Germany

Synopsis:
Somewhere in sunny Puerto Rico: private detective Al Pereira has seen far better days in his professional life. He would need more jobs, because his cash is almost empty. One day he meets the obscure, mysterious Cynthia, who promises a lucrative job. Pereira is supposed to oversee a notorious businessman and politician named Ramos, as Cynthia assumes that he is cheating on her, and Pereira is said to shoot proof-footage of strangers. An easy job, as Pereira seems, and he gets to work. But the lady who gave him the job seems to play a double game and pulls him into a murderous affair. In any case, Pereira one day finds Ramos dead and now has the police on his neck, which suspected him of killing the politician.Read More »

Quote:
This documentary by German filmmaker Andres Veiel takes a look back at German politics of the ’70s and ’80s, a troubled era when the government was engaged in a war against the leftist movement known as the Red Army Fraction. The conflict is addressed by focusing on the lives and deaths of two men whose fates became tragically intertwined in 1989. Alfred Herrenhausen was a high-ranking member of the Deutsche Bank who was killed by a Red Army Fraction bomb attack. Wolfgang Grams, a radical activist, was a major suspect in the attack. Four years later, he was tracked down by police and killed. Through interviews with relatives, friends, and colleagues of both men, a clear picture of the times emerges. While the film makes no attempts to place blame or assign guilt, it does raise many questions about German politics today.Read More »

Berlin, 1948/1949. The town is divided into two sectors. The world is close to World War III. West Berlin is kept alive by the biggest airlift in history. While the city is deadlocked, three teenagers set out to fulfil their dreams: Völpel (Hilmar Thate), ex-executioner, receives secret information from Police Headquarters. Gladow (Ulrich Wesselmann), 17 years old, wants to be like Al Capone. Lisa Gabler (Katharina Thalbach) dreams of buying Berlins biggest revue venue the ‘Friedrichstadt Palast.’ But suddenly, the droning of the airplanes ceases? Based on a true story from the times of the ‘Berlin Blockade.’Read More »

One of the five episodes of Bedtime stories for children by Harun FarockiRead More »

Pornography in the service of politics. An outrageous provocation, this attack on reactionary German legislation discriminating against young film directors, features head-on, close-up shots of a penis ‘mouthing’ the parliamentary defence of the law by its author. This is followed by masturbation of the organ by an anonymous female hand, ending with ejaculation into the camera and a close-up of a nude behind ‘blowing’ out a candle (with appropriate sound). A landmark in political pamphleteering, the film was selected for the 1968 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival by a committee of leading German critics, and promptly banned by the (social-democratic!) city government, causing the withdrawal of almost all German directors from the festival and a national scandal. The title satirically refers to the official certificate of ‘Particularly Valuable’ given each year to the best film shorts by an Establishment selection committee.
– Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive ArtRead More »

Synopsis:
Uomini, anni, vita (People, Years, Life) is an allegorical film about the subservience of the people of the Caucasus (both Christian and Muslim alike) in general and Armenians in particular by the Soviet State. Mother Russia even makes on appearance in the beginning of the film in the form of a Saint, with all the Caucasian peoples being made to bow down to her.Read More »

Synopsis
This is the tale of a young woman, growing up in the age of the internet and turning the search for oneself into a public spectacle, allowing kids from all over the world to live their life through hers. Through her fragmented personalities you see the emergence of a new generation, in which the concept of a fixed identity has grown old.Read More »

Quote:
Animated to the lively accompaniment of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5, and created using thousands of handmade black & white charcoal drawings, Fischinger’s delightfully dynamic short film sees dozens of white shapes dance, glide, shoot, and pop across a stark black background, leaving us transfixed in their wake.Read More »

Quote.
The first Studies were synchronized with records (Fischinger made a total of 13 Studies all without sound). It was only with the introduction of sound, beginning with Study No 6 that the films did full justice to this musical principle. The play of the white lines, the arcs, and the upside-down U’s running hither and thither like ballet dancers was brought into perfect synchronization with the music, and thus the films offered an abstract illustration of the melodies. Study No 6 is certainly the best of his films in terms of forms. – Hans Scheugl and Ernst Schmidt, Jr.Read More »