Films by Frieder Schlaich

Germany 2024, 92 min
by Johannes Blume

Berlin is teetering on the edge of complete gentrification. The punk movement is fading, and the remaining left autonomous and anti-fascist spaces are facing an existential threat. Gentrification jeopardizes their very existence, eradicating the once vast diversity in Berlin’s urban landscape.The capitalistic structures driving gentrification prioritize individual wealth and financial growth, undermining the importance of solidarity. The squatter scene — or the heritage of it — is the antidote.

Germany 2024, 86 min
by Elfi Mikesch

The film tells the story of a planned transformation of the former military base Wünsdorf into an ecological campus.Wünsdorf is a former military base in Brandenburg (Germany), which the Russian army had left in 1994. The First and Second World Wars were planned and executed from here as well as the Cold War. The architect, urban planner and pioneer of ecological urban development Prof. Dr. Ekhart Hahn stands up for a sustainable transformation. During the making of the film, the war breaks out

2022, 80 min
by Heinz Emigholz

The quasi-fascist architecture of Francisco Salamone's slaughterhouses in the Argentine pampas, the utopian buildings by Freddy Mamani Sylvestre in El Alto, Bolivia, and the restorative "City Palace" in Berlin are the cornerstones of an analytical documentary film that explores the dual character of architectural modernism in the field of tension between avant-garde and political propaganda.The actor Stefan Kolosko acts as a diver in the sunken city of Epecuén, where he paraphrases a text by Jor

Germany 2022, 95 min
by Heinz Emigholz

The Neo-Andean architecture of Freddy Mamani Sylvestre, influenced by indigenous culture, adorns the Bolivian city of El Alto. A psychoactive inspection at 4,000 metres above sea level.As a pioneer of Neo-Andean architecture, Freddy Mamani Silvestre attracts attention far beyond the borders of Bolivia. His non-conformist designs are influenced by the culture of the Aymara, the biggest ethnical group in the country, echoing their myths and patterns. Buildings constructed between 2008 and 2021 are

Germany 2020, 124 min
by Bettina Böhler

Director Christoph Schlingensief's 'Heimat' films (Georg Seeßlen), performance art, installations and provocative theatrical, television, operatic and artistic productions shaped the cultural and political discourse in Germany for two decades before his death in 2010 at just 49 years of age.SCHLINGENSIEF – A Voice that Shook the Silence by Bettina Böhler is the first film that attempts to exhaustively document the vast spectrum of this exceptional artist's oeuvre.The film focuses on Christoph Sc

Germany 2014, 110 min
by Heinz Emigholz

The film PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA presents thirty buildings and architectural ensembles of the French architects and construction engineers Auguste and Gustave Perret. Auguste Perret has masterfully refined concrete construction in the implementation of his projects and instilled in them a classical expression. Working in parallel to the execution of numerous construction projects in France, Perret was building under conditions of colonialism in North Africa. The film traces this division ch

Germany 2012, 100 min
by Heinz Emigholz

Directors statement: "PARABETON starts with the first still exstant dome built of concrete by the Romans in the 1st century BC in Baiae near Naples. Followed in chronological sequence by twenty buildings of Italian civil-engineer Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979) – inventor, grandmaster of concrete structures and the architect's architect of the 20th century: among others the Pirelli-skysraper in Milano, the Headquarters of Unesco in Paris, the Palazzo del Lavoro in Turin, the Palazzo dello Sport in

Germany 2011, 97 min
by Elfi Mikesch

Werner Schroeter was one of the most significant proponents of New German Cinema. Schroeter was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. At the time, he was working for the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf gallery on a musical piece entitled ‘Schönheit der Schatten’ (The Beauty of Shadows) based on the works of Robert Schumann and Heinrich Heine. For Schroeter, oscillating between hope and trepidation, it marked the beginning of a race against time. In her film, Elfi Mikesch, who photographed a number of Schroeter’s