Videoteca

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Kalter Krieg in Bewegung: Europa 1952/53 2023 star_border 8
In the early 1950s, European construction was in its infancy, while the Cold War intensified. A return to the archives over two crucial years, nourished by testimonies "from the inside".

Zwei Leben für Europa 2022

Das erste Museum der Moderne - 100 Jahre Folkwang-Museum 2022

5 Houses 2020 star_border 5
A portrait of five people who were important to the filmmaker when he was a child. Apart from a few childhood photos, he himself remains out of the picture. He visits a teacher who used to take care of him, and a gay childhood friend. Their combined stories—about exclusion and terror, but also love—paint a portrait of a small, somewhat oppressive community and a boy who lost his sense of security within it, despite the help he was offered. In his wistful look at the past, Barreto transcends his personal experiences; anyone can identify with his bittersweet journey.

Schocken, on the Verge of Consensus 2020
Salman Schocken was the King of department stores in Germany. Before WWII, he owned 22 department stores with 6,000 employees. He possessed a unique collection of 60,000 rare books in German and Hebrew and founded a modern, Jewish publishing house. He was the lifelong supporter of Shmuel Yosef Agnon and he owned the Haaretz newspaper which still survives on the border of consensus. He supported secular, Jewish culture and identified with humanist, liberal Judaism, a relic of 19th century Europe. Today, in an age of unscrupulous market economy and militant Judaism, Salman Schocken’s ways point to an alternative, perhaps not entirely lost.

Roundabout Art 2020
In Europe, road junctions have become public art galleries. A road trip across France, Switzerland, the Canary Islands, Greece and Germany exploring the glorious world of roundabout art.

Die Verwandlung 2019

Bellini and Mantegna: Renaissance Rivals 2019 star_border 6
The mysterious parallel story of Italian painters Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431-1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435-1516), brothers-in-law, public rivals and masters of the early Renaissance.

Hans Blumenberg - Der unsichtbare Philosoph 2018 star_border 5
Documentary feature film about the life and work of renowned philosopher Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996). Christoph Rüter gives the word to three of Blumenberg's former students, who today work in very different sectors: As a taxi driver, an ad writer and a philosopher. They give a very personal account of how Blumenberg's thoughts and ideas have informed and inspired them.

Werner Nekes - Das Leben zwischen den Bildern 2017 star_border 5.5
In conversations with his friends and colleagues, among them Bernd Upnmoor, Helmut Herbst, Alexander Kluge, Klaus Wyborny, Daniel Kothenschulte and Helge Schneider, Ulrike Pfeiffer takes us on a journey into the broad expanse of Nekes' cabinet of wonder and his cinematic works. At the same time, this documentary provides an insight into the history of experimental film in Germany.

Kolyma: Road of Bones 2017 star_border 7
Kolyma is a long highway that stretches through the deepest Russian North-east. It was the epicentre of the Soviet prison camp system. Millions of people built them and lived there under the most dreadful conditions. And now the time is running short for survivors or their direct descendants to tell their story firsthand.

London Beat - Musik als Revolte 2017

Pure Love: The Voice of Ella Fitzgerald 2017 star_border 8
Ella Fitzgerald's voice is a phenomenon and unrivalled to this day. She had the perfect pitch and perfect intonation. Ella's voice spanned three octaves, her phrasing seemed effortless. There is almost no style of music, in which she did not excel, and her numerous - now legendary - recordings of the 'Great American Songbook' with pieces of US composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Harald Arlen, Cole Porter or Duke Ellington, remained a benchmark for the "right" interpretation of those songs for generations of singers. In the film the focus will be on the voice of Ella Fitzgerald. We want to unravel the secret of her voice through many different people (musicians, singers, critics etc.), who will tell about what impact her voice had on them and still has. We want to learn more about Ella´s life to find out what made her sing like she did and only she could.

Revolution of Sound - Tangerine Dream 2017 star_border 6.3
‘Tangerine Dream is science fiction!’ declares band leader Edgar Froese who died in January, 2015 aged 70. For almost fifty years he and his band ‘Tangerine Dream’ explored sound and its effect on our emotions. This film about one of Germany’s first electronic bands kicks off with the young Berlin musicians who were as inspired by the space age of the 1960s, with its rocket launchings and visions of the future, as they were by their own heartbeat, on which Froese also based compositions. Aided by the Moog and other synthesisers Froese (and various band members) revolutionised popular music. His explorations took him into the worlds of classical, new and film music. He preferred to visualise moods rather than create clearly structured songs. A blend of amateur footage, interviews with band members, relatives, friends and colleagues such as Jean-Michel Jarre that creates a comprehensive portrait of an artistic pioneer.

Tangerine Dream: Sound from Another World 2016
Documentary of German electronic musical group Tangerine Dream.

Departure 2016 star_border 5.4
Hilla grows up in the 60s, her father is a worker and her mother a charwoman. But she wants a different future for herself, wants to study. After a violent incident she needs a strong shoulder. Who of her life will do?

Sonita 2015 star_border 7
If 18-year-old Sonita had a say, Michael Jackson and Rihanna would be her parents and she'd be a rapper who tells the story of Afghan women and their fate as child brides. She finds out that her family plans to sell her to an unknown husband for $9,000.

Billie Holiday: A Sensation 2015 star_border 8
A documentary about the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959). There exist many myths and legends about the Jazz Singer Billie Holiday — one of the greatest voices of the last century. Most of them tell the story of the tragic victim of drugs, alcohol, men, color, or the circumstances of her upbringing. To some extent she contributed herself to these legends, especially in her autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues". In recent years, more and more records and reports have shown a different picture of her. These statements of confidants, colleagues and friends clean up with many of the legends and show a strong personality who has been anything but a pitiable victim. Billie Holiday was a strong-willed and determined person and a very complex personality who did not correspond to the classic victim type.

FEMMEfille 2014 star_border 9
The story of Isabelle Caro, Oliviero Toscani's NO-Anorexia model who rose to fame after his campaign. Diving through different passages of time, with the aid of family photos as well as video diaries left behind, we see a kaleidoscope of Isabelle's life and the world that surrounded her.

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Restons en bons thermes 2012

Wild Iran 2012
In this documentary, nature photographer Benny Rebel embarks on a multiweek expedition to capture images of wildlife native to his homeland of Iran.