Hoferichter & Jacobs GmbH

Germany 2024, 90 min
by Markus Stein

West Berlin, 1979. Jürgen Baldiga, son of a miner from Essen, has just arrived in the city and decides to become an artist. Working as a rent boy and cook, he writes poems and a diary. After learning that he has HIV in 1984, he discovers photography. He intends his images to stop time and capture reality. They reveal his friends and lovers, wild sex, life on the street and the camp queens from the SchwuZ gay club who become his adopted family. Oscillating between despair and desire, rebellion and the will to survive, Baldiga becomes a chronicler of the queer West Berlin subculture in the face of his own imminent demise. When he died at the age of 34 in 1993, he left behind thousands of photographs and forty diaries – a unique artistic legacy.Using poetic diary excerpts, stark images and memories from companions, BALDIGA – ENTSICHERTES HERZ depicts not only a ground-breaking photographer but also an AIDS activist and committed fighter against the stigmatisation of gay people’s lives. [74 BERLINALE, Panorama]202474 BERLINALE – PanoramaBFI Flare London Film Festival64 KFF – Krakow Film FestivalPremio Mariposa – Festival Mix México #mix28Seal of Approval ‘highly recommended’

2021, 75 min
by Michael Schmidt, Martin Striegel

On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Along with it came hope for the end of the Cold War, for independence and freedom for the former Soviet republics. But for many it also brought poverty and war. What remains of the dreams of that time? What does freedom look like today, which in large parts still has to be defended and fought for? We talk to contemporary witnesses and politicians of the decisive years, search for traces of the former multi-ethnic empire in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Chechnya and Lithuania, and talk to experts about this gigantic historic upheaval.

Germany 2021, 86 min
by John Goetz

For many years, Mohamedou Slahi was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. For 14 years, he was incarcerated in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and was tortured under the brutal 'special interrogation' procedure. Today, Slahi is a free man, exonerated by two U.S. courts. After two years of intensive research, the filmmakers have been able to identify his tormentors. Some members of the torture team still believe he is guilty. Others see their former victim in a different way. Did the months and years of terrible abuse and torture create a special relationship between perpetrators and victim? The investigative documentary accompanies perpetrators and victim on their quest for forgiveness.

Germany 2012, 91 min
by Ringo Rösener, Markus Stein

More than two decades ago, a country in Europe existed that marked the border to a different political and economic system, yet was the very heart of the continent. This country, called the German Democratic Republic, made Socialism a reality and was home to 17 million people. Born in the deep eastern provinces, Ringo Rösener merely witnessed the collapse of East Germany as a nation.Ringing in the new millennium, he leaves his home town of Anklam to live out his homosexuality – something he had never dared to do. Would an openly gay life even have been possible in the real Socialist system?Ringo Rösener meets six gay men who lived in the GDR. Some of them speak openly about their sexuality for the first time in their lives. Little by little, they open up, begin to share their own personal stories and talk about their lives in the supposedly uniform state.With Jürgen Wittdorf, Christian Schulz, Helwin Leuschner, Eduard Stapel, Frank Schäfer, John Zinner,Jürgen Lemke.

Germany 2012, 85 min
by Matt Sweetwood

Matt Sweetwood hails from the Midwest. He has lived in Germany for over ten years, but still the people and their culture remain a mystery to him. He undertakes a last-ditch attempt to figure the place out: By exploring the heart of German culture, their beer. If he delves into their rites and rituals, explores all the contradictions and stereotypes, will that make him, finally, a part of them? The infinite variety of beers, breweries and beer fests, the age-old history of beer, is more overwhelming than the American ever imagined it to be. The trail of his research leads him to places far off the beaten tourist path, light-years away from the Oktoberfest. He encounters people whose dialect he barely understands. Amazingly. he finds that a country as small a Germany is subdivided into a thousand different tongues and customs, with beer as the lowest common denominator. In BEERLAND, Sweetwood discovers a land full of oddities and contradictions. The new Teutons are deathly serious and silly at the same time, tradition-bound and weirdly visionary. Through his research, he finally gains a real bond to the people, finding friends where he least expected them.

Germany 2009
by Alexander Biedermann

In his debut, Alexander Biedermann encounters five hackers and questions both their very existence and the impetus for their actions. The film portrays hackers, who constantly re-define borders of computer systems. They all associate their experience with a particular feeling of power: Only a few command lines enabled them to manipulate crucial features of modern society. Though regarding themselves as keepers and guardians, the legal grey area and the conflicting individual goals and social necessities become the touchstone of their biographies. HACKER is a portrait which follows human traces in the data network, uncovering personal stories hidden beneath its surface. 79min | HD | DigiBeta | 16:9 | original German version with English subtitles available

Germany 2009
by Olaf Jacobs

Everywhere on this planet, people move from the country to the city each week. Some follow a vision, for others this is simply the only way to survive. They hope to find work, education and better supplies. In short, they hope for a better life. But can this hope be fulfilled? URBAN FUTURE is a journey of discovery through the megacities of the new millennium. The series gives insight into how people live in these cities, how they take the initiative in order to improve their living conditions and how they creatively shape their surroundings with unique projects. Locations: Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Mumbai

Germany 2008
by Rick Minnich

One week after a seemingly harmless car accident, a 45-year-old man suffers total amnesia. Christening himself the “New Richard,” he embarks upon a new life with a new wife far away from his family. Sixteen years later, his oldest son returns with a camera to investigate why his father’s memory never returned.

Germany 2005
by Rick Minnich

Hillbillies haven’t died off; they’ve simply become neo-hillbillies. Three families of musicians in the Ozark Mountains of Southwestern Missouri give new meaning to the word “hillbilly.” Float down the backwaters, soak up some old time religion, savor a washboard duel, and bask in the neon lights of the pseudo-hillbilly showtown Branson. Lean back and merge into hillbilliness.

USA 2008
by Rick Minnich

One week after a seemingly harmless car accident, a 45-year-old man wakes up with total amnesia.The doctors and family are baffled, as there is no evidence of brain damage or other physical causes.Sixteen years later, filmmaker Rick Minnich returns to his native California with a camera in search of answers to why his father's memory still hasn't returned. He talks with his family members, and reconstructs in detective-story fashion the period of time before and the years following the accident. Along the way, Rick not only discovers many deep-rooted emotions that had never been dealt with, but also uncovers startling facts that shed a very different light on his father's memory loss. Was he really struck by a horrible affliction, or was he perhaps trying to escape from a life he could no longer lead?

USA 2001
by Rick Minnich

Branson, Missouri. Some call it the new Nashville or the Las Vegas of the Bible Belt. Over the past ten years, nearly 40 theaters have shot out of the ground in this once sleepy Ozark Mountain town of fewer than 4000 inhabitants. Here in America’s heartland, country legends and television and stage stars from yesteryear have reincarnated themselves and offer up good ol' patriotic, Christian entertainment to six million tourists annually. HEAVEN ON EARTH follows filmmaker Rick Minnich’s quest to find the perfect America which Branson promises to be. Seeped in nostalgia, and wallowing in stars, stripes and neon lights, Branson is populated by such colorful figures as USO pin-up girl Jennifer Wilson, country music star Barbara Fairchild, boy wonder Matthew Matney, and, of course, Jesus Christ himself in the bombastic musical “The Promise.“ Mixing show numbers, interviews, and behind the scenes shots, HEAVEN ON EARTH weaves a dense portrait of the making of the American myth. The film climaxes with the largest Veteran's Day celebration in the United States, including a rare, chilling interview with General Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, in which he reflects upon his dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Still only a small dot on the map, Branson now offers more theater seats than Las Vegas and Broadway combined, and has established itself as the second most popular drive-to holiday destination in the United States.