Kyssekurs

A short by Maren Ade.

SOMETHING NECESSARY is an intimate moment in the lives of Anne and Joseph. A woman struggling to rebuild her life after the civil unrest that swept Kenya after the 2007 elections claiming the life of her husband, the health of her son and leaving her home on an isolated farm in the Kenyan countryside in ruins, she now has nothing but her resolve to rebuild her life left. A young man, troubled gang member who participated in the countrywide violence is drawn to Anne and her farm seemingly in search of redemption. Both, Joseph and Anne need something that only the other can give to allow them to shed the painful memories of their past and move on.

A family from the wrong side of the tracks moves to Rome. 16-year-old Olivia has a hard time making friends in her new school but eventually teams up with Lilli, a great fan of the film "Grease" and its star Olivia Newton-John.

Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is introduced to King Frederick II of Prussia in 1747. The aging composer and the young monarch clash and a battle of egos ensues.

Firdaus is a Blackjack dealer in a Las Vegas landscape juxtaposed between glittering casino lights and the deteriorating desert oasis. Negotiating a missing husband and neighboring domestic violence, Firdaus’ world unfolds as a fragmented interplay between repetition and repressed anger.

Ann, an attractive widowed New York model, lives in an apartment with her daughter Peggy. The courtship of Ann by visiting engineer Larry, and accompanying misadventures, are seen alternately from their and Peggy's viewpoint. Filmed realistically at many New York locations

Angelina-Duah Fares, a Druze woman, attempts to enter the Israeli fashion world, but traditions clash with her efforts to choose her way in life.

How fair is it for the government to control its citizens? Four Puerto Ricans confront their past when they open their “files”, the records obtained of the illegal surveillance and persecution that the Puerto Rican government held against citizens and organizations that disagreed with the establishment. Through their daily life, they will tell us their stories, experiences and intimate feelings of the persecution they suffered. Taking their past as an example, we will confront the present.

The Network is a documentary set behind the scenes at the largest television network in one of the most unstable and dangerous places on earth, Afghanistan.

Each year, 60,000 people from around the globe gather in a dusty windswept Nevada desert to build a temporary city, collaborating on large-scale art and partying for a week before burning a giant effigy in a ritual frenzy. Spark takes a peek behind the curtain with Burning Man organizers and participants, revealing a year of unprecedented challenges and growth.

What is home? And how do we find it? TINY follows one couple's attempt to build a Tiny House from scratch with no building experience, and profiles other families who have downsized their lives into houses smaller than the average parking space. Through homes stripped down to their essentials, the film raises questions about sustainability, good design, and the changing American Dream.

A documentary comedy about serious issues we have with our stuff, Xmas Without China follows Chinese immigrant Tom Xia as he challenges his American neighbors to survive the Christmas season without any Chinese products.

La Casita Blanca is about to close its doors. What still on any given day in any of the forty rooms? Meublé tells six stories about desire, the game, the need for companionship and madness, as necessary to live and they do not understand the crisis.

In the early 70’s, Rock photographer Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya purchased a portable Video Recorder. In a period of three years they shot over 40 hours of New York Dolls footage. Now for the first time ever this footage is unveiled. This feature length documentary captures the band during early performances in New York at Kenny’s Castaways and Max’s Kansas City, then follows the Dolls on their tour of the West Coast, including footage from the Whisky A Go Go, the Real Don Steele Show, Rodney Bingenheimer’s E Club and much more. Intercut with revealing interviews, backstage banter and late night debauchery, this is THE definitive document of the New York Dolls.

Helena and Ernesto's marriage is in problems when Helena's cousin arrives to complete his rehab at his isolated mountain home. His arrival releases repressed emotions and desires and puts them in contact with each other.

In 1915-16, San Diego's Balboa Park was the scene of an exposition to mark completion of the Panama Canal. This film takes us through the exposition: from the Cabrillo bridge and a panoramic view of the site, to the facades of the California Building, Horticultural Building, Panama Canal Exhibit, and the reproduction of the locks at Gatuna. We see tourists on the isthmus and a crowd outside the Panama Film Company's exhibit of how movies are made. We watch the feeding of fish at the laguna, and we end at the Plaza de Panama where toddlers are surrounded by pigeons. Fatty Arbuckle makes a brief appearance outside the Panama Film exhibit. Titles give us each structure's cost.

Mabel has just gotten engaged during a housewarming party of which her mother is the hostess. When an annoying party guest persuades Mabel to dance with him, Mabel hurries through the dance and then goes to look for her fiancé, only to discover him caressing another woman. Her fiancé finds not only Mabel, but also her mother, very displeased, and not inclined to believe his explanation.

The five days when Copenhagen was held in a panic grip by an intelligent activist and former elite shooter, who takes to arms when a woman journalist writes about the government’s broken promises in an environmental question.

An independent visually impaired man who runs a school for blind children deals with troubles and triumphs of his profession and finds love when a withdrawn recent widow volunteers at the school.

Linor Abargil, an Israeli beauty queen, was raped two months before being crowned Miss World in 1998. Ten years later, she’s ready to talk about it – and to encourage others to speak out.