Die sichere Geburt

Documentary about women without papers, living in Germany and working as maids.

In the months and years following the end of the World War Two, Allied forces faced a series of bombings and attacks in occupied Germany. Nazi loyalists attempted to derail the rebuilding process by killing any Germans collaborating with the enemy. And the mysterious SS-Werewolves underground organization boasted of the coming rebirth of the Party.

Under the shade of a Magnolia tree, a group of pregnant women gathers weekly. Among them is Teresa, an experienced midwife who listens to them attentively. Sitting in a circle, the women reflect on the impending birth of their children and their own emerging roles as mothers.

Stunden der Entscheidung: Angela Merkel und die Flüchtlinge

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

The film tells the story of the Rote Zora, a militant women’s group in the FRG, which in the 1970s and 1980s carried out actions against various facets of patriarchal power relations. Narrations by various contemporary witnesses, interviews with a historian and former Zoras bring the history of the Rote Zora and the women’s movement of the time back to life. The film shows that many of the Rote Zora’s themes are highly topical and offers exciting material for discussion on how to deal with this history today.

Documentary about filmmakers of the New German Cinema who were members of the legendary Filmverlag für Autoren (Film Publishing House for Authors). Among them are Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Wim Wenders.

“We were born in Liverpool but grew up in Hamburg”, John Lennon once said. This feature documentary seeks to find the truth in those words. The long and winding road that the Beatles took to worldwide fame passed through Hamburg, Germany in the early 1960s. Only a couple of years before they became household names, the former Quarrymen were cutting their musical teeth on nightclub stages in the city. Hamburg had become the vice capital of Europe after World War Two, its neon-lit streets home to sailors, sex workers, drug dealers, gangs and low life. Meanwhile, the English band was still developing, still young and virtually unknown. By the time of their last German visit in 1966, the Beatles were an international phenomenon. 'No Hamburg, No Beatles' explains how learning their trade in this fascinating city helped propel them to global stardom.

One journalist described it as a chance "to see justice catch up with evil." On November 20, 1945, the twenty-two surviving representatives of the Nazi elite stood before an international military tribunal at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany; they were charged with the systematic murder of millions of people. The ensuing trial pitted U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge Robert Jackson against Hermann Göring, the former head of the Nazi air force, whom Adolf Hitler had once named to be his successor. Jackson hoped that the trial would make a statement that crimes against humanity would never again go unpunished. Proving the guilt of the defendants, however, was more difficult than Jackson anticipated. This American Experience production draws upon rare archival material and eyewitness accounts to recreate the dramatic tribunal that defines trial procedure for state criminals to this day.

Guten Tag, RDA !

The real Great Escape didn't feature Steve McQueen racing through the Third Reich on a motorcycle like in the 1963 movie, but the big breakout was still thrilling in every way. This program sheds new light on the audacious escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp during World War II.

In World War II. African-American GIs liberate Germany from Nazi rule while racism prevailed in their own army and home country. Returning home they continue fighting for their own rights in the civil rights movement.

Christof Wackernagel, best known in Germany as an actor and former member of the Red Army Faction ("RAF") lives in Mali. In his compelling portrait, Jonas Grosch shows a man who simply cannot stand still if he senses injustice. The courage to stand up for one’s beliefs coupled with vanity? However one chooses to look at it, it is easy to imagine what made him connect with the "RAF". With his irrepressible will for freedom, Christof Wackernagel gets entangled in the horrors of day-to-day life in Africa.

Nine fictitious documentaries and films reflect the mood of late 1970s Germany, particularly the two-month period in 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped by the RAF (Red Army Faction). The kidnap had been made to orchestrate the release of the original leaders of the RAF, aka the Baader-Meinhof.

The youngest protagonist of the documentary is Wartburg, an automobile over 50 years of age. The car is still on the road, driven by Bogdan, a 70-year-old who is taking his mother to visit the German factory where she was forced to work during WWII. In this road movie which takes place between Majdanpek and Germany, the trip becomes a journey into the past, retracing memories from the war and revealing a unique relationship between an old son and his elderly mother.

It is an unknown chapter of the German post-war history: On April 23rd, 1949, the kingdom of the Netherlands occupied German soil as a pledge for demanded war reparations. Part of the annexed territories was also the small municipality of Elten. While the people of Elten were initially afraid of the occupation, the time “with Holland” actually became a miracle of prosperity and economy about which many people from Elten still rave today. The occupation period ended with the largest organized smuggling in the history of the federal republic of Germany. The Documentary shows this in never before released 8 mm footage!

In 1885, German Zoo owner Carl Hagenbeck hired nine Aboriginal men from Bella Coola to perform their dances and songs for German audiences. The nine dancers spent one year in Germany performing in zoos and theatres in 22 cities. During summer 2005, the Canadian filmmaker Barbara Hager came to Germany to retrace the steps of the nine Nuxalk men on their original 13 month long tour.

In a document from November 1st, 1007, Wellerstadt is mentioned for the first time verifiably. The royal couple Heinrich and Kunigunde make the plan to establish a diocese, with Bamberg at its centre. During the imperial synod in Frankfurt in 1007, the bishops approve the plan. Heinrich transfers his royal court Forchheim together with 14 villages, including Wellerstadt, to the diocese. As “Waldrichesbach”, Wellerstadt is not only presumably earlier mentioned in documents than Baiersdorf but is in fact older than Baiersdorf. A once presumably Thuringian settlement at the river Regnitz has by now become the district of the small Franconian town of Baiersdorf: Founded at a ford, destroyed during the Thirty Year’s War, rebuild, often flooded by the Regnitz, pushed back and forth between the diocese and the margraviate. Waldrichesbach has turned into Wellerstadt, an endearing small village in Middle Franconia.

MEUTHEN'S PARTY unmasks the rise of the provincial politician Dr. Jörg Meuthen who doesn't shy away from spreading racist sentiments with a smile on his face.