Films by Jochen Hick

Germany 2023, 104 min
by Jochen Hick

Queer people from all over the world have made Berlin what it is today. Many leave their home because they want to, others because they have to. This film follows a few of them.The queer universe of Berlin mirrors the movements of the world and is constantly evolving.In recent decades, a multitude of identities have made themselves heard. Today, gay and lesbian are only two terms among many.

2017, 97 min
by Jochen Hick

Today’s hip image of Berlin is based on the city’s vibrant and subversive subcultures, which originally emerged within the grey walls surrounding West Berlin. The queer scene played a major role in creating that subculture, with its sexual diversity and its wild and unconstrained party culture, ranging from the notorious Berghain club to CSD. Many of the scene’s actors, such as the Gay Museum, the Teddy Award, AIDS help organizations, and the queer magazine Siegessäule originated before 1989. Yet gays in West Berlin suffered greatly under an incongruous provision in German law – the infamous ‘Paragraph 175’ – that made homosexual acts between men a crime up until its reform in 1969.Raids and arrests in bars were common, yet ultimately failed in suppressing gay life in West Berlin. Instead, the city turned into a gay capital. The late seventies in particular were a period of great sexual and political freedoms and more intense social intermingling between the gay-, hetero-, and transsexual worlds. Then AIDS struck, wrecking greater havoc in Berlin than in any other German city.

Germany 2016, 89 min
by Jochen Hick

Being gay, young and conservative, Mario Röllig is one of the most in-demand witnesses to the atrocities committed by the GDR. He guides groups through today’s memorial site in the former Stasi prison where he was once incarcerated. Röllig confronts GDR aficionados and is also confronted by people who still believe in social utopias and who also talk about freedom (without ever mentioning the GDR).The film unveils a strange atmosphere of misunderstandings and failures to communicate. Mario still awaits an apology from his tormentors while simultaneously being ridiculed by some hardliners.The process of coming to terms with the past has just begun.

Germany 2013, 94 min
by Jochen Hick

In 1968, paragraph 175, which made homosexual behavior punishable by law, was abolished in the German Democratic Republic. At first homosexuality was considered a negligible, somehow suspicious issue in real existing socialism. The nuclear family constituted the center of social society.“Out in East Berlin” tells the various, impressive-to-absurd personal histories of gay men and lesbians during socialistic GDR until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their experiences on the path to a self-conscious, outed sexual identity share one specific perspective: They are accompanied by the watchful eye of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi), which reached even their actions in bedroom. Those were recorded in innumerable personal files. Based on the homosexual perspective, filmmakers Jochen Hick and Andreas Strohfeldt elucidate the political picture of the GDR, in which citizens are monitored, spied upon and whose movements are restrained. In addition, they are called upon to betray one´s own cause: homosexual emancipation.An exciting, fascinating and vivid portrait of society is created from impressive interviews, situational scenes and historical material never shown before. A film, that especially today possesses actuality and explosiveness.

Germany 2009, 92 min
by Jochen Hick

Jochen Hick's new film portrays Tom Weise, one of the initiators of HustlaBall an event originally created in order to encourage the acceptance of male prostitutes, but also to launch a rent boy website. After his parents split and, having lost all contact with them, this slightly-built former student of politics decides to go to New York at the beginning of the 1990s. Being viruspositive, he is obliged to live in the USA illegally. In fact, according to the law, he cannot even pay a visit to this country. At first Tom has a hard time eking out a living as an escort. Unable to earn enough money, he winds up on the streets without a roof over his head. In the end, he succeeds in helping Jeffrey Davis set up an internet page, rentboy.com, which, ten years later, becomes the largest website for escorts. Increasingly beset by health issues, loneliness and drug abuse, in 2006 Tom eventually finds someone with whom he can share his life. He and his Afro-American partner Keith decide to go to Berlin. This marks Tom's first trip to Germany in 15 years. A few days after their arrival, the Hustla Ball takes place. The ostensibly self-confident businessman of the film's first few minutes gradually reveals himself to be a man with weaknesses, fears and dreams. Initially following Tom Weise as he organises the last of his parties in the US, the film then accompanies him as he returns to Berlin. Besides being a vibrant portrait, Hick's film is also a socio-cultural exploration of the New World and the old, as reflected in a marginalised group. His documentary also affords a fascinating insight into the universe and the minds of escorts and party-makers. Locations: Las Vegas, New York, Fire Island, Berlin, Hannover

Germany 2008, 97 min
by Jochen Hick

Not a trace of socialism – Moscow, at least at its centre, nowadays bears comparison with any capitalist city. Wealth, showiness, but also elegance as far as the eye can see – Moscow is no longer a grey city of apparatshiks. However, democracy is still a slow to take hold, especially if the degree of genuine democracy in the country is to be measured by its population’s treatment of minorities. Although paragraph 121, which outlawed gay and lesbian relationships, was abolished under Jelzin, there is little sign of real tolerance, equality or social acceptance. Nowhere was this more evident than during the Christopher Street Day (CSD) demonstrations in 2006 and 2007. The right to demonstrate was suddenly suspended and a violent clash inevitably ensued between the demonstrators and religious or rightwing nationalist counter-demonstrators, as well as the police. Those injured included many Russian homosexuals, but also visitors attending the demonstrations from abroad who made up a large part of the Christopher Street Day activists. At the same time, on the summery banks of the Moskva Hick catches up with gay men and women who discuss the worldwide CSD demonstrations, signs of liberalisation in Russia and their strategies for survival in a homophobic society. In the end we begin to at least comprehend that, for many, the implementation of democratic standards can seem to be a less than worthwhile cause.

Germany 2006, 75 min
by Christian Jentzsch, Jochen Hick

With the advent of same sex marriage, homosexuals have achieved near-equality in much of Europe. Everything is rosy, so why should they keep on fighting? A revealing and exciting journey from the center to the borders of Europe. The recently accomplished documentary contains exclusive stories, portraits, interviews and footage of various events in Geneva (United Nations), Poland, London, Windsor, Amsterdam, Kiev, Minsk, Egypt and Lebanon. It also features an exclusive interview with the Gay mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.

Germany 2005, 104 min
by Jochen Hick

Los Angeles in the year 2005: 19-year-old lads move through an apartment that has been equipped with webcams and looks like some sort of futuristic internet doll’s house. Not-quite-so-young men fulfil their sexual dreams as protagonists in bareback productions. And, at private sex parties, almost every second guy has either taken part in a porn film or wants to. In 1997, I followed on camera the fortunes of a group of men who had chosen to wok – either artistically or commercially – with their bodies. This footage later become part of my 1998 documentary, SEX/LIFE IN L.A.. I’m still in touch with some of the men in that film, these include: lone battler Kevin Kramer, mature shooting star Cole Tucker, American boy-next-door Matt Bradshaw and friends of the occasional model John Garwood, who died of an overdose in 1998. Some of these men have successful careers behind them, others have left the sex industry altogether. Driven by a sense of adventure or by their narcissism, young men today are still keen to put their own stamp on porn cinema. But the days of a purely non-commercial fulfilment of one’s sexual desires has long gone, and the interests of consumers, models and producers no longer coincide. Gay life – like the entire industry – has become something of a profession and is now thoroughly commercialized. Young models begin their sexual careers in internet containers; they enter the business fully aware of their self-exploitation and yet, at the same time, they are somehow unconscious of how they are being exploited. Meanwhile, bareback video producers scout the country in their motorhome on the lookout for new protagonists.

Germany 2003, 106 min
by Jochen Hick

In big cities discrimination against homosexuality and gay way of life is not a big issue anymore. Gay mayors and football club association presidents are no longer colorful exceptions to the rule, rather they have become an expression of normality. In rural areas, however, the definition of what is normal is quite different. Out here, normal means a husband, wife and children "the nuclear family". In the country, expressions such as "proofter" are still common parlance and mothers are ashamed if their sons fail to bring home a girlfriend. Hartmut, Richard, Stefan and Uwe are all gay men who live in the country. They punctuate their rural existence with brief but regular sojourns in Berlin, Zürich or Thailand. These four men have learned to live with the fact, that their lifestyle is met with a volley of abuse from their heterosexual friends and acquaintances in the church choir and at the local pub. Jochen Hick's film provides an insight into a largely unknown world. The audience follows the lives of the protagonists via the comments of their heterosexual environment. Expressed in the local dialect, the often comical and regular surprising comments on homosexuality demonstrate just how deep the gulf is between what is supposedly normal and what comprises a deviation from the norm. The film provides a bitterly comical portrait of a heterosexual perspective on gay men in Germany's country towns. (Karin Wallenczus)

Germany 1998, 91 min
by Jochen Hick

Glossy magazines, porn awards, washboard stomachs and muscular pinups. Hollywood faithfully provides the public with a seemingly inexhaustible flood of male erotica. But there does come a time when the spotlights are turned off and the male models go about their own private lives within the city of palms on the pacific coast. Thepotentialities are enormous: innumerable clubs, sexhotlines and the sheer magnitude of partners to choose from. Nine young men in Los Angeles. Photomodels, porn actors, callboys, male hustlers, photographers and performance artists. They all have one thing in common: they earn their living with their bodies. Matt Bradshaw, award winner and one of the most nominated porn actors in the Gay Porno Video Awards, Kevin Kramer -,,the beautiful Californian boy" and already a legend in the domain of male erotica is planning his transformation from porn star to legitimate actor. Super model Tony Ward, in collaboration with renowned photographers Herb Ritts and Bruce Webber, has been crowned the ,,Body of L.A.Ò and roused the personal interest of popstar Madonna. Cole Tucker, a successful businessman, has realized a long-cherished dream - to have a career as a porn star. Rick Castro, photographer and chronicler of the life of male hustlers on Santa Monica Boulevard, is searching for the ultimate male pinup. Artist Ron Athey reminisces about his stirring performance pieces dealing with the suppressed traumas of an ever-fleeting consume-oriented gay subculture. The body is both the object of desire and subject of art to each of the men presented here and they all give and take of their bodies freely. Not for the sake of power but to achieve a life-style full of excitement and diversity which can only be seen to enhance the limitations setup in run-of-the-mill America. For some - like the former porn actor John - it doesn't work out and ends up in tragedy. For Tony Ward it leads to his breakup with the pop icon Madonna and results in his banishment from paradise. You've never seen stories of human accomplishments and failures presented so intimately as they are here. SEX/LIFE IN LA reveals the other side of celebrity and offers us a behind-the-scenes outlook into a creative part of society that is often hidden from and has remained undiscovered by a major portion of the pubIic. The film entertainingly outlines and stirs up fascinating images of Los Angeles. lt depicts in an extraordinarily intrinsic and erotic manner, the strategy of survival of its protagonists in the epicenter of gay-male imagery.

Germany 1995, 86 min
by Jochen Hick

One summer in S&M and leather. Chicago, New York and San Francisco are only three stations in the annual circuit of a leather crowd which travels from event to event - in order to meet, to have sex or just to fantasize about it. Amsterdam based "Tom of Hamburg" is a former "International Mr. Leather"-titleholder, S&M pornstar and porn producer. He and his friends take us on an intense and erotic trip to the two main events: the "International Mr. Leather" and "Mr. Drummer" contests. We meet contestants and leather women, SM-porn-actors and titleholders, uniform fetishists and longterm slaves.

Germany 1991, 15 min
by Jochen Hick

One rare testimonial of the German ACT UP movement is Jochen Hick’s short film WILLKOMMEN IM DOM | WELCOME TO THE DOME: A spectacular protest against HIV and AIDS discrimination by the Catholic Church during the German Bishops’ Conference in Fulda in 1991. (69th Berlinale Panorama 2019)

Germany 1990, 77 min
by Ingrid Molnar, Anne Andersen

with: Angelika Hochdorfer, Sabine Klein-Schonnefeld, Dr.Susanne von Paczensky, Elfie Mayer, Renate Sadrozinski, Gerlinde Walka, Monika Fischer-Stenzel, Beate Lier, Anne Leiper, Ullabritt Horn, Jasmin Ebertz, Dr.Heribert Kentenich, patients of Dr.Theissen, pedestrian in the streets of Memmingen, and others. The reason to shoot and edit this film were a big processes taking place at least five years in Bavaria. In Germany it is forbidden to do abortions without consultation official counsellors and proving an indication. In Bavaria, women after an abortion had to stay in a hospital for five days or more. Dr.Theissen did abortions in Memmingen without keeping the women for five days in a hospital, took money for the traetment but did not pay tax for this. It was a rumour, that one of his female asisstents had told to a clerk of the tax office about this inofficial income and the processes started. The police went to the house of the doctor and took his card-index with more than 1 500 cards. Later the policemen went to the houses of more than 300 women, which had an an "I"( for Interuption or Indication) on their card and said : " You have murdered a child."Angelika Hochdorfer civil servant in Memmingen:Sunday morning in front of the church, the priest and the teacher of the village are talking about the demonstration, which takes place in the next little town. Why they are fighting for the right of abortion ? This is future life. And they start to discuss, when life starts - and cannot make ends meet. Finally they decide to ask an expert - a old farmerwoman, who passes by. She is the mother of six children, she must know it. So they ask her: Zenzi, when does life start. She smiles : You really do not know it ? Life starts when the husband is burried at the chuchyard and the children are out of the house.Sabine Klein-Schonnefeld scientist, Bremen:Equality of law is a formal term. The law itself, promises equality, thats also written in the constitution, but on the other hand, the lawyers know very well, that the law is a social and cultur category. The problem is, that law assumes equality, that there are equal individuals and no differences in society. But the society of whole Germany from SchleswigHolstein to Bavaria has one in common - we live in different societies. The society is different and hierarchical. There are different classes and the social and economic possibilities are different as well. There are foreigners and nativ Germans and this is another hierarchy. And there is hierarchy between male and female as well. As analyses say: Equality of law is only for white, male, Germans of middle class. This is a matter of fact. To have right and to get right is dependent on to my social and economic resources, what education I have got and what my individual standing is like - but here again the inequality of gender is important. Dr. Susanne von Paczensky author, Hamburg: In literatur we like it, if women stop thinking about consequences and make love. But society want them to take care of prevention and think about what may follow - and maybe then fall in love. Elfie Mayer nurse and counsellor at pro familia, Hamburg:We talk with the pregnant women about their conflicts, and we recognize that they really had taken care of prevention and it is insolence to tell them, that they did not, because it is much more different for themselves. _____ The big change is, that women in Bavaria do not even try to get treatment in their hometown or homecountry, they take the train, an airoplane or a cab and go in Amsterdam, Vienna or come to us. Monika Fischer-Stenzel nurse, Memmingen:...Here in Memmingen it is impossible and the women are sent to a hospital in Munic. There are two or even three private and expensive hospitals. The public hospitals of the town or the hospital of the university have only few beds for this case and if you can go there, they treatment is very COOL, if you want an abortion.... Beate Lier housewife in a village, not very far from Memmingen:... I always wanted, that women do not interupt pregnancy. I am mother of twins and the first two years with them was a real hard time. At that time I thought by myself - if I get pregnant now - I shall not get that child - not now.....I talked with some women, who did an abortion and after this I came to the conclusion, that this question a woman has to decide herself - the most important is the soverign right of woman. Anne Leipert from Memmingen accompanied women from Turkey to the tribunal: Most of them did and still do not feel guilty, because of the abortion. They consider it a bigger crime to get more children and have no possibility to care for them. Renate Sadrozinski author, member of pro famila, Hamburg: Most of the women feel very sorry, but the reason for this sadness is not the abortion. They are sad and down and out because the circumstances of their life make it impossible for them to live with this child. Gerlinde Walka therapeut for handicaped children, Memmingen:I cannot imagine to be a Alleinerziehende Mutter (mother raising a child without father) in this town, where I have no relatives and only few friends. Actually my friends live not in this town but in nearby villages and in Munic. Ullabritt Horn filmmaker, Vienna:I think women have the right to do abortions, even if the only reason why is being afraid, that the breast would change its form. Jasmin, student: My way of prevention worked for years and I was very careful about it, but once a day.... Dr. Heribert Kentenich scientist of medicine, Berlin: The Problem of our days is that many men are not fertile anymore.....