Mr. Dreher.

After touring Scandinavia and Germany last year, the Cayenne crew invites you to join them on their trip to Athens! Carson Starnes, Chris Smith, David Sizemore, Richie Eisler, Scott Quinn, Josh Glowicki, and Chris Farmer welcome Dominik Wagner and Joe Atkinson to the family for three incredible weeks of skating, traveling, and kicking it with the boys!

TV-Documentary on German history

Christian's participation in this trip was only made possible through close cooperation between his probation officer, the public prosecutor, and the educators at the Johannes Petersen Home. It was conceived and implemented as a last attempt to influence his socially disadvantaged circumstances. Christian is only allowed to be picked up from the Hamburg remand prison immediately before departure. After two months, Christian is back in prison, this time in Portugal. For stealing radios and wristwatches. "Scandal! Bizarre therapy for difficult youths. Seven months of dream travel at the taxpayer's expense!" reads the newspaper. Bauer Publishing sends two reporters to southern Portugal. A clash ensues. The decision not to punish "criminal" children is the target of attacks by right-wing politicians and their press. The Youth Welfare Office considers discontinuing the project. But this is no time for self-pity – the group continues its work.