Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis

Kraftwerk's vision of a keyboard-driven world of clicking metronomic rhythms and digitised sound bites may have been the stuff of avant fantasy in the 1970s (the decade that saw the band's first groundbreaking albums), but it is a reality in the new millennium. Their visionary style is explored in KRAFTWERK AND THE ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION, a study of the group, their career and their emergence as the most influential electronic band in the world.

Germany in Autumn does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of Germany during the late 1970s. The movie covers the two month time period during 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped, and later murdered, by the left-wing terrorists known as the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction). The businessman had been kidnapped in an effort to secure the release of the orginal leaders of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. When the kidnapping effort and a plane hijacking effort failed, the three most prominent leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all committed suicide in prison. It has become an article of faith within the left-wing community that these three were actually murdered by the state.

Endless beaches, dunes, heath and the Wadden Sea characterize the landscape of Sylt. Germany's largest North Sea island is also a paradise for numerous animal and plant species. Around half of its area is under landscape or nature protection. In spring and autumn, thousands of migratory birds stop here on their way between Siberia and East Africa. Sheep graze on the dike meadows, female seals give birth to their young off Sylt. And the Sylt Wadden Sea is one of the last large wilderness areas in Europe. But in winter storms hit the island. If the “Blanke Hans”, as the storm on Sylt is called, causes the North Sea to rage, it hits the island with tremendous force. Only a few places on the German North Sea coast are as exposed to the force of the sea as the west coast of Sylt. The documentary shows Sylt's nature in fascinating images. People who are particularly connected to the island and its nature are accompanied in their everyday lives.

A character-driven, political-thriller documentary that explores the volatile events that defined Alberto Fujimoris decade-long reign of Peru: His meteoric rise from son of poor Japanese immigrants to the presidency; his fateful relationship with the shadowy and Machiavellian Vladimiro Montesinos; his self-coup that dissolved overnight both Congress and the Judiciary.

Traffic on the B61 road, which connects Rotterdam to Warsaw and cuts through the German spa town of Bad Oeynhausen, is permanently gridlocked. The promised cure is a bypass whose construction is documented for a period of eight years: the efforts of the mayor, police, fire brigade and construction companies, the delays in the construction of the northern bypass and above all the reactions of the affected residents.

Schabowskis Zettel - Die Nacht, als die Mauer fiel

Documentary on the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, with a focus on the production of his unfinished film Game of Death. Using interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, Lee aficionado John Little paints a portrait of the world's most famous action hero, concluding with a new cut of Game of Death's action finale, reconstructed from Lee's notes and recently-recovered footage.

The full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli revenge operation 'Wrath of God.' The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation.

During the donations scandal of 1999/2000, Helmut Kohl gave his legendary "word of honor" not to name any donors. This documentary explores the question of what this word of honor was really all about

Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, The brothers Koeman… These were some of the superstars from Holland whose blazing talents made the European Championship of 1988 so memorable and one to log indelibly in the whole recent legend of outstanding international football. Eight teams qualified for the tournament finals, including England who scored more goals than any other side, 18, to reach the final stages – and the Cinderella side from the Republic of Ireland, managed by Jack Charlton. But most of all Euro ’88 had a winning side who swept all before them in a colourful and passionate series of displays that will be viewed again and again by anyone fascinated and intrigued by the way the world’s most popular game is so sumptuously developing as it enters its second organised century. It is a must for fans and serious students alike.

The French researcher Bertrand Monnet visits pirates in Nigeria and Somalia to learn how they make money from oil theft and kidnapping.

The recounting of a deadly Canadian bank robbery in the 1950's and the resulting massive man hunt for the killer.

In this true-crime documentary, a charismatic rebel in 1990s Seattle pulls off an unprecedented string of bank robberies straight out of the movies.

A short, avant-garde movie, starring twelve-year-old ballet student Gwen Thomas, Nymphlight is a lovely blend of fact and fiction, using Bryant Park at the New York Public Library as a stage set for the fantasy inclusion of a certain nymph. A meditation on an ephemeral day in the the life of a park shared by birds, the young and the old.

In a investigation into the pernicious origins of Stockholm Syndrome, a thrilling family story intersects with a dramatic bank robbery in Sweden (1973) and the famous kidnapping of Patty Hearst (1974).

The film takes a look at a professional gambler, who very successfully specialized on the German version of the slot machine.

The 1974 finals in West Germany saw the emergence of "Total Football" in the shape of the classy Dutch led by the legendary Johan Cruyff. The Dutch swept all before them until they came up against the solid hosts in the final. Beckenbauer led West Germany to a tense 2-1 victory.

Marcel Ophüls interviews various important Eastern European figures for their thoughts on the reunification of Germany and the fall of Communism.

This James A. FitzPatrick Traveltalks short visits the West German cities of Hamburg, Bremen, Munich, and Heidelberg. Included are scenes of World War II destruction that lingered at the time.

May 27th, 1971 was a rainy day. In the small town Radevormwald, the world seems to be still in order. But on this day, 46 people die in a train crash, amongst them 41 schoolchildren. Since then, Radevormwald has been connected with one of the worst railway catastrophes of Germany. The touching documentary reconstructs the tragedy and shows how much the event still influences the life in the town until today.