Films by Rune Schweitzer

2020, 102 min
by Frauke Sandig, Eric Black

What is consciousness? Is it in all living beings? What happens when we die? And why do we seem to be hardwired for mystical experience? In these times of existential crisis, there has been an explosion of research into consciousness - and scientists are confronting the Big Questions. AWARE follows six brilliant researchers, approaching the mystery from radically different perspectives, from within and without: through high-tech brain research and Eastern meditation, by scientifically exploring inner space through psychedelic substances and by investigating the consciousness of plants.with: Richard Boothby, Monica Gagliano, Roland R. Griffiths, Christof Koch, Josefa Kirvin Kulix, Matthieu Ricard, Mary Cosimano, Justine Fritz and special guest Mingyur Rinpoche

Germany 2017, 79 min
by Annekatrin Hendel

Take your broken heart, make it into art.Annekatrin Hendel (VATERLANDSVERRÄTER, ANDERSON, FASSBINDER) paints an intimate picture ofher friend, costume designer, singer, painter, and photographer Ines Rastig (1965–2016).Hendel takes on script, directing, cinematography, and sound herself. The footage is shot in January 2016 in a singular hotel room with a view of the Baltic Sea; two months after Ines Rastig was diagnosed with lung cancer and four months before her death.A film about contradictions: the narrowness of the room and the vastness of the ocean, the dying body and the creative energy, the physical closeness and the escape to the internet. A dialog on a par with a stubborn and feisty artist, who, in her last years, communicated with the world mainly virtually.

Germany 2011, 54 min
by Teboho Edkins

In Cape Town, South Africa, one of the world's most violent and unequal societies, a young white film student sets out with his cameraman, leaving the comfort of his protected neighbourhood. He wants to make a Gangster Film, with real gangsters.After a lengthy search for a suitably 'cinematic' character, he finds the perfect gang and settles into their everyday rhythm. The reality soon catches up and the claustrophobic gangster life doesn’t exactly fit to the expectations.20 year after the first democratic election, South Africa remains a deeply divided society, one in which dialogue and understanding seem impossible, out of reach.It is a film between fiction and reality, where real truths are revealed and fiction stops being fiction, and when it stops mattering.with: Thurston Moses, Tammy Miosha Rass, Teboho Edkins, Ralf 'Jackals' Peterson, Yousi, Ouma, Nasheed, Nathen ‘Snap’ Louw & Gang, Mr. Jackson, Kevin, 'Kuifie’ and Friends & the Kids at Fire

Germany 2011, 92 min
by Paul Hadwiger

KÜMMEL GOES EAST - living five years for a shopping centre. Five years with its developers and local residents. Five years between Germany and Poland. Five years until the dawn of the NEW WORLD. Hermann Kümmel building a school house in Nicaragua. That was in the ‘80s. Today the born Hessian is working in Rzeszów, east Poland. He’s building the NEW WORLD shopping centre. At Kümmel’s side stands Polish manager Viola Wojnowski, who negotiates with trade partners and financiers. But she doesn’t want to continue living in Poland – she’s having her dream house built in the German capital. Investor and art collector Dr. Erich Marx works in the background. The shopping centre project is controversial amongst inhabitants of the local prefab estate where it is to be built. But contracts have been finalised and construction vehicles are rolling in.?Director Paul Hadwiger and his team followed the creation of the shopping centre over five years. He encounters developers and inhabitants, pursues their stories. Despite their differences, all concerned are united by one question - that of how one wishes to live.