Sitting at her typewriter, listening to tango music, she dreams. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are far away, a different world where, long ago, the tango came into being. A dream about dance and music, as well as about unfulfilled desire and wanderlust behind the Berlin Wall.
An international anthology about the struggles of female workers around the world.
Wittstock an der Dosse is located in the German state Mark Brandenburg, apx. 90 kilometers from Berlin. Since 1974 Volker Koepp visited the town several times to examine life of the female workers in the textile industry. He interviewed them about their work, spare-time, thoughts and feelings. Three of them were questioned repeatedly for a long-time overview. This is the outcome of 10 years of Koepp's work. Written by Tom Zoerner
A documentary about German director Konrad Wolf (1925–1982).
A brief history of the emergence and artistic innovations of tango in 19th-century Argentina and Europe. The film offers a mosaic of tango melodies, art works, dance performances, historical footage, photographs of Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th century, and texts by Celedonio Flores and Enrique Santos Discépolo.
A village in the Republic celebrated its traditional clover festival in the summer of 1976. In the form of a political feuilleton, the film conveys to the viewer the new attitude to life of the people in the countryside.
Portrait of a private coal company in East Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district in 1988/89. The feisty woman boss runs the business with humour and understanding. Her seven male employees respect her. To the outside world, they are all tough guys, but as they describe their jobs and personal situations, above and beyond the hard manual labour, their vulnerability starts to come to light.
A sequence of nine individual biographical sketches with a prologue and epilogue on Golzow and the long-term observation. Deepening of the preceding chronicle. The Golzow people in the present, from which retrospective views of the previous life and the life conflicts of the individual are given.
Black and white short documentary about the patrol of the EMW radio car "Toni 14" of the Berlin police.
Das russische Wunder (The Russian Miracle) (1963) is a two-part East German documentary directed by Annelie and Andrew Thorndike. The documentary chronicles Russia’s dramatic transformation from the Tsarist Empire to the Soviet Union, covering key historical moments including the 1917 October Revolution and the rise of Soviet communism. Through the use of archival footage, the film explores the socio-political upheavals that reshaped Russia and culminates in the achievements of the Soviet space program. Produced by DEFA, it was first broadcast on East German television in 1963, offering an insightful look at Russia's 20th-century evolution.
The story of the Grünthal peasants' uprising against the commander who oppresses and exploits them.
Using some unique documents and pictures, this colour film shows the life and work of Martin Luther in the context of his own time and his relevance to our time. Most of the places associated with Luther, the great Reformer and translator of the Bible, are in the GDR. Thousands upon thousands of tourists visit these places every year and learn how his legacy is kept alive and how it is protected today and for the future.
Although mocked by his collegaues, the dean of Salamanca sets off to find the legendary bird Turlipan.
Two men sit on the top of a roof, playing the tuba. They continually call out absurd messages making fun of official solutions and of their own slogans. The residents feel disturbed by the tuba's sound and start to attack the musicians, while they themselves keep on playing and shouting louder and louder. Finally the house is blasted and the tubas are destroyed.
Documentary about the merging of the Communist Party of Germany and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in the Soviet occupation zone, a merger that would lead to the creation of the Socialist Unity Party that would rule the soon-to-be-created East Germany until 1989.
This documentary details the life of Klaus Fuchs who was a spy for the Soviet Union while working on nuclear research in the United States and Great Britain. It also discusses the contributions of German scientists to the atomic bomb.
Sketches from a store cashier's everyday life.
A locomotive journey traversing the North to the South of the German Democratic Republic on the eve of its dissolution. Labourers, punks, mothers, intellectuals, young and old are implored to reflect on their life choices, the sacrifices they've made, and their place in the world. Despite everything, hope persists.
Children are introduced to the magical world of cinema in a cheerful and fantastic way; embedded in a turbulent story, they learn about the film professions. A young author, Alice, has written a story and travels to the DEFA feature film studio where this story is to be realized. On the way there, she meets characters she has already invented. The doorman, who is later recognized as one of the actors, wants to refuse them entry. Now begins a cheerful plot to realize the story, which is based on a well-known fairy tale, combined with the chase of the gatekeeper, prince and princess. Alice stands up for her charges, who occasionally slip away from her, and tries to move the plot forward, which involves various film professions. In the end, the real and the fictional merge in a fairytale meadow.
The age group in a group portrait of the fifth grade. They make suggestions for filming at school, in their free time and at home. Growing challenges through the lessons that bring knowledge and new questions and broaden their horizons.
