Piffl Medien GmbH

Germany, Great Britain 2024, 111 min
by Thomas Riedelsheimer

Tracing Light explores the most fascinating and significant of natural phenomena – light, with leading artists and physicists and with nature itself, as they develop artworks through which the ineffable nature of light is made tangible to our senses.A film is time, sound and light. I have made a film about time, Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy working with Time and about sound, Touch the Sound – a Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie. Now comes Tracing Light. Light is everywhere. Without light there is no life. But light is much more; it is a language only visible when in communication with matter, which in turn, changes it. The information gained, transported by light, is how we understand the origin of the universe, the quantum world. Light is beautiful, magic – and totally incomprehensible. In contemplating light with physicists and artists, we are set in place in a universe much greater than ourselves.After two years of research and filming, I am still fascinated. Sometimes, when listening to the physicists my head wants to explode, and when watching a thin bright white line reflected at the horizon of the sea my heart wants to jump. I don´t want to explain light with this film; one can only fail with such an agenda. I want us to consider and talk about the incredible magic of the world we are living in – its beauty and its mystery, which are, by far, greater than we are. The three storylines are unique, each with its own focus; each looks and feels different. As different as the stories, are the characters – Joe and Ruth being very scientific in their approach, Julie with a great intuition and feel for the light around her and Johannes and Raimund with a deeply human approach and hint of humour. We will not only see the protagonists working on their own art, but also in dialogue and in contact with other artists and their work. And we will see not only their world but also my world as director and cameraman. The way I see light over the two years is part of the project. My camera is my eye and like a fourth level or storyline. It will augment, clarify, confuse, animate. The process of seeing an image and projecting it will also be questioned and seen in a new way. The audience in a cinema will be led to reflect on what is actually happening in the room and on the screen. Light plays. The old German word for cinema is: Lichtspielhaus : Light Play House. Tracing Light will be a mesmerising experience when it goes out in Autumn of 2024.

2023, 118 min
by Regina Schilling

At 34, Igor Levit is an exceptional artist in the world of classical music. A young rebel, who - at the piano - transforms into a mature musician. At age nine he arrived in Germany, a Jewish immigrant of Russian descent. Having an opinion and publicly expressing it, is not a choice, it is a survival strategy. The film follows the artist over two years as Levit explores his “life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist. We observe him recording new pieces, his intense immersion into the music, his collaborations with conductors, orchestras and recording artists, his warm embrace of the audiences. And then Covid hits. Having booked 180 concerts all over the world, just to see them being cancelled, Levit is among the first to adapt, establishing a musical lifeline between him and his community on Instagram and twitter. And by doing so he discovers a new freedom, away from the constraints of touring, publishing and marketing.Over the course of two years the film accompanies the artist while he navigates between a traditional career in the classics, his need for activism and an uncertain path as a musician who connects and inspires. [GFQ 4 2022]

Germany 2023, 167 min
by Dominik Graf

Was it possible to be a good, even outstanding writer and still come to terms with the National Socialist regime? The feature-length documentary MELTING INK takes a closer look at the writers Gottfried Benn, Erich Kästner, Hans Fallada, Jochen Klepper, Ina Seidel and Will Vesper, who remained in Germany between 1933 and 1945, and explores the attitude they developed towards National Socialism in their writings, thoughts and perceptions. A film essay on the complex relationship between art and political action.With: Anatol Regnier, Florian Illies, Géraldine Mercier, Albert von Schirnding, Christoph Stölzl, Henrike Stolze, Günter Rohrbach, Gabriele von Arnim, Julia Voss, Willy Kristen, Wendelin Neubert, Carlo Paulus, Simon Strauß, Clemens von Lucius, Lena Winter

Germany 2021, 96 min
by Corinna Belz, Enrique Sánchez Lansch

Hidden doors open in this film about the iconic Uffizi Gallery, home to the world's most prominent collection of Renaissance art. Guided by passion, German Director Eike Schmidt and his Italian team master the sensitive balancing act between conservation and renewal. We dive into famous masterpieces that captivate visitors of all ages and nationalities.

2020, 102 min
by Frauke Sandig, Eric Black

What is consciousness? Is it in all living beings? What happens when we die? And why do we seem to be hardwired for mystical experience? In these times of existential crisis, there has been an explosion of research into consciousness - and scientists are confronting the Big Questions. AWARE follows six brilliant researchers, approaching the mystery from radically different perspectives, from within and without: through high-tech brain research and Eastern meditation, by scientifically exploring inner space through psychedelic substances and by investigating the consciousness of plants.with: Richard Boothby, Monica Gagliano, Roland R. Griffiths, Christof Koch, Josefa Kirvin Kulix, Matthieu Ricard, Mary Cosimano, Justine Fritz and special guest Mingyur Rinpoche

Germany, France, Brasil 2018, 97 min
by Karim Aïnouz

Berlin's historic defunct Tempelhof Airport remains a place of arrivals and departures. Today its massive hangars are used as Germany's largest emergency shelter for asylum seekers, like 18-year-old Syrian refugee Ibrahim. As Ibrahim adjusts to his transitory daily life of social services interviews, German lessons and medical exams, he tries to cope with homesickness and the anxiety of whether or not he will gain residency or be deported. (LUXBOX)A documentary about Berlin‘s former airport Tempelhof, opened in 1923 as one of the world‘s biggest building complexes in the 3rd Reich. Since then more than 30 million arrivals and departures have been counted. It was closed 10 years ago. But up until now it remains a place of departures an arrivals.A film about those Berliners who come here to escape from their daily lives and those refugees who came here to finally arrive somewhere. (LupaFilm)

Germany 2017, 107 min
by Andres Veiel

Joseph Beuys, the man with the hat, the felt and the ‘fat corner’. Thirty years after his death he feels like a visionary who was, and still is, ahead of his time. He was the first German artist to be given a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York whilst at home in Germany his work was often still derided as the ‘most expensive trash of all time’. Once asked if he was indifferent to such comments he retorted: ‘Yes. I want to expand people’s perceptions.’Andres Veiel lets the artist speak for himself. From previously unpublished audio and video footage Veiel creates an associative, porous portrait which, like the artist himself, opens up spaces for ideas rather than proclaiming statements. Beuys boxes, chats, lectures, explains art to a dead hare and asks: ‘Do you want to instigate a revolution without laughter?’ But we also experience the man, the teacher and the Green Party candidate. Once, shortly before his death, he consents to being photographed without his hat. Veiel’s film makes visible the contradictions and tensions which gave rise to Beuys’ Gesamtkunstwerk. Beuys’ expanded concept of art feeds directly into today’s social, political and moral debates. (68th BERLINALE)

Germany 2017, 81 min
by Sebastian Winkels

Talking Money is an observational documentary shot at bank consultation tables all over the world. Weaving stories from eight countries into one global money conversation, it virtually transforms the cinema into a bank. Purely experiential!Who are we when we talk about money?Intimate conversations in an impersonal place: from Bolivia to Pakistan, Benin to Switzerland, men and women sit down across from their neighborhood bankers to discuss the intimacies of their financial lives. Far from the glamour of distant Wall Street, this is the reality of personal banking, where one’s life problems are a matter of business.In fifteen spontaneously recorded encounters, the bank table turns into a stage for confessions and masquerades, where consultants and clients try their best to look solid and trustworthy. Filming entirely from the bank’s side of the table, Sebastian Winkels offers the audience a place in a bizarre power play, exploring a complicated relation called ’money’.A multi-voiced comment on capitalism that reveals how the invisible power of money works on all of us, no matter who and where we are.

2016, 89 min
by Corinna Belz

A film about words and about a luminary of modern literature: about Peter Handke, with Peter HandkeIn her new documentary, filmmaker Corinna Belz explores the enigma that is Peter Handke. His book titles read like the tunes on a jukebox, like the watchwords of several successive generations of readers: ‘Offending the Audience’, ‘The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty’, ‘A Sorrow Beyond Dreams’, ‘Short Letter, Long Farewell’, and ‘The Weight of the World’. In the ‘60s, Peter Handke showed how to walk the walk of the author-cum-popstar. Yet the moment he made the bestseller lists, he turned his back on all that. He went traveling, taking his readers along with him, into the rhythm and precision of his language, the long, pulsating sentences, the invention and examination of reality. The film shows Mr. Handke as a young man and in his daily life today, always devoted to language, posing the burning questions: Where are we now? And, to quote one of his early films: How to live?

Germany 2016, 92 min
by Thomas Riedelsheimer

The Colour of Yearning is an impressive journey around the world in search of people, places andlandscapes, that make a great human feeling come alive.Qatar, Portugal, Mexico, Japan and Germany – those are the countries in which renowned Germandirector and cameraman Thomas Riedelsheimer is looking for THE COLOUR OF YEARNING. With strikingimages, music, poems and eight touching stories about love, home, hope, nature and freedomthis film talks about the tragedy but also the bliss to be human.92mins or 52mins | 1:2,35 scope | DCP | DVD | original version with German, English or Japanese subtitles available

Germany 2015, 93 min
by Andrea Roggon

Helge Schneider is one of the most extraordinary German artists: Jazz musician, entertainer, film director, actor and clown. His exceptional talent is his improvisational skill. This is where he shows his bubbling creativity. “I make the everyday grey colorful,” is what he says about himself. In his world, the fantastic coexists with the everyday and it is difficult to define the boundaries between reality and fiction. Even in his communication with his audiences, this element of disguise is used, humorously conveying his attitude toward the world. But how does Helge Schneider react to a filmmaker who approaches him to make a portrait about him when he doesn’t like for people to know too much about him?

Germany 2014, 98 min
by Hubertus Siegert

Freedom is, what you do with what has been done to you.Three different countries and one case of deadly violent each.Three men who have killed and three families who have lost a beloved one.In our standard idea of guild and punishment this means three who get punished and three who are meant to forget. No way to imagine the two sides will ever get closer. The film documents three times the impossible: To meet your enemy, in thoughts, in messages, in real life. A film that changes our idea of guild and punishment.

Germany 2014, 90 min
by Heidi Specogna

“Poor is not he who has little, but he who always needs more.”Pepe Mujica has become famous for being the ’world’s poorest president’. The former guerrilla fighter and flower grower is currently considered one of the most charismatic politicians of Latin America.Old and young believe in him thanks to his humble lifestyle and his unconventional manners, where political protocol is concerned. His political visions, among them his sensational regulation of the marihuana market, have created international interest.Since the spring of 2010, Uruguay has been led by a president who, as a young man, revolted against the power of the state he now heads with both words and arms. Pepe Mujica was a founding member of the urban guerrilla group ’Tupamaros’, which fought the state in the repressiveUruguay of the 1970s. During the dictatorship he spent many years in prison, during which he was also tortured - a time that formed, but did not break him.Over the course of many years, the filmmakers visited Pepe Mujica, who is now 80, over and over again, documenting his eventful existence with their camera. In private meetings and conversations on his farm, which he still runs with his companion Lucía Topolansky, he grants them an insightful glimpse into his unusual beliefs and visions.

Germany 2012, 90 min
by Andreas Dresen

Henryk Wichmann, 33, member of the CDU party has been working as an opposition representative in the Brandenburg state parliament since 2009. The film follows him over the course of one year, observing his work in parliament and his constituency Uckermark/Upper Havel. There he visits schools, senior fairs, the Federal Armed Forces and local business enterprises. He has to deal with labour deficit, faces troubles with the Deutsche Bahn and illegal dumpsites as well as with the Lesser Spotted Eagle and the Bearded Tit. Actually, he prefers to be where it hurts the most – at the base. Almost 10 years after VOTE FOR HENRYK! Andreas Dresen gets us up to speed. A new tragicomical documentary about what political work and democracy in harsh practice really mean – in the plenum and hallways of parliament and in the daily routine in the constituency.

Germany 2011, 98 min
by Eric Black, Frauke Sandig

The great cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar will end on December 21st, 2012.How does the story end? Do the oceans collapse? Does the sky fall as the last tree is cut? The remote homelands of the present day Maya in Mexico and Guatemala present a perfect microcosm to show how unhindered globalization is already destroying the Earth and indigenous cultures now under attack for their natural resources from all sides. Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth presents another worldview, following six young Maya into their daily and ceremonial life, revealing their determination to resist the destruction of their culture and environment. They put forth a wholly indigenous perspective in their own words, without narration. Each touches upon a facet of the current global crisis. Beautifully filmed, the intimate accounts and experiences of the protagonists interweave with images associated with the fragile beauty of nature and the sacred creation myth of the Popol Vuh. The stories and the cosmovision of the Mayan protagonists are juxtaposed with our shortsighted exploitation of the Earth.“It is quite possible our great corporations will succeed in finishing Nature off … and expel the Indigenous from their lands. On the other hand, resistance is growing. Many young Maya say the world will not go under. It will start anew, but we all have to fight for it, here and now. If one is searching for impressive evidence of this tenacious determination, Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth is it.”DIE ZEIT

2005, 87 min
by Hubertus Siegert

February 2004. Luca, Marwin, Dennis, Johanna, Christian and 15 other kids meet at the beginning of the first term at the Fläming School in Berlin. They belong to the class 5d, the school’s remedial class, where students of extremely different abilities learn together. Four of the children are classified as disabled, from learning disorders to severely handicapped, and are not graded. The class has two supervisors, some subject teachers and the class teacher, Mrs. Haase. She is considered strict, but fair. Her great love is theater.At eye level with the children, the director Hubertus Siegert takes part in the adventure of a school semester. Achievements and conflicts, fun and tears, wit and hardships, rivalries and friendships flash across the various stories that together form the moving image of a multi-layered and exciting universe of its own: a class life.A play is rehearsed, but who plays the lead role? The children prepare papers in highly heterogeneous working groups. Alone I am a faster learner, says one, and realises how hard it is to pass on their own lead to the other. Not every day, the school is fun. Homework is forgotten, tears shed after the unjust exam. Dictation means stress, and I do not want to sit next to it. During the break, you play “boys catch girls” or jump over a breakneck chain of satchels.School, that’s not just teaching and learning. One laughs, is sad, makes nonsense, is afraid, plays, fights, gives small and trumps big; alone and, this is what matters most in this school, together. At the end the children celebrate the birthday of a classmate. She suffers from an incurable disease, can not move or speak and is still a living part of this class community.Hubertus Siegert does not explain a pedagogical concept, but observes the everyday life of eleven-year-olds outside of the usual sorting out in high school, real, main and special school with great attention and sympathy, without sentimental transfiguration or educational forefingers: no PISA debate but an exciting and moving adventure full of passions, moments of happiness and catastrophes, aha experiences, expectations and insights. In the affectionate closeness to its protagonists, class life opens up a strangely forgotten world that is quite different, quite present.