Films by Michelle Barbin

Germany 2021, 88 min
by Christian Bäucker

In his film HEIMATKUNDE, the director returns to the school building of his childhood in East Germany. For almost 25 years it lay empty, seemingly waiting to be revived. The remains of socialist education are pasted over, hidden, forgotten.In tentative interviews with contemporary witnesses we are gradually coming nearer to the systematic manipulation of the child’s mind. In this way, it becomes understandable how the dictatorship functioned and turned into the commonplace “that’s just the way it is”, which still exists today and thwarts any criticism of and debate about history.However, overcoming the German “duality” remains impossible without looking back and reappraising this form of education that generated the authoritarian mind.

Germany 2016, 90 min
by Lutz Gregor

MALI BLUES tells the story of four female and male musicians from the West African country of Mali, who espouse with their music a tolerant Islam and a country at peace.The West African country of Mali is considered the birthplace of the blues and jazz, brought later by abducted slaves to America’s cotton fields. For centuries music has strengthened Mali’s cultural identity, musicians are holding strong positions in society. Following Fatoumata Diawara, shooting star of the global pop scene, MALI BLUES is a musical journey, discovering the country’s rich musical culture and it’s threat by radical Islamists. On our way we meet other committed musicians, who are fighting for unity and the freedom to express themselves through their music, like world famous Ngoni player and traditional Griot Bassekou Kouyaté, street rapper Master Soumy and Tuareg band leader Ahmed Ag Kaedi.A beautiful and soulful doc with mesmerizing sound and music.– Katie O’Connor, Toronto Film SceneA colourful, vivid look at Fatou’s complicated history with her home, Mali Blues is both a triumph for Fatou and for Mali’s music traditions.– Jesse Kinos-Goodin, CBC MusicBest Freedom Film - Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) Norbert Daldrop Fund for art and culture - German Documentary Film Festival

Germany, Switzerland 2013, 92 min
by Noël Dernesch, Moritz Springer

The German singer Gentleman and his Italian counterpart Alborosie are two of the most important reggae artists in Europe. In 1999, Alborosie went on a two-week trip to Jamaica. He's been living there for 14 years now and plays to enthusiastic Jamaican audiences together with Gentleman. Journey to Jah paints a varied picture of the importance and spiritual meaning of reggae on the Caribbean island, where music is used to fight violence, sexism and poverty. As Alborosie says, "God lives here, but Satan too." For seven years, filmmakers Noël Dernesch and Moritz Springer followed the two 'Jamaicanized' artists on their flight from Western consumerism and their search for the roots of the Rastafarians and reggae music, and for a way to give meaning to their lives. Several musicians on the island support them along the way. They play together on the streets and are faced with the joyful, but also harsh reality of life on the island. Footage focusing on their lives as musicians is interspersed with interviews and stylized montages of scenes from everyday life. The result is a kaleidoscopic impression of a world where music serves as a path to unity. (IDFA)

Germany 2009, 95 min
by Lilian Franck, Robert Cibis

Pianomania is a portrayal of Stefan Knuepfer, the virtuosic piano tuner from Steinway, Austria, and his many famous clients at work, including Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Andrej Gravilov, Mitsuko Uchida, Rudolf Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimard; the film offers an unusual and amusing look behind the heavy curtains at major concerts. This film is about the quest for the perfect tone. It shows each obstacle that is created by abandoning everyday routine and surrendering oneself to Art.The fortitude that devotion engenders, the supreme love of perfection and of divine moments; and yet the refusal to bask in one’s glory. Our protagonists are world-renowned pianists and their hero, piano tuner Stefan Knuepfer; and all are obsessed with the idea of the perfect sound.

Germany 2009
by Ingo Rudloff

Brothers Bernard and François Baschet (born in 1917 and 1920, respectively) have been two of the pre-eminent pioneers in building experimental musical instruments and creating sound sculptures. After working together in a symbiotic relationship for decades, they parted ways professionally in the mid-1970s to pursue their own individual artistic aspirations. The film follows several years in the lives of the two brothers, documenting the musical and artistic marks they have left throughout the world.