TAG/TRAUM Filmprod. GmbH

Germany 2022, 55 min
by Hedwig Schmutte

Anyone can lose his/her home. At any time, and anywhere in the world. Anyone can be displaced and forced to find refuge in a foreign land. For millions of people, this means the only way to survive. More than eighty years ago, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee Germany at the risk of their lives. The German poet and theater-maker Bertolt Brecht was one of them. His flight from Hitler drove him once around the globe. What followed was the interruption of an all-promising career and an ever new confrontation with foreign languages and countries in which the stateless refugee was unwanted. Brecht describes the special existence of exile and his personal thoughts in his unbeatably humorous way in the "Refugee Conversations" - a key autobiographical work, written in what was probably the deepest crisis of his exile. In the winter of 1941, Brecht had been on the run for eight years - and another seven years were to follow. From France via Denmark, Sweden, Finland, through the Soviet Union, finally to the USA, along the individual stations of his life, renowned theater producers and authors (Katharina Thalbach, Can Dündar, Shermin Langhoff, Stephen Parker, Kent Sjöström, Jürgen Kuttner) pursue the question of the extent to which Brecht sought to use the experience of foreign countries and exile for himself as an artist. A moving journey through time that leads directly to our own present.

Germany 2020, 87 min
by Mina Keshavarz

In an internal monlogue, the director of the film Mina unveils the tragic story of her grandmother's mysterious death. Although they never met, the fates of the two women are inextricably linked. (new docs)It all begins in the past: with Mina Keshavarz’s grandmother. She was a victim of domestic violence and her death was shrouded in mystery. In Mina’s present, a group of Iranian feminists founded a campaign called "Stop Domestic Violence Against Women". They collect testimonies of domestic violence around Iran and, in collaboration with a group of female lawyers, use it to write a new law. We sit with these brave women’s fight against the state, their journey around Iran and their uphill battle against all odds for a very basic human right, the right for women to be safe in their homes. The battle between intelligence and freedom against obscurity and oppression. (Sheffield Doc|Fest)

2019, 52 min
by Osman Okkan, Halil Gülbeyaz

Since the failed coup in July 2016, Turkey has changed at an unprecedented pace under the AKP, with Erdogan at its helm. An investigative documentary about the rise of the AKP.Since the failed military coup in 2016, Turkey has changed at an unprecedented pace. Just a few years before the centenary of the Turkish Republic, Erdogan’s “new Turkey” could not be further removed from Atatürk’s vision of a western-oriented, secular democracy. Under AKP rule with Erdogan at its helm, the country is heading towards one-man rule. But such a concentration of power has its price: the economy is showing increasing signs of an existential crisis that could bring the country to the brink of collapse. This would have serious implications for Turkey, but also for Europe and the Middle East. The documentary describes the AKP’s rise to all-dominant political force and the radical transformation of Turkey, driven forward with even greater urgency since the attempted coup. The film concentrates in particular on the period after the coup and on the effects of the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018, although Erdogan is expected to face his first “stress test” in the local government elections at the end of March 2019. Well-known protagonists and witnesses bring to life events and developments in the

2019, 52 min
by Udo Vieth

Roundabouts are enjoying increasing popularity among urban planners, but also artists. We embark on an entertaining tour of Europe and introduce artists who are exhibiting their work in the middle of traffic islands.What do giant kiwis, suspended taps and luminous rolls of paper have in common? They’re pieces of art on display in the centre of traffic roundabouts, that are attracting visitor numbers museums can only dream of! Roundabouts are becoming increasingly popular because they are safer, cheaper and lower-maintenance than intersections with traffic lights. France is Europe’s front-runner with around 60,000 roundabouts, and more planned. These traffic islands are creating a new, unused public space that is almost asking to be designed. We embark on a “round trip” of Europe and discover roundabouts in France, Switzerland, Lanzarote, and in Greece where we meet documenta artist Costas Varotsos with his huge glass sculptures. Leading French roundabout artist, Jean Luc Plé, shows us his folk art in the form of sailing boats, giant fruit and oversized insects. In the Swiss canton of Aargau, we meet art curator Friederike Schmid who has created a roundabout typology. And in Lanzarote we take a look at the weighty wind chimes of painter, sculptor and architect Cesar Manrique. In an entertaining and humorous way, the film takes viewers to a world they encounter every day, yet one they barely know.

Germany 2019, 78 min
by Hakim El Hachoumi

In Morocco, a 14-year-old maid is abused and killed by the family for whom she works. The cruel murder reveals the uneasiness of a two-class society. A search for the background.The murder of a 14-year-old maid in Morocco: for two years young Fatima was subjected to unimaginably cruel treatment in the household where she worked, and was eventually killed. The lady of the house – a teacher and mother of two children – was convicted of the crime and serves a prison sentence. But many of the grue- some details cast doubt on whether the sole guilt really lays with her. Fatima’s parents desperately try to find out what really happened. We take a look at two opposing worlds of Moroccan society: the archaic, village world where the servants come from, offering no prospects and virtually no rights, contrasted with the world of urban social climbers. The legal aftermath and consequences of this murder form the interface that connects the village and urban protagonists – an unruly entanglement loaded with unease. The murder of Fatima and the subsequent covering up of the background to it caused a major furore in Morocco. However, had Fatima’s torture ordeal not ended in her death, the fact that an under-age girl was being held like a slave right in the centre of Agadir would have virtually gone unnoticed by the public at large.

2017, 90 min
by Margarete Kreuzer

Edgar Froese, band leader of Tangerine Dream and pioneer of electronic music, is on a lifelong mission to find the ultimate sound. His constant quest takes him and his fellow band members to worldwide success, all the way to the Hollywood studios in Los Angeles. At his death in January 2015, Edgar Froese leaves a legacy of 48 years of music history.The film shows previously unreleased footage shot by the band leader himself: For the first time, we see the band backstage, on tour in Europe and the US, at photoshoots with Jim Rakete or on holiday at the seaside. Records and interviews with his wife Bianca Froese-Acquaye, with band members, close associates and fellow artists map the unique history of Tangerine Dream: a tribute to the musician Edgar Froese and the era of electronic music.

Germany 2017, 52 min
by Katja Duregger

Ella Fitzgerald’s voice is a phenomenon and unrivalled to this day. She had absolute pitch and perfect intonation. Ella’s voice spanned three octaves, her phrasing seemed effortless, and the odd moments in her nearly sixty-year career when she sang off-key were few and far between. There is almost no style of music in which she did not excel, and her numerous – now legendary – recordings of the ‘Great American Songbook’ with pieces by US composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter or Duke Ellington remained a benchmark for the ‘right’ interpretation of those songs for generations of singers. Ira Gershwin is rumoured to have said: “I didn’t realise how good our songs were until Ella sang them.” We unravel the secret of Ella Fitzgerald’s voice with statements from singers Dianne Reeves and Dee Dee Bridgewater, jazz drummer and producer Terri Lyne Carrington, jazz violinistRegina Carter, author Tad Hershorn and the famous jazz critic Will Friedwald, among others. They describe the impact her voice had and continues to have on their lives. We want to learn more about Ella’s life and find out what made her sing the inimitable way she sang.

Germany 2017, 88 min
by Ulrike Pfeiffer

January 2017 saw the death of Werner Nekes, one of Germany's most significant experimental film-makers. He made more than 100 films, often closely linked to his gigantic collection of 40,000 cinematic artefacts. From 1967 to 1978, Nekes lived in Hamburg, at the time the centre of the innovative German film scene. In his capacity as professor at the University of the Visual Arts, he introduced his students to the ideas of radical cinema. Film excerpts tell of Nekes' "life among the pictures", along with conversations with contemporaries like Bernd Upnmoor, Alexander Kluge, Klaus Wyborny and Helge Schneider. An impressive portrait of a man who lived for film. The commentary is spoken by Hannelore Hoger. (Filmfest Hamburg)

Germany 2017, 85 min
by Stanislaw Mucha (mopsfilm GmbH)

Black comedy meets dark history along a 2,000-km Siberian road literally built on the bones of Stalin's prisoners. Survivors live alongside those who've never heard the word "Gulag" in this sweeping trip into a not-so-distant past.Black comedy meets dark history along "the Road of Bones," a 2,000-kilometre stretch of Siberian highway that's literally built on the bodies of Stalin's prisoners. Millions of political dissidents and innocent villagers were sentenced to die mining the gold of the desolate Kolyma region in Stalin's infamous prison camps. Spurred by his grandfather's stories, filmmaker Stanislaw Mucha travels the road, starting at Magadan's "gate to hell" and ending at Yakutsk, the coldest city in the world, capturing harsh landscapes through all four seasons. Literally stumbling over bones along the way, Mucha discovers a bizarre mix of eccentrics who have either never heard the word "Gulag" or have a terrifying firsthand experience of them. From a clueless hotdog vendor to an electrocution hobbyist, former guards and surviving prisoners live alongside one another on the world's longest burial ground. Irreverently comical and historically revelatory, this unique travelogue uncovers painful truths frozen in a not-so-distant past. (hotDOCS, Myrocia Watamaniuk)“Goulash?,” the young woman looking out of the hatch of a combined hot dog and pizza stand on the side of the windy Kolyma route asks again. No, Stanislaw Mucha did ask for “Gulag”. And he is astonished to find that here, where the Soviet penal and labour camp system shaped the natural and living environment for decades, the term isn’t commonly used. Actually, for all intents and purposes, the filmmaker’s journey seems to be more of a trip through wordscapes. It begins in Magadan Bay, which earned its nickname “gate to hell” as the port of entry for the forced labourers. It continues along the “longest graveyard in the world”, as the long distance road from the Sea of Okhotsk to Yakutsk is occasionally called. But it also crosses the paths of the living, those who stayed here or were born here, who more often than not have better things to do than to revolve around that genius loci. Encounters as inspiring electric discharges on the horizon of expectations – like those electric pulses an amateur physician picked up along the way wants to use to rejuvenate his old father.When the present overwrites the past, when the Putin era superimposes the Soviet era, when the eternal periphery is allowed to actively participate in the snapshots made of it, the result are bone dry punch lines: for example that slow motion pop music video Mucha treats a girls’ dancing troupe to as he drives by. (DOK Leipzig, Sylvia Görke)

2016, 52 min
by Katja Duregger

In the age of global economic and banking crises, management culture gives rise to countless questions. The seemingly aloof parallel world of countless bosses and the behaviour of many managers – illustrated by animated sequences in this film – make us think. On this visual level of reflection there is one dominant element in addition to monitors and retractable arms: the triangle as the so-called dark triad of Machiavellism, narcissism and psychopathy. An analytical look at individuals in high positions and the system highlights the difference between managers and leaders as well as the character traits required to be successful as a natural leader in our current system. But what is to be or can be regarded as success?The collected answers of the seven psychology, management, sociology and consulting experts interviewed here suggest that we are not only facing a crisis of economic growth but also a crisis of values, ethics and morals. (DOK Leipzig, Nadja Rademacher)

Germany 2016, 81 min
by Claus Withopf

Anne Clark, English poet and spoken word-artist, has been celebrated worldwide on stage for more than 30 years. Shaped by the punk scene, she achieved fame and success in the early 1980s with her new wave classics 'Sleeper in Metropolis' and 'Our Darkness'. By creating groundbreaking analogue synthesizer sound structures and electronic music she became a forerunner of the techno movement and has influenced an entire generation of musicians. The documentary reflects the distinctive style of Anne Clark and demonstrates the strength of her music and poetry: in atmospheric landscapes, experimental Super 16 mm images and text animation displaying verses of her explosive poems. Filmmaker Claus Withopf has accompanied Anne Clark for almost a decade and gives a deep insight in her life and work. He is visualizing her complex socio-critical work and is creating an unusual kaleidoscope of existential poetry and emotional music.

2015, 52 min
by Katja Duregger

April 7, 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959). A worthy occasion to honour the unforgettable jazz icon.Her life was a roller-coaster ride and has since been the subject of countless myths, legends and rumours. She found true happiness only in music. She lived for jazz and gave it all she had to give. She loved to associate and perform with musicians. The rest of her life was characterised by pain, humiliation, an unquenchable thirst for love, depression and despair. In recent years, an increasing number of records and stories about her have come to light. Many of them stem from people who accompanied Billie Holiday at different stages of her life. Comments from confidants, acquaintances and friends call into question many of the myths and reveal a strong personality, a woman who was anything but a pitiful victim of drugs, alcohol, men, skin colour and racial segregation or the circumstances under which she grew up. This new appreciation of “Lady Day” has never before been revealed in a film. It focuses – visually and acoustically – on stories told by people she was close to, refutes many of the myths that surround her personality, and presents a very different, far more realistic portrait of this jazz icon.

Germany 2015, 52 min
by Herbert Eisenschenk

Sound has become an established element of conventional medical therapy. We discover a realm beyond our familiar perception of music where the phenomenon of 'sound' takes on many different therapeutic forms. What can music do? Can sound heal? In Oriental and Asian cultures, it has never been doubted that music has a therapeutic, healing potential. Enlightened Western societies, however, stopped believing in the healing powers of sound for many years and focused on scientifically proven findings in medicine. This attitude has only recently started to change. Relatively recent findings in conventional medicine suggest that although sound cannot cure serious illnesses, physical healing only works optimally if the needs of the spirit and mind are also considered; music and sound have been found once again to be effective tools in a person’s recovery. The film embarks on a journey through the different worlds of healing sounds. We meet world-famous Turkish pianist Fazil Say, Austrian intensive care specialist Klaus-Felix Laczika and music therapist Rahmi Oruc Güvenc. We learn about the therapeutic qualities of classical music, the sounds and melodies of ancient Arabic, Oriental and Central Asian cultures and the Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi. Find out with us about the latest research into the healing power of sound.

Germany 2012, 225 min
by Monika Kirschner, Marion Schmidt, Meike Hemschemeier, Nina Koshofer

Vichy, Carlsbad, Bad Ragaz – The splendid health spas of the belle époque remain to this day, with their eccentric architecture, exclusive Grand Hotels, glamorous thermal springs, bright columned halls, playful drinking fountains and broad promenades. The most successful spas have been able to hold onto the old understanding of the good life while simultaneously embracing modernity. Set against some of the most stunning landscapes in Europe, these health resorts continue to expand our knowledge of the healing power nature possess - of air, water, salt, stone, vegetation and climate. It is for this very reason that they are currently experiencing an impressive renaissance. This visually glamorous and charming five-part series presents the success stories of the most beautiful health resorts in Europe. Part 1: Austria, Bad Ischl - The Invention of the Summer Retreat Part 2: Italy, Montecatini - The Healing Springs of Tuscany Part 3: France, Vichy - The Queen of Health Resorts Part 4: Czech Republic, Carlsbad, Franzbad and Marienbad - The Bohemian Spa Triangle Part 5: Switzerland, Bad Ragaz - The Source of the Good Life.

Germany 2011, 85 min
by Diana Näcke

Kuebra is an infestation. As the only female intensive delinquent in Berlin, the most serious category of juvenile offenders within the local youth prison regime, she has been plagued and hated since the age of 14. But in reality she just longs to be an ordinary girl, a girl that someone will care of, and hold her in their arms. She will take us on a journey into her past, to a place where she has grown up and knows like no other: the woman’s prison in Berlin where she served for almost four and a half years. When Kuebra was detained for the first time she met a young woman from Ethiopia, Salema, whose life story, over the course of this film is closely linked with that of Kuebra’s. In their time together in prison the two experience an unusual prison director, Matthias Bluemel. Kuebra's relationship with the prison director goes beyond the prison walls; an extraordinary relationship between two people who come from opposing sides of our society. With Bluemel’s unconventional views on prison methods, and Kuebra and Salema’s unusual intelligence, outrageous views on life and sweeping humor - this film takes us on a touching yet deeply disturbing journey.

Germany 2011, 92 min
by Christoph Rüter

On 3 November 2001 the poet Thomas Brasch died at 56 years of age. Like virtually no other writer of his time, he balanced on a slender tightrope between the GDR and the FRG, between history and the present, between being Jewish, being German and being in the world. By relating the contradictory story of Brasch’s life and work, aided by video material shot by Brasch himself, this film creates a radical image of a seeker who was likewise in search of himself. Everything and everyone was disturbed and unsettled by Brasch. No one was safe, nothing secure. His fundamental attitude: revolt. He began by rebelling against the generation of the founding fathers of the GDR. Then, in the other part of Germany, he rejected authority in all its forms. Artist or criminal – this was his motto. Christoph Rueter, a documentary filmmaker, was a friend of Thomas Brasch through to his death. He frequently had his camera along when they were together, including a period in 1999 with Brasch recovering from an illness and surgery. Other material includes 28 video cassettes from Brasch’s estate, many of them his own work, with clips of himself, his surroundings, whatever may have occupied him at a given time. Much of this material, in addition to footage shot by Rüter, shows Brasch in the most varied moments of his life - warts and all, at the poet’s own insistence. Brasch’s life and death were extraordinary. He was one, as Christa Wolf once said, who had to walk the knife’s edge to move forward. Thomas Brasch’s constant wish was that he and his work would ‘be made use of’. Now, at last this wish is being realized.