Films by Sophie Maintigneux

2024, 104 min
by Doris Metz

Petra Kelly was one of the most influential political personalities of the 20th century, a figurehead of the peace movement and co-founder of the first green party to find success. Her life was one of achievements, its end a tragedy.Petra Kelly was one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century. In 1980, she co-founded the German Green Party, the world’s first green party to rise to prominence. She fought relentlessly for radical social change, disarmament and a society at one with nature. For Kelly, environment, peace and human rights issues were one. At the age of 44, she was murdered by her long-time friend and political companion. Raised by her mother and grandmother, she grew up in 1960s America and campaigned for Robert Kennedy’s election in the months before his assassination. Petra Kelly was convinced that a single person could change the world. Influenced by the American civil rights movement and Martin Luther King’s concept of “civil disobedience”, she campaigned to protect the environment and ban uranium mining, demonstrating solidarity with the peace movements in both the East and West. Today, her spiritual legacy is continued by many young climate activists. The issues that concerned her are more topical today than ever before. Close friends and companions talk about Kelly’s personal and political life for the first time. With previously unseen international film footage, the film paints a picture of a sensitive, unwavering woman who let no one -stand in her way. [NEW DOCS catalogue]

2020, 96 min
by Doris Metz, Imogen Kimmel

We accompany a world-renowned transgender surgeon and his patients, each in a different stage of gender reassignment. A film full of feeling that unfolds the full spectrum and radicalness of this transition.Transgender people or those who do not fit into rigid gender assignments have always existed. For them, sex reassignment surgery is often the most important step towards feeling like their “true self”. The surgical methods are constantly improving. People who feel that they belong to the “wrong”, i.e. not their biological gender, are still a mystery to science. Why would anyone consciously harm their healthy body in order to change their sex? We accompany trans people in different phases of their transition over a period of one year. They are all patients of Dr. Schaff, an international luminary who has carried out over 6,000 gender reassignment operations. He is a trailblazer who is constantly improving and perfecting his surgical methods. We observe him at work in Munich and accompany him to San Francisco, where we glimpse the future of transgender surgery. A radically different picture presents itself in Moscow, where trans people live in social isolation and Dr. Schaff can only operate undercover under almost antediluvian conditions. (NEW DOCS)

Germany 2018, 80 min
by Johanna Sunder-Plassmann, Tama Tobias-Macht

outside portrays four homeless men. Starting from the objects they cary around with them the film opens the gates to a world that otherwise remains hidden.outside not only invites to a change of perspective but tries to show four homeless people that have preserved a sense of dignity and pride that is all too often denied to them.Belinale catalogue:Homeless people, tramps, vagabonds and vagrants. Are they all the same idea? Or are they completely different? Sometimes the choice of words can help to change perspectives. The film draußen also adopts a different perspective by following four people living on the streets who own very little. Nothing they possess would ascribe them any apparent social status and yet everything they have is of value. Matze, Elvis, Filzlaus and Sergio are all survivors - and each of them is a real character. In order to hear their stories the two directors decided to adopt a particular strategy and concentrate instead on the items that their protagonists carry about with them. They asked them to open the door to their world by allowing them to take a look inside their plastic bags, pockets and shopping trollies, much as if they were entering someone’s home. The few objects that are to be found within contain a wealth of information and meaning. Charged with emotions and memories, these objects are no less than the fragments of their lives. In their conversations, the full import of these treasures begin to take shape.

Germany 2011, 79 min
by Mareike Wegener

A few weeks after 9/11, an FBI agent called the Whitney Museum of American Art and asked to see a drawing on exhibit there. The piece was by Mark Lombardi. Just months earlier, the artist was found dead in his studio. Although the official cause of death was documented as a suicide, there were many doubts. Using just a pencil and a huge sheet of paper, Lombardi had created an intricate pattern of curves and arcs to illustrate the links between global finance and international terrorism. This documentary is a dense portrait of Lombardi‘s life and work that examines how art can express universal truths that are reflected in our present.