At Hotel Astoria, the former hotspot of Leipzig, guests were served champagne and turtle soup while the Stasi listened in. Animated memories from times gone by.
December 1981: Helmut Schmidt, chancellor of the FRG, visits the chairman of the state council of the GDR, Erich Honecker. The experiences with the visit of Willy Brandt in Erfurt in 1970 have warned the state leadership: Euphoria for a federal chancellor is out of the question this time. For December 13th, the protocol plans a visit to Güstrow. The Christmas market, the Barlach memorial, and the cathedral of Güstrow are on the agenda. The enormous machinery of the ministry of state security is set into motion in order to ensure the “safety of the guest”. Erich Mielke: “Never before, such a high effort was necessary as here in Güstrow.” People are temporarily arrested, inhabitants placed under house arrest, Stasi employees dressed up as “visitors of the Christmas market”. And like that, the media was supposed to get presented with a favourable image of the GDR. A reconstruction of three hours of state visit to Güstrow.
Directed by Hugo Conim and Miguel Newton, "Enterrado na Loucura – Punk em Portugal 78-88 - A 2ª Vaga" (“Buried in Insanity – Punk in Portugal 78-88 – The second wave”), continues a history that started to be told in “A Um passo da Loucura - A 1ª Vaga" (“One Step from Insanity – The first wave”) a documentary first screened in 2015. The two documentaries are a faithful and realistic portrait of the first decade of Punk in Portugal. This second documentary starts in 1982 with the birth of a second wave – more combative and involved with the punk scene - of Portuguese punk bands like ‘Crise Total’, ‘Grito Final’, ‘Kú-de-Judas’, Mata-Ratos or Peste & Sida and ends around 1988. The history is told not only by the musicians but also by anonymous punk’s or even concerned parents. It’s an interesting narration that evolves around music but also around aesthetical, political, educational, legal and ethical dimensions of Punk.
A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.
A look back at the girl-group craze of the 60's through archival footage and interviews with those involved.
This feature length documentary charts the story of the great Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee. A legend himself, there’s not a lot of pioneers of roots and reggae that he didn’t work with, becoming the go-to producer for that dub sound coming out of Jamaica in the sixties and seventies, further cementing his legacy when he started licensing his productions straight to London labels. Diggory Kenrick’s doco calls on not only Lee himself to tell the story, but features the likes of U Roy, Dennis Alcapone, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Sly and Robbie, Johnny Clarke and Johnny Holt among others.
Rock'n'roll was a man's world they say. The film documents the often ignored female impact on rock's history, from the groundbreaking guitar stylings of Memphis Minnie and Sister Rosetta to the gnarly singing of Big Mama Thornton. Musicians as different as Suzi Quatro and Kristin Hersh tell about their experiences on and off the grid of stardom and the music industry.
Best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, Robert Moog was an American pioneer of electronic music, and shaped musical culture with some of the most inspiring electronic instruments ever created. This "compelling documentary portrait of a provocative, thoughtful and deeply sympathetic figure" (New York Times) peeks into the inventor's mind and the worldwide phenomenon he fomented.
Englands heimliche Hymne - Land of Hope and Glory
The story of the American music dynasty, the Carters and Cashes, and their decades-long influence on popular music.
World reference of the disco with 400 million albums sold, unforgettable titles like Waterloo, Mamma Mia ! or Dancing Queen, ABBA is a real planetary success. For 50 years, the world has been dancing to the rhythm of this mythical group. One year after the release of their new album, Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid meet again in a documentary that retraces the recipe of their incredible longevity. Between musicals, movies and concerts with their holograms, ABBA reveals the secret of their eternity.
DDR 1990 - Reise durch ein verschwindendes Land
About a journalist and his cameraman visiting East Germany, former GDR, 25 years later again after their journey which took place in January 1990, just between the Fall of the Wall and the reunification with West Germany, comparing the old pictures with the present of 2015 and meeting former interview partners a second time. An impressive work of time documentary showing seemingly surreal scenes about the changings of cities, industrial locations and lifes in different political and economical systems.
The white chalk cliffs of Rügen are among the most impressive natural monuments on earth, which the painter Casper David Friedrich immortalized for posterity as early as the 19th century. Germany's largest island with its seaside resorts from the Gründerzeit, its smaller side islands and peninsulas that give it its shape, its lagoon-like Bodden waters, the dense beech forests, the yellow rapeseed fields and the meadows, the shady tree avenues and the white sandy beaches is not only a magnet for tourists, but also a unique natural paradise in the middle of the Baltic Sea, a habitat for the rare white-tailed eagle, fallow deer, raccoon dogs and badgers as well as a resting place for huge swarms of migratory birds such as geese and cranes that can be heard trumpeting from afar. In this nature documentary, the unique landscapes and the diversity of the animal world of Rügen are captured with beautiful pictures during the changing of the seasons.
A look at Dan and John's partnership and the music
Wenn Mutti früh zur Arbeit geht
A short educational documentary on early electronic composition and synthesizers.
Filmed at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio, the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony honors inductees: Tina Turner, Carole King, The Go-Go's, JAY-Z, Foo Fighters, and Todd Rundgren; along with Kraftwerk, Charley Patton and Gil Scott-Heron; LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhoads; Clarence Avant for the Ahmet Ertegun Award. The special music event also features a host of all-star presenters, performers, and special guests, including Angela Bassett, Christina Aguilera, Mickey Guyton, H.E.R., Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Drew Barrymore, Paul McCartney, Lionel Richie, and many others.
The story of hip hip behind the iron curtain.
Cosmic Trip, la musique à la conquête de l'espace