Films by Johann Feindt

Switzerland, Germany 2024, 89 min
by Heidi Specogna

Claudia Andujar escaped the Holocaust as a child and became a multiple award-winning photographer. She travelled the Amazon since the 1960s, and developed a profound relationship with the Yanomami people. From Claudia, they learned to fight against the exploitation of the rainforest and their extermination. Former victims are now activists.

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 2021, 96 min
by Corinna Belz, Enrique Sánchez Lansch

Hidden doors open in this film about the iconic Uffizi Gallery, home to the world's most prominent collection of Renaissance art. Guided by passion, German Director Eike Schmidt and his Italian team master the sensitive balancing act between conservation and renewal. We dive into famous masterpieces that captivate visitors of all ages and nationalities.

Switzerland, Germany 2021, 110 min
by Heidi Specogna

Nardos, an Azmari singer from Addis Ababa, dreams of telling stories about the lives of ordinary people through her music. In her search of stories for her songs, she meets Gennet, a poet who lives on the streets with her children. As Nardos puts the lives of Ethiopian women, their visions and power at the centre of her creation, we dive deeper and deeper into a rapidly changing country.

Germany 2020, 104 min
by Jeanine Meerapfel

A WOMAN is a cinematic essay, a deeply personal look into the past of a woman. The story of Marie Louise Chatelaine, the director's mother, is the starting point, but several stories are added and told in parallel, in a fragmented reflection of yesterday and today. A family history that makes contemporary history recognizable, a deep search into the wounds of exile and a reflection on the function of memory. The images that follow the stations of this woman's life flow like a stream of consciousness: Chalon-sur-Saone, Strasbourg, Untergrombach, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires. What does it mean for a person to feel foreign? Being a foreigner in the country, in life, in language... particularly estranged as a woman.

Germany 2019, 79 min
by Annekatrin Hendel

Sven Marquardt might be the most famous bouncer worldwide. But beside standing in front of the legendary techno club Berghain in Berlin, he is also a well-known and skilled photographer. Long before the Berlin Wall came down, Marquardt portrayed the subcultural East-Berlin scene. His black and white photography illustrates it as voluptuous, laid-back, dirty and existential. Even if shot by daylight, his work is permeated by darkness, ecstasy and night.with: Sven Marquardt, Dominique Hollenstein und Robert Paris

Germany 2019, 47 min
by Jeanine Meerapfel, Floros Floridis

Artificial intelligence is already changing almost every area of life today. The documentary/essay is inspired by these changes that influence our perception of Topos. By combining film images, graphics with documentary text modules, the author associatively points out how the progress of data and technology colonize human existence and fundamentally influence the balance between the psychological, mental and biological aspects of life.

Germany 2017, 52 min
by Mechthild Gaßner

Nina, Edith and Ronald are sexual assistants. Their clients are people with disabilities, their job: to satisfy their desire for physical contact. Is this a form of prostitution? A study of a taboo subject.“I’m no different to anyone else!” says Torsten in his wheelchair.”I also long for tenderness, intimacyand sex.“ The sexual needs of the disabled are generally not recognised; in fact, we do not expectdisabled people to have such feelings. People like Nina, Edith and Ronald have a different approach.They call themselves sexual assistants. ”Sexual companionship is a paid service“, says Nina de Vries, the pioneer of sexual assistance in Germany. So it is prostitution?! The film TOUCHING explores the longings and wishes of Christine and Torsten, but also shows the empathy and skills the sexual assistant need in order to engage with their clients. Their work is all about touching. Ever since Adam met Eve, touching has been the most basic form of reassurance that we are alive. That is why it is so important.

Switzerland, Germany 2016, 119 min
by Heidi Specogna

It all started with a small school exercise book. But instead of being full of vocabulary, the pages were checkered with the courageous testimonies of 300 Central African women, girls and men. They reveal what Congolese mercenaries did to them between October 2002 and March 2003 in the wake of armed conflict. On their own initiative, they gathered together their testimonies in this book to record the crimes committed against them.As a result of rape, Amzine, a young Muslim woman, gave birth to a child. Looking at her now 12-year-old daughter Fane is a daily reminder of the suffering she entrusted to this book. Arlette, a Christian girl, has agonised for years due to a gunshot to the knee that did not want to heal.After a successful surgery in Berlin, she holds on to hope for a pain-free existence.CAHIER AFRICAIN is a long-term observation that begins accompanying its protagonists in the village of PK 12 in 2008. But while they try to master their difficult daily lives with confidence – and while, in The Hague, the legal prosecution of crimes committed during the last war is still in progress – the next war breaks out in the Central African Republic. Amzine, Fane and Arlette must once again face a maelstrom of violence, death and expulsion. At their side, the film bears witness to the collapse of order and civilization in a country torn apart by civil war and coup d’états.Remarks by the director cahier africain is a personal film. On a research trip and by chance, I came upon this book, which led me to seven years of filming. We visited and accompanied the people who described their suffering and shame in it. Today, the book – along with thousands of other pieces of evidence of war crimes – is locked in the vault at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The fate of the women and their children begotten by force is a tragedy the world turns a blind eye on. It’s estimated that, in the Central African region in recent years alone, more than 100,000 women have been violated during armed conflict. By way of comparison, after the Rwandan genocide approximately 20,000 children were brought to life with this background. The film was originally dedicated to the difficult attempts of women to regain a foothold after experiencing violence. However, the renewed outbreak of war in the Central African Republic abruptly rewrote the script.

Germany 2014, 78 min
by Johann Feindt, Tamara Trampe

December 1942. A snowfield behind the russian lines in WW II. This where my mother gave birth to me. She was a nurse in the Red Army back then. 70 years later I go back to find out. (Tamara Trampe)

2014, 94 min
by Regina Schilling

Portrait of actress, author and director Adriana Altaras. Adriana Altaras is a director, actress and writer. And she is from a country which no longer exists: Yugoslavia. The daughter of Jewish partisans who fought for Tito and later started a new life in post-war Germany, in this lovely film she tells the story of her ’high maintenance family’. Adriana’s domestic situation appears unusual at first glance, but can be seen as typical of the generation born after the War. Despite a high standard of living, the wounds from her parents’ past can be felt, even to this day, and the search for her own roots are her constant companion.

Germany 2013, 78 min
by Anne Thoma

Today’s wars and conflicts are increasingly complex and incomprehensible. Often, they are caused by local civil conflicts with global repercussions in the power struggle over territories and resources. This is why politicians employ those who understand the language, have access to expert knowledge and know how to be discrete. They employ experts, who turned 'making peace' into a new, private business model. “If you want to put an end to war, you have to talk to the fighters!” An exclusive group of international consultants are dedicated to this idea - it is their business, and their mission. In her film, director Anne Thoma portraits three private mediators and their work, which they conduct in hotel lobbies, during business class flights and in secret conference rooms. The film follows the protagonists on their mission to put an end to armed conflict in the world. We learn to understand their motivation, share hopes and disappointment, the loneliness and their short, rare moments of triumph. We also get a glimpse into the every day chores of the job alongside war theatres – surprising and emotional insights into the private peace industry. With Dennis McNamara, David Gorman, Martin Griffiths

Germany 2012, 74 min
by Regine Dura

 September 8, 1948. The overseas landing stage of Cape Town harbour is crowded with a group of middle aged men waiting for children from  Germany. The fathers-to-be are members of the right-wing Broederbond, stalwart believers in 'Apartheid'. Behind the children’s transport stands an unprecedented adoption scheme: Nazi elite offspring of 'Aryan blood' shall insure 'good genes' and help to 'stay white on a black continent'. The film tells the life stories of Werner Schellack and Peter Ammermann, then 2 and 8 years old, how they struggled to adapt to an unsettling and racist environment and how far they went in their arrangements. On the surface their lives seem settled for a long time, but with the fall of Apartheid, the old wounds open again. A film about the abuse of children in the name of an ideology and their struggle for identity.

Switzerland, Germany 2011, 91 min
by Heidi Specogna

They don’t wear uniforms or carry weapons. They have no bodyguards. They are equipped with laptops, cameras and sound recorders. They work along dusty roads and in overcrowded refugee camps. They listen to hundreds of testimonies of rape, murder and torture; so gruesome they themselves sometimes come close to breaking point. Despite impossible working conditions, they collect the evidence for indictments against those who ordered some of the most serious crimes of our time - committed in Darfur, Uganda, The Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic - they are the investigators of the International Criminal Court. The film accompanies the investigators in their search for the truth, a quest, demanding their utmost strength and commitment. They are the real heroes of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Germany 2011, 97 min
by Annekatrin Hendel

Once with the Stasi, always with the Stasi? Once you were in the agent controller's grasp you could never escape - that's what they say, anyway. Writer Paul Gratzik was an unofficial informer for the GDR State Security Service for twenty years, broke with them in the 80's and exposed his identity. "Vaterlandsverräter" ("Traitors to the Fatherland") is a portrait of an exceptional man. On one hand it is a psychological profile of one of an extraordinarily paradoxical figure, a "man of extremes": satyr, seducer, radical and hermit. On the other hand it tells a story about the GDR, its critics and the Stasi of the kind that has never been told before in all the 20 years since the end of East Germany.

Germany 2010, 98 min
by Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt

The documentary LULLABY recounts dreams and longings of the childhood years. And it deals with the remains of those yearnings, after years of facing the daily struggles of adult life. The first lullabies are sung in the intimacy of home, surrounded by loved ones, sheltered and warm. It is the memory of those moments that open the door to a journey into human destinies. The journey also leads through Berlin. We happen upon people at very different stages of their life. Sometimes it’s a brief encounter, a glance in passing, a few sentences or a song. Another time it’s the complete story of a life.There is Chechen poet Apti Bisultanov, who says of himself: “I was once a pure and happy child.” Today he lives in exile in Berlin; once he had been Vice Premier of Chechnya. Detlef Jablonski, born in jail and raised in a foster family, has longed for his mother all his life. He has found comfort in music, writes his own songs and sings in the laymen choir „Different Voices of Berlin“. The choir is conducted by the American jazz musician Jocelyn B. Smith. As the son of deaf parents, Helmut Oehring learned to speak at the age of four. Today he is a renown German composer, awarded with the ArnoldSchoenberg Price in 2008. Santos grew up in a foster family but was passed onto an orphanage. After doing time in jail he tried to inject his feelings into his music, into the lyrics of his songs. And he tries to develop a steady relationship with his son, to be the father he never had.Tamara Trampe’s and Johann Feindt’s work is a cinematic declaration of love to people of all ages and cultures who live in the German capital. Regardless of money, age or whatsoever: they all travel back in time to their childhood and along the way they speak of love and loneliness. Of dreams that have come true... or not. Of longings that stay. Slow songs and the rough rhythm of the city - togetherthey create a very special tone.original version with German or English subtitles available

Germany, France 2010, 54 min
by Jürgen Ellinghaus

Every two years, the small town of Beverungen, in the middle of Germany, celebrates with particular vigour its traditional Marksmen's Festival. Festivities are focused on numerous parades with marchers in uniform and a shooting contest, where the winner is declared "King". Throughout the Germanic regions, marksmen's guilds are known since the 10th century. They protected cities and rural areas against troubles, wars and looting. In Beverungen, about a quarter of the active male population is involved in the local marksmen's association. In 2008, Beverungen has the honour of hosting the annual festival of the “Confederation of Historical German Marksmen's Brotherhoods“ with thousands of participants coming from all over the west of Germany. District Kings and Diocesan Majesties compete for the title of the year's new "Confederal King" who receives the royal insignia in front of the altar, after the prayer of blessing...

Germany 2009
by Hans-Erich Viet

What is going on in Germany? Is Germany realy a pain in the neck? And if so, why? In this documentary road-movie shot between 2005 and 2008, director Hans-Erich Viet travels through Germany to find out just how the German soul ticks. The journey took place without any concrete planed destinations, but rather was determined through the events that took place and offers answers to all the moaning and groaning going on in Germany today.

Germany 2008, 90 min
by Regina Schilling

For two years, Schilling accompanied this exceptional actor and interviewed some of his temporarycompanions such as Werner Herzog, Herbert Achternbusch and his lover Luisa Francia. Bierbichleropenly talks about his love-hate relationship with the theatre, the origins and his longing for art,his inner conflict with being an actor and his search for new ways including singing Mahler andEisler songs and writing a book. With diary-like video recordings, the film creates especially movingmoments in which Bierbichler would never have accepted a camera team. Schilling succeeds in creatinga complex portrait of a gentle berserk who filled the German stages and films with his uncanny,corporeal presence. A headstrong person who radically exposes himself and anarchically rages againstthe world.

Germany 2004, 108 min
by Andres Veiel

Four acting students are the focus of Andres Veiel’s long-term observational documentary. We meet Stephanie, Karina, Constanza and Prodromos while they are preparing for their acting school auditions. The selection procedure takes months; it is a trying, nerve-racking time spent vacillating between hope and anxiety. All four make it into the school, but their initial euphoria about commencing their studies – including group exercises, role play and obligatory fencing lessons – is soon followed by deflation in the face of merciless criticism of even the slightest shortcoming by their tutors. In this way, their passion for their chosen vocation is constantly put the test.The four students couldn’t be more different: Karina appears to have very few problems; Stephanie, however, has to endure several auditions. Constanze immerses herself in her roles, whilst Prodromos always seems to be at odds with himself, his roles and his dreams. Andres Veiel: “We observe the struggles of the protagonists; how they try not to get stressed out or lose sight of themselves by worrying about the discrepancy between their expectations and their abilities. We accompany them on their search for identity and an image, but we also follow their progress towards maturity as actors and as individuals. Then, at the end of their studies, comes the real test: trying to gain a foothold in the profession. All of a sudden, they find themselves faced with a new set of questions. What is the nature of success? How high is the price for achievement? And what has become of their original dreams and aims, seven years on?”

Germany 1990, 83 min
by Johann Feindt, Jeanine Meerapfel, Helga Reidemeister, Dieter Schumann, Tamara Trampe

Rhine wine in Saxony! It is being served at an information stand set up by West Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) just before the first and only free elections to East Germany’s People’s Assembly; the ballot will give the CDU almost 41% of the vote. But while the East Germans appear entirely sober about it all despite the sweet swill on offer, during the election campaign in February/March of 1990 the West Germans seem drunk on the new order. “Socialism is over. Nobody wants it anymore”, exults Helmut Kohl. Meanwhile, his finance minister is speaking of an “expanded economic territory”. And very soon, a Nazi banner is proclaiming the “east regions” of Germany as the next goal for a “reunification”.“How do various generations experience the uncertainty, the disorientation and the reconsideration of East Germany’s old values?”, asked the East-West German documentary film collective Blick ins Land. In their questioning of workers, schoolchildren, border guards and police, a teacher and an East German state security (Stasi) officer about their experiences and feelings, the collective provided an unvarnished look at the downsides of the “splendid happiness”. Source of Synopsis

1990, 90 min
by Harriet Eder, Thomas Kufus

Unique film material, never previously screened, shot by six German soldiers as they invaded the Soviet Union in WW II. The specific angle - that of amateur film-makers - and the use of 16mm colour film, means the film provides a completely different picture of the Eastern Front.The men who took the pictures have been traced and interviewed. Their enthusiasm about the technical quality of the pictures gives the film a cruel insight into the perfection of the Nazi machine. [IFFR 1994]