Films by Eric Asch

2018, 91 min
by Johannes List

Adam, Nico and Su are members of Germany’s first gay rugby team, the Berlin Bruisers. Tackling Life portrays their everyday lives and follows them into the world of this dangerous niche sport, showing their struggle for recognition – in competition with the hetero regional league teams – as well as their community involvement: gathering money at colorful fundraisers and visiting schools to give anti-bullying workshops.Looking beyond the spectacular surface of self-presentation and cliché, we focus on how our trio copes with the challenges of everyday life – from self-realization to their search for belongingness. By alternating impressions of excessive, vibrant athletics with the quiet observation of its protagonists, the film is fragile and profound, but also spectacular and loud.

Germany 2014, 100 min
by Eric Asch

The film's story unfolds in West Berlin in the late 1950's, where my father was part of an undercover intelligence mission in the former US Military Secret Service, the Army Security Agency or the ASA. After moving to West Germany in the early 1970s, my father surprisingly seems to be drawing the attention of American government officials. Later in the 1980's, he makes many new friends in the other part of Germany behind the iron curtain – many of whom turn out to be not such good friends, because he became a victim of eavesdropping and observation by the STASI, the former East German Secret Service. In his STASI file he is identified as an 'agent of an imperialistic intelligence service' and thus receives a code name: 'pirate'. Was my father really a spy? As his son and as a filmmaker I have started a thorough examination of his life. And found myself confronted with a huge pile of material: boxes full of memories, old letters, official and private documents, photos, audio recordings and video tapes. Family events are suddenly intermingled with facts from contemporary history. Conversations with former military buddies in West-Berlin, with friends and possibly girlfriends from the former GDR, with historians, as well as with students, professors or close relatives will hopefully provide answers - or perhaps arouse new suspicions