Countdown To 1990 : La Réunification de l'Allemagne

Berliner Ballade

Some months after the fall of the Berlin wall, during the time of federal elections in Germany in 1990, Chris Marker shot this passionate documentary, reflecting the state of the place and its spirit with remarkable acuity.

Cycling the Frame

In 1988, Tilda Swinton toured round the Berlin Wall on a bicycle - starting and ending at the Brandenburg Gate - accompanied by filmmaker Cynthia Beatt. As Swinton travels through fields and historic neighborhoods, past lakes and massive concrete apartment buildings, the Wall is a constant presence.

Schutzwall

The 5th anniversary of the inner-German wall to West Germany and West Berlin is on the agenda. The necessity of erecting the border is illustrated by comparing the situation in 1939 and the situation in the summer of 1961 with regard to the "threat of intervention" by the Western powers. Berlin people and GDR border guards are interviewed.

Johanna sucht das Glück

Berlin Babylon

A documentary focusing on the rebuilding projects in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Spell Your Name

Survivors tell the story of the Babyn Yar massacre from WWII, where some 100,000 people were massacred by German forces.

Efter Muren - mellan taggtråd och kaos

On 3 October 1990 DDR stopped existing as a state and became the Federal Republic of Germany. The past had been overturned. The new had not yet taken shape. The rejoicing over the fall of the Berlin wall. The bitterness and shame when the doors opened to cabinet of horrors at Stasi. Uncertainty and worry about the future. Everyone's battle against everyone for survival. In the form of a travelogue, freelancing journalist Rainer Hartleb depicts all the mixed feelings that flow from the country that no longer exists.

Wall of Chaos

Solidarnosc - Der Mauerfall begann in Polen

Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.

Die Mauer

A documentary about the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall which makes no use of vocal commentary but instead focuses on visual elements. From the Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburg Gate, the camera captures the historic events from all sides and different angles: on the one hand there are news reporters and tourists from all over the world taking pictures, children selling pieces of the wall to passers-by, and people celebrating New Year's Eve, on the other we see abandoned subway stations and officials with blank looks on their faces.

Max Ernst - Entdeckungsfahrten ins Unbewußte

The inner world of the great painter Max Ernst is the subject of this film. One of the principal founders of Surrealism, Max Ernst explores the nature of materials and the emotional significance of shapes to combine with his collages and netherworld canvases. The director and Ernst together use the film creatively as a medium to explain the artist's own development.

Drawing the Line: A Portrait of Keith Haring

Short documentary about artist Keith Haring, detailing his involvement in the New York City graffiti subculture, his opening of the Pop Shop, and the social commentary present in his paintings and drawings.

Rockin' the Wall

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.

New Offenburg

'New Offenburg' is a portrait of the little town of Ste. Genevieve, MO and its descendants of German immigrants from the Black Forest who founded three little villages called Zell, Weingarten and New Offenburg. This is the last generation of people who grew up as foreigners in the US, learning the Badisch dialect as a first language. Now they are Americans, but still keep their second identity, hidden and unknown even for their own children and grandchildren and the generations to come.

Damen und Herren ab 65

"Looking for men and women aged over 65" was the small ad in a local newspaper in Wuppertal, through which the choreographer Pina Bausch sought senior performers for the remake of her dance spectacle "Kontakthof". 26 amateurs aged from 65 to 72 were selected. They rehearsed for over a year and the premiere took place in the early 2000s in Wuppertal. Lilo Mangelsdorff has accompanied this exceptional project with a camera. The result is a touching film, which focuses on the dancers' stand with their fears and inhibitions, their enthusiasm and passion.

Novembertage – Stimme und Wege

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

Das Gelände

A long-term observation of the forgotten former “Gestapo grounds” in Berlin 1986-2013.

GENERATION ’89 - ERWACHSENWERDEN IM WENDEJAHR

The documentary tells the story of the reunification from the perspective of six teenagers from East Germany.

Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

In August 1961, a few railway cars and barbed wire divided East Germany from West. It was a barrier that would be extended and become increasingly more sophisticated, a technological counter to each escape attempt. Computer imagery reconstructs how the Berlin Wall grew from a meager obstacle to a 97 mile barrier of concrete slabs, watchtowers and guards.