19 years after the dropping of atomic bombs in Japan, the Olympic Games of 1964 took place in Tokyo. In the midst of the cold war, the games are supposed to become a symbol for a peaceful world. Especially the divided Germany is expected to prove this: By order of the IOC, both German states must participate in Tokyo with a joint team despite deep ideological rifts. The fact that athletes from both German states still had to compete against each other in order to form a joint team for the 1964 Olympic Games in Innsbruck and in Tokyo is all but forgotten. The film tells the story of the East-West German team of 1964 for the first time and is simultaneously a current document about the relation of sports and politics in international relations.
Tensions between the USSR and the United States were high in 1959, with the seemingly constant threat of nuclear war. Then some unlikely ambassadors stepped forward to clear all that away: the Harlem Globetrotters. From Harlem With Love is the story of how a group of barnstorming basketball players traveled to the heart of the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War and bridged a cultural gap many thought would stand forever.
Film sponsored by Western Electric (AT&T's equipment manufacturing division), the builder of the United States Air Force's White Alice Communications System in Alaska. Introduces the people and geography of the new state as well as the Western Electric radio-relay system, which links far-flung military sites, alert stations, and missile-warning facilities. Ralph Caplan praised the film's "intrinsically dramatic and highly photogenic" portrayal of communications equipment.
Gorbachev believed that it was impossible to achieve a successful economy until the tensions of the Soviet Union continued with the Western countries, and especially the US, so that their high priority was to tame down, establish relations and negotiate with the Americans.
A documentary story about the participation and victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 by the Ukrainian band Kalush Orkestra.
President Mikhail Gorbachev recounts the end of the Cold War and the reduction of nuclear arms.
Made at the height of 'cold war' paranoia, this drama-documentary shows the work of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation, who's duties included the issuing of public warnings of any nuclear missile strike and the subsequent fallout.
Richard Fairbrass goes behind the scenes of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest.
U.S. nuclear tests in space, and the development of the military intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
In December 2016 a remarkable chapter in music history was closed as the Finnish punk rock band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (PKN) retired. Punk Voyage is a feature length documentary film about the last years of the band, with all the ups and downs included. After becoming celebrities in Finland, this incredible quartet continued to conquer new fans around the World. In its seven years run PKN played nearly 300 gigs in 16 countries. In 2015 the band was selected to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest, where they played to over 100 million television spectators. However, the busy traveling and success created a lot of pressure within the band: Kari struggled with the temptations and responsibilities brought by publicity; Sami extended his territory to politics and religion; Toni's and the band's roadie Niila's crush to the the same girl caused conflicts; and Pertti, tired of this all, decided to retire.
The riveting biography of 102-year-old CIA spymaster Peter Sichel, who unpacks the obscured roots of conflicts that plague today’s world and the toll espionage took on his personal life.
Eurovision aka the Gay World Cup. A poetic documentary about Eurovision Song Contest fans. The film hears the intimate testimonies of what the contest means to them.
This film shows how far we have come since the cold-war days of the 50s and 60s. Back then the Russians were our "enemies". And to them the Americans were their "enemies" who couldn't be trusted. Somewhere in all this a young girl in Oklahoma named Shannon set her sights on becoming one of those space explorers, even though she was told "girls can't do that." But she did.
Berlin Geheimoperation Tunnel
13 August 1961: the GDR closes the sector borders in Berlin. The city is divided overnight. Escape to the West becomes more dangerous every day. But on September 14, 1962, exactly one year, one month and one day after the Wall was built, a group of 29 people from the GDR managed to escape spectacularly through a 135-meter tunnel to the West. For more than 4 months, students from West Berlin, including 2 Italians, dug this tunnel. When the tunnel builders ran out of money after only a few meters of digging, they came up with the idea of marketing the escape tunnel. They sell the film rights to the story exclusively to NBC, an American television station.
The story of the unconditional, no-holds-barred tour of America by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, leader of World Communism and America's arch nemesis, during 13 sun-filled days in the fall of 1959.
In a small rural Australian town in 2004, two teenage outcasts come into conflict with their families on the night Ruslana wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine. 17-year-old Todd faces awkward and unsubtle probing from his family about his sexuality, specifically whether or not he will take a girl to the upcoming school dance. Across town, Lesia Lysenko, the only girl from an immigrant family at Todd's conservative, Catholic High School, clashes with her strict, Ukrainian father, who insists that Lesia take her younger brother to chaperone her to that same school dance. As Lesia experiments with a newfound sense of rebellion, Todd is asked out by a clueless, smitten girl with a pet hate of pop music. He practises the dance moves from Ruslana's song in his family's tool shed and hatches a secret plan to get the song played at the disco. The film moves towards its fabulous, genuinely heartwarming climax as Lesia and Todd learn that life begins when you dance to your own beat.
Rock and roll's part in bringing down the Berlin Wall and smashing the Iron Curtain is told from the perspective of rockers who played at the time, on both sides of the Wall, and from survivors of the communist regimes who recall the lifeline that rock music provided them.
A short documentary on Monika Liu's Eurovision journey in Turin 2022.
Stien den Hollander, stage name S10, a candid and vulnerable insight into her life. In the documentary, directors Linda Hakeboom and Rolf Hartogensis follow the life of the young singer for two years. S10 shares stories from her early childhood and about her psychological problems with unprecedented openness through her music. S10's career gains momentum due to her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, but her past continues to haunt her. Doubt, fear and uncertainty arise in the whirlwind of her artist life.