Films

Germany 2024, 86 min
by Dietmar Post (play loud!)

Mona Mur was born in Hamburg and became a leading figure in the German underground scene of the early 1980s. Her career has traversed many musical territories, from post-punk/industrial to electronica, from piano-based punk ballads to hard, experimental guitar music, all with her own signature style. She has collaborated with En Esch (KMFDM), FM Einheit, Mark Chung, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten), Nikko Weidemann, Dieter Meier (Yello), J.J. Burnel and Dave Greenfield (Stranglers), Ralf Goldkind, filmmakers Monika Treut, Elfi Mikesch, Fatih Akin, photographer Ilse Ruppert, as well as the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Mona Mur is also a composer and sound artist for films and computer games. The re-release of her early albums provides a good opportunity to revisit her previous oeuvre. Mona Mur answers questions from filmmaker Dietmar Post in a bare studio with a screen showing photos, film and music video excerpts from throughout her career, resulting in a rich portrait of a musician who has followed her own vision and overcome resistance.

Germany 2024, 102 min
by Philipp Fussenegger, Judy Landkammer

Capturing Peaches' transformative journey on 'The Teaches of Peaches Anniversary Tour' in 2022, this documentary blends exclusive archival gems with dynamic tour footage. From stage show inception to riveting performances, it offers an intimate look at the inner workings of feminist icon Peaches, a fearless force challenging gender norms for over two decades. Her biting wit advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights and confronts societal stereotypes, leaving an indelible mark on popular culture.With: Peaches, Black Cracker, Bláthin, Tif 'Teddy' Lamson, Federica Dauri, Natasha Vergilio, Hilary Fox, Bryan Schall, Olivia Oyama, Ixa, Mignon, Leslie Feist, Chilly Gonzales, Shirley Manson, Charlie Le Mindu

Germany 2023, 85 min
by Michael P. Aust, Tessa Knapp

Narrated by Irmin Schmidt, a member of krautrock legends Can, the film touches on a number of stories: not just the band that influenced the development of experimental rock and the gravitation towards electronic music. The experience of the Nazi era commanded post-1945 Germany to reject the music of romantic and patriotic pathos so exploited by nationalism. It had to start again: but did anyone know that the research into electronic technologies was preparing a new era of club music, of media sound, of the audiovisual world? Schmidt also talks about his solo work, and there is no shortage of statements by great musical figures. [27 Ji.Hlava]With: Irmin Schmidt, Hildegard Schmidt, Roland Klick, Wim Wenders, Gregor Schwellenbach, Helmut Zerlett

Germany 2023, 103 min
by Sven Halfar

"When I sing, I feel free". And it is precisely this feeling that the film about the Hamburg choir HEAVEN CAN WAIT tells us, in which all singers have to be at least 70 years old to be able to experience this indescribable feeling of freedom. The film portrays the people in the choir who, for different reasons and motivations, have the courage to stand in front of an audience at an advanced age and reveal a piece of their soul.

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, 90 min
by Reinhard Kungel

Jazz is hip! Even young people are enthusiastic about swinging rhythms and jazzy grooves. Yet very few people know anything about the background of this music. What is jazz actually? How did this music come to Germany? And why was it opposed by the Nazis? This film sets out in search of answers and accompanies a group of young jazz musicians who intensively explore the roots of their music. In addition, there are fascinating concert excerpts and interviews with important and, for the most part, long-dead legends of German jazz.Anchored in the present and driven by questions, JAZZ FEVER is a search for traces that is diversified by combining concerts and rehearsals, interviews and archive material in a varied, smart and dramaturgically sensible way. A road movie through the history of German Jazz.With: Peter Baumeister, Hugo Strasser, Max Greger, Klaus Doldinger, Rolf Kühn, Coco Schumann, Peter Thomas, Paul Kuhn, Karlheinz Drechsel, Tizian Jost, Niklas Roever, Hannah Weiss, Caris Hermes, Jakob Baensch, Alma Naidu, Mareike Wiening a.o.202317 FSFF – Fünf Seen Filmfestival4 LETsDOK

2023, 114 min
by Anna Schmidt

LIVING BACH is a unique quest for Johann Sebastian Bach’s universal secret, travelling across six continents to meet amateur musicians and singers whose lives are inseparably interwoven with the composer’s music which transcends borders, cultures, religions and centuries. The film protagonists will all travel to Leipzig in June 2022 for the International Bach Festival. Their meeting becomes an emotional event when they sing together under the renowned conductor Ton Koopman in the 'We are Family Choir' in the Thomaskirche where Johann Sebastian Bach himself stood and made music for 27 years.A film about the unifying magic that comes from Bach‘s music.

Germany 2023, 96 min
by Jan Heck

The film takes a time travel through the underground of the GDR until its collapse. It is a documentary about the punk musician Dieter 'Otze' Ehrlich and his band SCHLEIMKEIM. The fall of the Wall costs Otze not only his enemy imagery, but ultimately his life. [57 Hof IFF]DoP: Fabian Weber, Jonas Eichhorn, Robert Schulzmann, Robert Franz, Martin Kadel, Gabriel Sahm, Johanna Amberg, David Schütz & Matea Buzuk

2023, 70 min
by Stephan Aubé

The German cellist Tanja Tetzlaff performs J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites Nos. 4 and 5 amid natural surroundings devastated by climate change. Beauty confronts its own destruction. Do we really want to watch without lifting a finger?Melting glaciers, desertified landscapes, flooded communities: climate change is having an alarming impact even in Europe. What are we humans doing to this wonderful planet? Aghast at the depredation and destruction of our unique ecosystems, the renowned German cellist Tanja Tetzlaff wants to ask Nature for forgiveness. She travels with her instrument to places in Europe where climate change has already become reality and visibly dealt severe wounds. Surrounded by sometimes bizarre scenery, she performs Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites Nos. 4 and 5, contrasting them with works specially composed for her by Thorsten Encke. She levels accusations, stokes resistance, and touches us with her virtuoso playing. The beauty of the music stands in sharp contrast to the often-dramatic images of damaged Nature, combatting the finality of destruction. A moving musical and visual plea for greater care and humility toward the beauty of our planet – at once ravishing and disturbing.Recorded at Aletsch Glacier (Switzerland), Cernon Forest (France), Harz Forest (Germany), Lac de Brenets (France/Switzerland), Theatre La Scene (Strasbourg/France), Rhone Glacier (Switzerland), Soulac-sur-Mer (France)

Germany 2023, 92 min
by Lucie Herrmann

A film about the love of jazz, but also about the love of the saxophone, that magical instrument. "I tell something about myself by playing and putting together sounds. That's my story," says Christof Lauer. He is one of the great jazz saxophonists in Europe, was a member of Albert Mangelsdorff's quintet and the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble. He was a soloist in the NDR Big Band in Hamburg for 25 years and has also been a soloist in the jazz ensemble of the Hessischer Rundfunk since 1970.How can the magic emanating from the tenor or soprano saxophone be explained? Who actually makes these instruments? And how did Christof Lauer manage to rekindle his love of jazz over decades? TALKING TO YOU penetrates the musical cosmos of an idiosyncratic musician who rejects any routine and persistently works on new forms. The main thing is that: "it has to be intense"."At last, here is a music portrait that takes its subject seriously and doesn't fade out individual pieces after just a few seconds. Lucie Herrmann, who already created a memorial to the Frankfurt 'trombone world champion' Albert Mangelsdorff with the portrait 'Oh Horn!', and her great camera and editing partner Bert Schmidt have not only succeeded in creating a hymn to one of the most important advocates of contemporary improvisation art with 'Talking To You'. This film is much more than a portrait of a musician. It is a passionate declaration of love for jazz."(Peter Kemper, FAZ, April 21, 2023)

Germany 2023, 106 min
by Tilman Urbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach is a free jazz hero from Berlin who experienced total freedom in music from the 1960s on. The film follows him to the present day and also considers the political background of European free jazz in the spirit of optimism of the '68 movement. In the film v. Schlippenbach meets old companions. He travels to a studio in Cologne where he meets up with trumpeter Manfred Schoof. As they play together they reminisce about the 60s, when jazz was free of any entertainment attitude. Free Jazz was the expression of a radical social utopia. In Dresden, v. Schlippenbach meets the percussionist Günter 'Baby' Sommer and talks about the numerous concerts the two free jazzers played together in the GDR, where they used to be celebrated like pop stars. Here thousands of fans understood the FreeJazz as an expression of freedom. In Borken the label boss Jost Gebers shows his FMP archive and discovers photos and band recordings from Schlippenbach's early days. Also in the scene Gebers makes v. Schlippenbach more clear as a person. The camera observes Alexander v. Schlippenbach not only at home, where he lives in Moabit with his wife, jazz pianist Aki Takase, but also on tour in Munich. Nevertheless, the film TASTENARBEITER – ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACHis neither a pure music film nor a concert film, but rather concentrates on the biographical breaks and disappointments in life, but also on his spirit of optimism that happend to v. Schlippenbach.

2023, 83 min
by Philipp Jedicke

Vienna, the former music capital of Europe, has become increasingly relevant again. With the wry approach that is typical of this city, the young underground music scene there romanticizes the raw and rabid. Hedonist and nihilist at the same time, the young Viennese artists embody the opposite of self-optimization. They are unadjusted, eccentric characters – and they are filling concert halls not only in Austria, but also in Germany and Switzerland. VIENNA CALLING starts with the aim of being a music documentary. But increasingly, the true protagonist emerges as the city of Vienna itself. Like a flâneur, the camera saunters by day and night through the lanes, bars and casual joints of Vienna, taking diversions, becoming lost only to find its way again. The strolling rhythm is instigated by the music, performed by Viennese artists and their famous charm or "Schmäh". Part documentary, part staged, interwoven with musical performances, the project gradually reveals itself as a mosaic of eccentricity. VIENNA CALLING digs deep into the catacombs of Viennese culture far from the mainstream. With its many performances and semi-fictional scenes, VIENNA CALLING is not a music documentary in the classic sense of the word, but rather a docu-musical. The film provides a stage for Viennese artists like the Turkish-Austrian duo EsRAP, who are first generation immigrants, non-binary rap artist Kerosin95, radical feminist authors Stefanie Sargnagel and Lydia Haider, songwriters Voodoo Ju?rgens and Der Nino aus Wien, and many more. VIENNA CALLING is a poetic approximation to the underground scene of an old European metropolis that experiences the current cultural changes and conflicts of our time. Viennese artists take the room they need for their art in a city that becomes increasingly gentrified. VIENNA CALLING is an homage to daring artists, it is about the hardships of creating art and art's need for space and independence.With: Voodoo Jürgens, Nino Aus Wien, EsRap, Gutlauninger, Kerosin95, Buntspecht a.o.

Germany 2022, 96 min
by Fosco Dubini, Barbara Marx

Dorothee Oberlinger, flute virtuoso, conducts a baroque musical rarity in the Potsdam Palace Theater: Georg Philipp Telemann's 'Pastorelle en musique'. This performance was recorded from a double perspective: in an opera film 'Pastorelle en musique', 115 min. and in a documentary film 'Backstage', 96 min., which sheds light on the musical and scenic rehearsals and the creation of the production.

Germany 2022, 107 min
by Lutz Pehnert

A biography set in East and West Berlin in which singer-songwriter Bettina Wegner, born in 1947, sings about life in the GDR, her feelings of being uprooted in West Berlin, and looks back with humour and honesty on a life of resistance. [72 Berlinale]

2022, 86 min
by Andreas Fröhlich

30 years of BRINGS – one of Germany’s most famous Rock’n’Roll-Bands! 30 years of triumphs, crashs and resurrections. Rock’n’Roll and carnival, leftwing political attitude and hit machine. BRINGS – All or nothing is an intensive journey along the band‘s biography. We are following the group through dirty cloakrooms and studios, the boiling venues of the Cologne carnival and the bright spotlights of large stadium gigs in front of 50.000 fans. A Rock’n‘Roll road movie about the power of music and the strength of living your dream against all odds.with: Peter Brings, Stephan Brings, Kai Engel, Harry Alfter, Christian Blüm, Klaus Heuser, Uli Kurtinak, Carolin Kebekus, Eko Fresh, Stefan Stoppok, Jürgen Zeltinger

2022, 53 min
by Magdalena Zieba-Schwind

The film CARL NIELSEN – BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH is intended to draw a psychological portrait of Nielsen's life; a portrait of the composer in the turbulent times at the turn of the 20th century and the First World War. Who was this son of a provincial house painter whose workers' and children's songs are still commonplace today? The film is shot in original locations in Fyn and Copenhagen. Carl Nielsen played by an actor and his voice from off-screen is used as a leitmotif of the film.

2022, 71 min
by Sebastian Saam

Andrés Godoy, a guitar player from a young age, grows up in a poor family in Chile. At 14, he loses one arm in a working accident. During the Pinochet dictatorship he reinvents himself as a musician, creating his own unique technique. He begins a long journey lasting until today with the aim of living his dreams. The film offers a true and authentic portrayal of Godoy - between loss and resurrection, between courage and despair in an inspiring story about resilience and belief in oneself.

2022, 96 min
by Sascha Just

"Who taught you how to play like that," Wynton and Branford Marsalis' fans would ask. And the two brothers would always give the same answer: "My dad."The Marsalis music family from New Orleans has been a cultural force since Wynton and Branford reached sudden stardom in New York and made "Marsalis" a household name, but far too little is known about the patriarch, pianist Ellis Marsalis, who paved their way. ELLIS chronicles the life of this exceptional composer, performer, and educator, the profound influence that the city had on him -- and that he had on the jazz that came out of New Orleans. It is also a story of how one man transcended racial injustices he faced from his birth during segregation to his death from COVID 19.Made with the full cooperation of Ellis and his family, ELLIS is told in the word and music of Ellis Marsalis Jr. Interlaced with verité scenes that place Ellis in his city and with interviews with his colleagues and sons, archival footage and photos take us from segregated New Orleans to California of the fifties where Ellis served in the Marines, to New York of the seventies where he toured, and to his final concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center and a solo concert performed exclusively for the film.

2022, 112 min
by Cordula Kablitz-Post

A 150bpm success story: a documentary about Hans Peter Geerdes alias H.P. Baxxter, the mastermind of Scooter. Once upon a time, no German band polarized opinion like these techno pioneers. What was once funfair music is today cultish, Dadaist madness. With simple, concise slogans like »Hyper! Hyper!« or »How much is the fish?«, Scooter became internationally famous and have sold more than 30 million recording media. The film interweaves private, exclusive archive material from the 29-year band history with Baxxter’s emotional highs and lows in the Corona crisis and asks the question: what happens when parties and gigs are banned? An intimate portrait of the legendary front man on all the stages of his life, and the question as to what makes H.P. Baxxter so successful, what drives him to strive for eternal youth. [FFHH22]With: H.P. Baxxter, Jens Thele, Sebastian Schilde, Michael Simon, Rick J. Jordan, Ferris Buehler, Ellen Geerdes, Britt Geerdes, Lysann Geller

Germany 2022, 52 min
by Mahyar Goudarzi

A look behind the scenes of one of the biggest revolutions in Pop Culture in the last 20 years.Korean Pop music, or K-Pop for short, is captivating an entire generation worldwide. At the latest after BTS became the first group since The Beatles to get 3 number one hits in the US within one year, K-Culture is known everywhere also in the USA and Europe. We explore this phenomenon and take a look behind the scenes of a perfectly orchestrated machinery. In the process, young talents let us share their dreams and fears, their successes and failures - without knowing where this journey will lead.

Germany 2022, 87 min
by Joerg Steineck

INSIDE SCOFIELD is the in-depth-portrayal of the life of the acclaimed musician John Scofield. Over the course of his long and successful career, he crossed paths with people like Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Chet Baker. With his unique style and sound he became one of today's most influential master guitarists and composers of jazz and fusion music.Entirely shaped and inspired by Scofield's work, the film is simultaneously a celebration of his creative impact as of true friendship, free communication and courage towards human imperfection.

Germany 2022, 96 min
by Cem Kaya

The German Federal Republic’s 1961 recruitment agreement with Turkey not only brought Gastarbeiter (guest workers) to Germany but also their music. Cem Kaya’s dense documentary film essay is a tutorial in Turkish-German recent history that tells a tale of assembly line jobs, homesickness and family reunification, the bazaar in the elevated railway station at Berlin’s Bülowstraße, xenophobia and racism, the wistful songs of the early years and the hip-hop of the post-reunification period. These are the stories shared by musicians beginning with Metin Türköz and Yüksel Özkasap, to the psychedelic Derdiyoklar and the chart-topping rapper Muhabbet. Their music has evolved a long way from that of German bands and has always developed out of the Turkish community and its desires. This is the world of Radio Yilmaz, various music cassette labels, protest rocker Cem Karaca’s German exile, and wedding bands that also sing in Kurdish and Arabic to meet the demands of the market. Extensive archival research and an interest in Turkish popular culture are recurring themes in Cem Kaya’s work. With Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm, he has created a rhythmic and vividly narrated cinematic encyclopaedia of Turkish music in Germany. [72 Berlinale – PANORAMA DOKUMENTE]With: İsmet Topçu, Ömer Boral, Yüksel Ergin, İhsan Ergin, Metin Türköz, Adnan Türköz, Yüksel Özkasap, Cevdet Yıldırım, Ercan Demirel, Cavidan Ünal, Ata Canani, Cem Karaca, Betin Güneş, Aykut Şahin, Fehiman Uğurdemir, Cengiz Öztunç, Dede Deli, Mustafa Çetinol, Erdal Karayağız, İzzet Nihat Yarsaloğlu, Hatay Engin, Yasin Kıran, Aytaç Kıran, Serdar Saydan, Serkan Kaynarcalı, Rüştü Elmas, Mustafa Deniz, Oktay Vural, Orhan Amuroğlu, Ümit Gücüyener, Sultan Korkmaz, Bekir Karaoğlan, Ümit Çağlar, Ali Ekber Aydoğan, Killa Hakan, Kabus Kerim, Derya Yıldırım, Tümay Koyuncuoğlu, Rossi Pennino, Kutlu Yurtseven, Erci E., Alper Ağa, Boe B., Tahir Çevik, Volkan Türeli, Nellie, Muhabbet, Aziza A., İmran Ayata, Bülent Kullukcu, Ibrahim Ertalay, Ilkay Kökel, Mehmet Yozgut

Germany 2022, 20 min
by Elisa Mishto, Alexandre Powelz

Tenderness, humour and intelligent dance music. Get under the skin of the superstars of Moderat in this cinematic tour de force of a short film about friendship and insecurity.After 10 years together on an exhausting world tour, Gernot, Sascha and Szary announced in 2017 a creative break from their joint project, the IDM/technopop band Moderat. Not sure if they would ever perform together again, they allowed themselves to be interviewed in a hotel room – separated from each other – and the extraordinarily intimate conversations are brought to life in the film with great artistic finesse. Black and white images of the musicians slowly manifest on the screen like watercolour paintings as we hear them describe each other, question the dominant image of masculinity in the music world and confide in us their fears, insecurities and dreams. It’s a film about friendship and the pain and beauty of making music together, and it all explodes into pure techno-catarsis at the end. [20 CPH:DOX]

Germany 2022, 90 min
by Christian Berger

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch survives as a cellist in Auschwitz, while the famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler tries in vain to preserve his integrity and finally surrenders in a pact with the devil. With digitally restored and carefully colorized footage we tell the story of classical music in the Third Reich for the first time from an universal perspective.