Manchmal möchte man fliegen

Spirit of the Games

1996

Documentary examines the history and evolution of the Olympic Games, taking a close look at the Olympic charter, oath and ideals. Also featured are rare home movies and interviews with Olympic athletes and the oldest known color footage of the Olympic Games from Berlin in 1936.

The Case of Bruno Lüdke

2021

The incredible story of Bruno Lüdke (1908-44), the alleged worst mass murderer in German criminal history; or actually, a story of forged files and fake news that takes place during the darkest years of the Third Reich, when the principles of criminal justice, subjected to the yoke of a totalitarian system that is beginning to collapse, mean absolutely nothing.

Berlin – Bauplatz der Jugend

1982

Documents the work of youth work action on construction sites in East Berlin.

Peter Eisenman: Building Germany's Holocaust Memorial

2009

This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect Peter Eisenman. Reaction of the German public to the completed memorial is also shown.

Sanierung im Berliner Wedding - Ein Erfahrungsbericht

1975

People tell what difficulties you might encounter when you want to renovate an apartment in Berlin.

It Is Not the Brazilian Homosexuals Who Are Perverse, But the Situation in Which They Live

2021

Two queer Brazilians go skinny dipping in a lake where they talk about love, sex, colonialism and migration, on a pandemic summer afternoon in Berlin.

Rhin et Danube

1948

A documentary produced by the French armed forces which chronicles the way of France’s “1ere armée” in the second world war from the days it first crossed the Rhine in March of 1945, through the liberation of a POW-camp in Swabia, until the forces reached the Danube and the Alps at the end of the war and the day French troops marched in the victory parade in Berlin.

Nick Cave: Stranger in a Strange Land

1987

Documentary made for Dutch television about Nick Cave in Berlin in 1987.

Tunnel to Freedom

2021

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.

Union - Die besten aller Tage

2024

In 2019, Union Berlin was promoted to the Bundesliga. Four years later, the traditional East German club qualifies for the Champions League and achieves something that few would have thought possible. Despite all the euphoria over the triumph, the pressure to remain strong in sporting and economic terms also increased, as did the fear of falling into a conflict of identity between tradition and change. The fact that the soccer underdog from Köpenick still manages to retain its magic is primarily down to the people who work behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly and enthusiastically. Always at their side: a loyal fan base that is prepared to follow their club's path unconditionally. Hendel follows the team behind Union for almost two years, right up to their entry into the top flight, and takes a unique, particularly personal and authentic look behind the scenes of the club.

Partisan

2018

Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 1992-2017. The end of the GDR gave rise to new artistic freedoms in reunited Berlin. Shortly after the fall of the Wall, rebel director Frank Castorf was appointed artistic director of the Volksbühne. His way of working altered the public’s perception of this theater. The chronological history of the Castorf era between 1992 and 2017 is told here in excerpts from the productions and in a series of conversations conducted on the long sofa in the theater's foyer.

November Days

1991

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

Dragan Wende - West Berlin

2014

Dragan Wende has lived in Berlin since the '70s and has seen the city change through the years. His nephew comes to live with him as Dragan remembers the better days he lived as a Yugoslavian immigrant in a divided city.

Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt

1981

A documentary about the clashes between squatters and the police in Berlin in early 1981. Despite the absence of commentary, this is an openly partisan film that aims less for political analysis than for an up-close description of the situation and mood.

Jesse Owens et Luz Long : le temps d'une étreinte

2015