Films by Klaus Janek

Germany 2018, 111 min
by Gerd Kroske

In 1970, Dr. Wolfgang Huber and a group of patients founded the anti-psychiatric (Sozialistische PatientenKollektiv - SPK) 'Socialist Patient’s Collective' in Heidelberg. Controversial therapy methods, political demands, and a massive interest in the movement from patients deeply distrustful of conventional “custodial psychiatry,” led to run-ins with the University of Heidelberg and local authorities. The conflict quickly escalated and resulted in the radicalization of the SPK. Their experiment

Germany 2014, 96 min
by Gerd Kroske

A wall-art action in 1986 West Berlin ending in an arrest with grave consequences. A permeable spot in the Weimar punk scene of the 1980s: betrayal is in the air. The motives remain unclear; the perfidious consequences reach into the present. Quarrels, anger, incomprehension – nothing that all can really be figured out today.“Everyone was STASI except mom and dad”? Nope, what we have here is pure archaeology of the East German state!The film recounts the tension between subculture and dictatorsh

Germany 2012, 120 min
by Gerd Kroske

The German painter and cabaret artist Heino Jaeger was once a celebrated radio star. The radio recordings 'Fragen Sie Dr. Jaeger/ Ask Dr. Jaeger' achieved cult status in the 70s. Nevertheless, this popularity seemed to 'hurt' Jaeger as a painter. After ten years, he abruptly discontinued his broadcasting work and began to drink. Weight down by a trauma from World War II and characterized by anarchic madness, but far being an eccentric, arrogant artist, Heino Jaeger died in a psychiatric ward in