Discover Movies

Angela Schanelec discussing her movies.

East German-Syrian co-production about archaeological excavations in Syria.

A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.

The louder the glacier, the stronger the melt. The creaking, cracking and rippling is the voice of impermanence. Sound artist Ludwig Berger shows how important it is to listen to the world that surrounds us. The film follows him on one of his numerous visits to Morteratsch glacier in the Swiss Alps, where he collects fascinating sounds that might disappear forever.

The film is based on a variety of reflections on politics and labor, economy and technology, identity and advertising.

David Asmmann's Football Under Cover documents the hard work involved in setting up an exhibition soccer match, known as a "friendly," between a German girls squad and Iranian women's team. In addition to showing how the two groups come from very different cultures, the documentary showcases what playing the game means to the members of both teams, and displays how passionate the fans of these two squads are.

When the revolution in Nicaragua won its victory nearly 40 years ago, the world began to dream. A young generation was taking the reins in a country of grand utopias. From West Germany alone, 15,000 “brigadists” travelled to help rebuild the war-torn country: liberals, greens, unionists, social democrats, leftists and church representatives harvested coffee and cotton, built schools, kindergartens and hospital wards. No movement has mobilised so many people. What became of the hopes and dreams of the revolutionaries and their supporters?

An early video work by Ivan Ladislav Galeta that underlines the perceptual presumptions of video-media.

Half a trillion dollars have been spent on the international aid machine in the last 50 years and it just keeps on pumping. It's an industry that's unquestionable and supported by the world's biggest celebrities; Bono, Bob Geldof, Angelina Jolie ... But recently an increasing number of experts have begun to criticise the giving game. This doc dissects the aid industry and reveals some difficult home truths about 'Aid as Business' in the Third World.

The sirens blare out; a catastrophe is rehearsed. Hyperreal practice-runs, planning exercises and simulations give rise to the disturbing dystopia of emergency. The film of the hour: thrilling, complex and alarming.

Heligoland, April 18, 1947: Preparations for one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history are almost complete. The British want to raze the island to the ground with more than 6,000 tons of explosives - nothing should remind of the sea fortress with its air raid shelters and anti-aircraft systems, with the submarine bunker and naval port. The Heligolanders have been evacuated and are waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the “Big Bang” in Hamburg and Cuxhaven, on Sylt, in Schleswig and Wilhelmshaven. Will they ever be able to set foot on the red rock again - or will the island's history come to an end in an explosion that historians will later measure as the size of atomic bombs?

Shot in Munich just a few weeks after it was taken by the American troops on April 30, 1945.

The Engelbecken is not just a normal place between the Berlin districts of Kreuzberg and Mitte, but also symbolic, a kind of metaphor: for the Wall that runs through the whole of Berlin and the deadly landscape that surrounds it, the death strip. It is a place of division, of death, of limitation and confinement. In their essay film, Gamma Bak and Steffen Reck look at the oppositional subculture in Prenzlauer Berg/East Berlin.

ART WAR is the story of young, creative Egyptians of the Arab Spring who, through the means of graffiti murals, rebellious music, art, and enlightenment, try to salvage their revolution from going under.

Chronology is a puzzle created by images taken from found footage material originated by "Neue Heimat", the architectural project in charge of the reconstruction of Germany after the war. The result is a unique and mysterious atmosphere in which the individual pieces of the puzzle come together and leave it to the observer to create the bigger picture.

The long-term documentary about Kalle, a boy from the prefabricated housing projects along the Allee of the Cosmonauts, paints a different picture of Berlin: “Poor” is not “sexy” here, it means: bad opportunities. The directing duo respectfully accompanies Kalle and leaves the charismatic boy to speak, supplementing scenes with animated sequences where background knowledge is meaningful.

Released during the trial of Adolf Eichmann, this documentary uses archival footage and contemporary interviews to examine the crimes of the Third Reich and the bureaucratic machinery behind the Holocaust. Directed by Erwin Leiser, the film situates Eichmann’s prosecution within a broader historical context, confronting German audiences with visual evidence of antisemitism, deportation, and mass murder, including commentary from figures such as Fritz Bauer.

Explains the history of playing cards, which designs exist in which countries and how the design of the cards has changed.

What is behind the myth surrounding the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner? The documentary shows Steiner's life from the beginnings in Vienna, the crises in Weimar, the wild times in the Berlin bohemian scene to the esoteric leader and busy founder whose reform movement was followed by thousands. Around one hundred years after his death, the question remains: Who was Rudolf Steiner?

In Ukraine, they are called the ‘three musketeers’: together, journalists Svitlana Zalishchuk, Serhiy Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayyem are fighting for democracy on the Maidan. When the revolution comes to a head, and President Yanukovych absconds, his magnificent estate is left behind. Mustafa, Svitlana and Serhiy go inside – and see the extent of the corruption and greed in its rooms. Now they want to go one step further and completely change politics. They run for parliament themselves in 2014 – and win. But the 2019 election changes everything. While Serhiy supports the candidate Selenskyj, Mustafa and Svitlana take a different path. Serhiy must now fight for himself alone.

A portrait of three friends from the GDR. Dieter, a painter, spent ten years in prison on account of his "aversion to work". Alfred, promoted to the position of deputy executive editor, ends up in prison and receiving psychiatric help as a result of a catch-22 situation involving protests and alcoholism. Michael, who had studied foreign trade in Moscow, was kicked out of the Academy and now earns a living crafting lamps.

The documentary drama offers a fresh and surprising take on the story of Bruce Reynolds, Ronnie Biggs, and the rest of the gang.

John Irving's literary worlds are satirically exaggerated, socially critical, unexpectedly magical. But how do these dazzling, sometimes bizarre, narrative worlds emerge? A unique insight into his writing workshop and a search of the places and people who have become part of his stories.

The short film answers the question of whether illiterate people are able to read.

An animated documentary about the relevance of Shakespeare's classical works for digital natives in Singapore: Live action and animation combined. The film was created in close collaboration with the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Two boys in the third grade of elementary school are having a snowball fight and roughhousing with each other after class. Their accounts of the incident at home differ greatly.

A documentary about the history of the German rap scene.

"Busch singt" consists of 6 films "About the first part of our century" and does not present Ernst Busch only as a singer but is a film with and about Busch as a chronicler and fighter for communist ideals of his time. Konrad Wolf died during the production, he directed part 3 "1935 oder Das Faß der Pandora" and part 5 "Ein Toter auf Urlaub".

Publicity film for Jena Glass.

Back in 2017, at the Jazzopen Stuttgart Festival, the great Quincy Jones put on a show that elicited many rapturous standing ovations from the capacity crowd. To kick things off, the seventy musicians of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the SWR Big Band step out onto the stage. It is a warm summer’s evening and they play a grand opening medley in the fading light that seamlessly blends classic jazz with Michael Jackson numbers like “Wanna Be Startin Somethin.”

Many fishermen are gradually losing their traditional livelihoods. On the west coast of India, a power plant has scared away the fish, while in Sri Lanka fishermen are being driven away from coastlines taken over by tourist infrastructure. In Costa Rica, environmental concerns are leading to a ban on crab fishing, which provides a livelihood for entire villages.

Green was the symbol of recognition among the supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. This documentary-collage illustrates with animated blogs and tweets the story of democracy under fire and the dramatic events before and after the 2009 presidential elections in Iran.

So Beate Niemann sets out in search of her family history in order to rehabilitate her father, Bruno Sattler.

The film looks at the problems of high school students in an 11th grade class in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. The focus is on interpersonal relationships. The school, the circle of friends, the parental home, the social milieu, the housing situation and leisure activities form the environment in which the young people find themselves on the threshold to adulthood. The film explores their wishes, thoughts, fears, dreams, hopes and conflicts. Opportunities and offers that go beyond school and can be helpful in resolving problems are also shown. It is up to the viewer to weigh up the different views of the interviewees and form their own opinion.

To most of us, mathematics seems abstract, mysterious, complex, and even out of reach. And at the same time, it is the language in which the world speaks to us. Mathematics can be sensual. She has taste, she sounds and has color. It can be felt and it can be touched.

Many people have negative opinions about their managers. A survey by the Geva Institute in Munich found that 88% of German workers have issues with their superiors, with 20% admitting to hating them. Consequently, nearly 70% find little pleasure in their work, 18% have withdrawn, and only 12% are motivated. The film explores these issues by critiquing neoliberalism, highlighting its flaws in promoting free market expansion and endless growth, even if harmful. It features interviews with scientists, psychologists, and CEOs like Paul Bulcke from Nestlé.

Documentary film.

Documentary on the Kentucky Derby.

A group of delightful teenage girls who have all fled to Germany find their own creative ways to overcome hidden discrimination in a film about friendship, sisterhood and living your dreams.

Twenty-six people talk about love and hardship, hope and bitterness, fear and happiness accompanied by celluloid images of Berlin at night. A symphony of life, a magical cosmos. The third part of the filmmaker’s “Chants” trilogy on space, time and the body.

A cinematic essay on perception and the afterlife of ideas - told through a place in transition. A film of magnificent intellectual scope and uncompromising formal integrity.

How does mobility reflect social status and racism? A story of two African American women working to provide and improve mobility in their community, as they tell the history of the Safe Bus - formerly the biggest black-owned transportation system in the world.

Rocks, dunes, sand and dust - large areas of Namibia in southwest Africa are characterized by deserts. Riverbeds full of sand meander through these inhospitable regions. Some of these only have water once every few years when enough rain has fallen in the mountains and the water rushes to the coast - but most of the time the river courses have dried up. And yet they are crucial for the survival of many living beings.

15 years after his documentary film “Familie Villano kehrt nicht zurück”, Hans Andreas Guttner observes the second and third generation of this once ten-member Italian family.

On October 9, 1967, the news went around the world: Argentine-Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara was dead. Shot dead in the forests of Bolivia. Half a century has passed since then, and yet Che Guevara lives on as an idol, loved, hated, glorified and marketed. The documentary approaches the seemingly immortal rebel in a very personal way and shows the brother, father, companion and man Che from an unknown, private side.