Films by Ansgar Frerich

Germany 2018, 90 min
by Christin Freitag

Championships, the ticket to the world of pro-boxing. When he almost loses his first fight, his dreams are suddenly questioned. Malcolm's coach Jessie, still mourning his own shattered boxing career, fears to fail a second time. They intensify the training drastically, almost heading towards a path of destruction. It becomes clear that talent, passion and even hard work sometimes are not enough to succeed. It’s the family around you - nobody can make it alone. In LET THE BELL RING the classical story of a boxer’s dream becomes a generation’s tale about first and last hopes, set against the backdrop of Los Angeles. It´s about lonely roads that cross each other and creating something out of nothing. (zff)

Germany, Libanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates 2017, 85 min
by Ziad Kalthoum

In Beirut, Syrian construction workers are building a skyscraper while at the same time their own houses at home are being shelled. The Lebanese war is over but the Syrian one still rages on. The workers are locked in the building site. They are not allowed to leave it after 19.00 hrs. The Lebanese government has imposed night-time curfews on the refugees. The only contact with the outside world for these Syrian workers is the hole through which they climb out in the morning to begin a new day of work. Cut off from their homeland, they gather at night around a small TV set to get the news from Syria.Tormented by anguish and anxiety, while suffering the deprivation of the most basic human and workers rights, they keep hoping for a different life.

Germany, Qatar, Libanon, Syria 2017, 98 min
by Talal Derki

Talal Derki’s new documentary tells the story the young generation in Syria and asks about the future of children, who grew up in the war.If you want to tame your nightmares, you need to capture them first. That’s what Syrian documentary filmmaker Talal Derki learned from his father. As in his previous film RETURN TO HOMS, he returns to his homeland and becomes part of life in a war zone. For more than two years he lives with the family of Abu Osama, an Al-Nusra fighter in a small village in northern Syria, focusing his camera mainly on the children. From a young age, the boys are trained to follow in their father’s footsteps and become soldiers of God. The horrors of war and the intimacy of family life are never far from one another. At the nearby battlefront Abu Osama fights against the enemy, while at home he cuddles with the boys and dreams of the caliphate. Talal Derki sets out to capture the moment when the children have to let go of their youth and are finally turned into Jihadi fighters. No matter how close the war comes, there's one thing they've already learned: they must never cry.

Germany 2017, 87 min
by Erik Lemke

The anonymous concrete construction "Excelsior" is just a stopover for many of its inhabitants. Soon, life will get better and everyone tries to get ahead in his own way: with "invisible Make-up", the 49-year-old Michael wants to re-connect with his previous success as a call boy. Claudia's days as a dancer are over, but a series of new photos are supposed to help her get back on stage. Norman wants to help others find happiness with his start-up "ChangeU" and help himself to a new sportscar. Hardly anyone can escape the temptations of success.

Germany 2017, 96 min
by Barbara Lubich, Michael Sommermeyer

Dresden in summer 2015: Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West – PEGIDA – march through the center of the city while in the outskirts thousands of refugees move into makeshift camps. Banda Communal, a brass band from Dresden, started to give welcoming concerts there and to welcome refugee musicians. Banda Communal becomes Banda International.The documentary follows the musicians throughout one year – from being an integration project to a band celebrated throughout Germany.DOK LEIPZIG catalogueEver since Pegida sprang up there has been resistance – colourful, loud and sometimes rhythmic. The rhythms of the counter-protests were often set by the local protest brass band “Banda Comunale”, who formed when the aim was to re-conquer the streets of Dresden, Freital or Clausnitz. But soon the musicians were no longer satisfied with being always “against”. They emancipated themselves from the manic defenders of the occident, started to play more gigs in refugee reception camps and shelters, and it didn’t take long until musicians from Syria, Burkina Faso, Palestine, Iraq and Iran joined the original combo of eleven and it became the “Banda Internationale”.Barbara Lubich and Michael Sommermeyer followed the band at gigs and rehearsals, but also in their daily life between flat shares and reception camps. The result is a film that shows that an “against” can yield something new, strong and original. It’s only logical then that “Banda Internationale” are no longer just accompanying protests and asylum seekers but also performing in prisons (whose inmates are predominantly German) and at the renowned Heimatsound festival in Oberammergau. One of the band’s greatest hits, by the way, is the German 1970s pop song that gave the film its title, performed by Ezé Wendtoin from Burkina Faso. (Luc-Carolin Ziemann)

Germany 2016, 29 min
by Erik Lemke

Since Evelin’s amputation of both legs, friends abandoned her. She is stuck in her apartment for years now, moving only between the kitchen, computer, TV and bed. Discovered old videotapes show her previous life as a man 25 years ago: the GDR no longer exists, but not everyone manages to gain a foothold in the unified Germany.

Germany 2011, 79 min
by Branwen Okpako

Branwen Okpako’s „The Education of Auma Obama“ is a captivating and intimate portrait of the U.S. president’s older half-sister, who embodies a post-colonial, feminist identity.An academic overachiever, she studied linguistics and contemporary dance in Heidelberg, Germany, before enrolling in film school in Berlin, where she met Nigerian-born director Okpako in the nineties. After living in the United Kingdom for a short period, Auma Obama eventually moved back to Kenya to mentor a young generation of community activists, social workers and other ambitious young men and women who lacked her privileged education and training, but were nonetheless determined to make a positive contribution to their society.Okpako has always been interested in questions of identity, affiliation and belonging. Although she frames her film as a biographical portrait of Obama, she goes much further, providing a layered historical context and discussions of post- colonial African identity from a feminist perspective. Okpako collects testimonies almost exclusively from women, echoing the African tradition of women as chroniclers of oral history. When coupled with these accounts, Okpako’s use of archival footage — filmed during colonization for an entirely different purpose — offers a new reading of history and the present. Obama is also the daughter of a charismatic man who fought for the liberation of his country and participated in the shaping of the first years of independence. She witnessed his hopefulness and rise as well as his disillusionment and demise, coming into adulthood as her country - and continent - fell prey to despotism, corruption and poverty.The Education of Auma Obama is also a film about a generation of politically and socially engaged Africans whose aspirations are informed by their parents’ experiences, and whose ambition to forge a better future for their communities starts from the ground up. Rasha Salti, September 2011 [Programmer's Note – REAL TO REAL / TIFF]With: Auma Obama, Kezia Obama, Marsat Osumba Onyango, Mama Sarah Obama, Elke Brenstein, Gloria Hagberg, Paula Schramm, Lois Wambui Thuo, Njeri Karago, Prof. Wierlacher, Jai Gonzales, Alfons L. Ims, Wanjiru Kinyanjui a.o.

Germany 2009, 95 min
by Lilian Franck, Robert Cibis

Pianomania is a portrayal of Stefan Knuepfer, the virtuosic piano tuner from Steinway, Austria, and his many famous clients at work, including Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Andrej Gravilov, Mitsuko Uchida, Rudolf Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimard; the film offers an unusual and amusing look behind the heavy curtains at major concerts. This film is about the quest for the perfect tone. It shows each obstacle that is created by abandoning everyday routine and surrendering oneself to Art.The fortitude that devotion engenders, the supreme love of perfection and of divine moments; and yet the refusal to bask in one’s glory. Our protagonists are world-renowned pianists and their hero, piano tuner Stefan Knuepfer; and all are obsessed with the idea of the perfect sound.