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- DirectorGerd KroskeAndreas VoigtThe most comprehensive documentation of events surrounding the 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany. The film team finally got the permission of the state-owned film studio to document these historic events on October 16, 1989 and filmed until the fall of the Berlin Wall. With their heavy 35mm camera equipment, they were the only professional team filming in Leipzig. The film includes interviews with demonstrators, members of the citizens' rights movement, officials and bystanders in East Germany's peaceful revolution.
- DirectorSebastian RichterAndreas VoigtA small crew films Leipzig 89-90. They interview factory workers, young people, a former journalist, a Redskin and others. These individuals share their thoughts about the reunification, its consequences and their plans for the future.
- DirectorJürgen BöttcherA documentary about the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall which makes no use of vocal commentary but instead focuses on visual elements. From the Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburg Gate, the camera captures the historic events from all sides and different angles: on the one hand there are news reporters and tourists from all over the world taking pictures, children selling pieces of the wall to passers-by, and people celebrating New Year's Eve, on the other we see abandoned subway stations and officials with blank looks on their faces.
- DirectorMarilyn LevineRoss McElweeStarsMarilyn LevineRoss McElweeIn 1986, Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine were making a film about the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, when the imposing structure was still very much intact as the world's most visible symbol of hardline Communism.
- DirectorWolfgang KisselStarsJohannes R. BecherWolf BiermannMikhail GorbachevUsing almost completely positive clips from East German film archives, this deadpan documentary presents a history of the forty years of the former DDR.
- StarsChristian Steyer"That was the GDR" - a History of the Other Germany. In this documentary, life on the other side of the Berlin Wall is exposed through interviews, archival footage, and propaganda.
- DirectorAndreas VoigtThis film follows some extremely right-wing teenagers in Leipzig, Germany, over a period of one year (1992/1993). It portrays what they think about belief, love and hope as well as about violence and their country.
- DirectorRobert KirkStarsBill RatnerSamuel BurgessEugene GargesHistory of the 1948-1949 Berlin airlift.
- DirectorHans-Hermann HertleGunther ScholzStarsGert HeidenreichMartin SeifertTom VogtA detailed reconstruction of the events from Nov. 9th to 11th, 1989, which led to the Berlin wall tumbling down, on a local, national and international level.
- DirectorMarcus VetterStarsPeter Schmidt-VogelDomenico SestaLuigi SpinaA reaction to the erection of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 was the provision of secret routes for East Berliners to escape into freedom in West Berlin. One such was a tunnel that begun construction in early 1962 masterminded by four West Berlin students: civil engineering student Ulrich Pfeifer (called Uli) who was responsible for structural concerns, political science student Hasso Herschel who oversaw construction details and communication with the refugees, steel expert and Italian national Domenico Sesta (called Memo) who was the planner, and art student and fellow Italian national Luigi Spina (called Gigi) who was the leader of the operation. The idea was borne out of a want to help Gigi and Memo's friend Peter Schmidt-Vogel who was despondent about his fate living in East Berlin. Uli and Hasso joined the plan soon after they met Memo and Gigi. Hasso was earlier imprisoned for four years by the East German regime, and joined as an act of revenge against his former captors and to get his younger sister out of East Berlin. Uli earlier escaped from East to West Berlin through the city's sewer system, and like Hasso joined the tunnel group as revenge against the East German regime who imprisoned his girlfriend for seven years for also trying to escape. Initial planning problems included finding a route that was above the consistently high ground water table under the city and in an area of the city where they could build without being suspected of doing so. After locating the section of the city to construct the tunnel, they had to find buildings under which they could start and end the tunnel either without detection or with the assistance of the building owner. Beyond the known concerns for what was now planned as the 165 meter long tunnel, such concerns as providing structural supports, providing air ventilation, disposing of the excavated materials, recruiting laborers sympathetic to the cause, and financing (the latter which was solved in an unconventional manner), they ran into unforeseen problems, such as two burst water pipes flooding the tunnel, and other people they initially did not know finding out about the project. After all was said and done, life, in all its good and bad, went on for those involved.
- DirectorHubertus SiegertStarsGünter BehnischWerner DurthHelmut JahnBerlin after the Wall came down. Observations on radical reconstruction of a city core. Images of the conflict between the thirst for demolition and the hunger for completion.
- DirectorHava Kohav BellerStarsKonrad AdenauerGünter BazyliWolf BiermannDocumentary that examines life and dissent in East Germany from 1949-1989.
- DirectorAudrey MaurionEyal SivanStarsAxel PrahlIn February 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Ministry for State Security is dissolved. The end of the Stasi has come.
- DirectorMario SchneiderThe film tells the story of three friends and their long years of drug addiction in a small village of East Germany.
- DirectorChristian GierkeStarsRudolf DanielewiczBerthold DückerJeff MatzkaIt is one of the most heavily secured borders in the world: 800 kilometers of border fence, 400 observation towers, 200 kilometers of minefields. Guarded by 40,000 border guards. No border separating two countries. A border dividing a country. A border in Germany. After the opening of the inner-German border, "Halt. Hier Grenz" undertakes a journey on the traces of the border course. Across Germany, from the border triangle near Hof in the south to Priwall on the Baltic Sea in the north.
- DirectorMarc BauderDörte FrankeStarsDagny DewathAnne DrewathAnne GollinThis intense and very moving documentary features four - out of approximately 250,000 - former political prisoners in East Germany. Nearly twenty years after the fall of the Wall, it is still difficult to answer the questions of their children and friends and come to terms with a very personal and painful past.
- DirectorOliver HalmburgerStarsClayton NemrowAndrew SolomonClifford V. JohnsonFor 28 years, the Berlin Wall split a city and a whole nation. While the notorious dangers frightened many GDR citizens, there were others who tried to overcome it. Families fly across the border in a home-made hot air balloon or swing over the Wall hanging from a makeshift pulley. The Wall still works but Communism is crumbling behind it. Suddenly, the borders are open, and the Wall comes down.
- DirectorStefan WeinertFive stories of the dream of freedom and the soul-crushing methods of the Stasi detention. The five protagonists represent a group of around 72,000 ex-convicts, imprisoned in the GDR for attempting to flee the Republic.
- DirectorMatthias HoferichterDuring the time of the Cold War the border between Western countries and Eastern bloc meant the end of the world. The autumn 20 years later shows a new picture: Fertile landscapes, exotic animals and energetic farmers, trying to heal the wounds of the past. This still makes the regions special and unique. The former no-go areas where life and economy had their own rules are now re-discovered as remarkable nature and cultural landscapes when the Iron Curtain finally opened. The documentary by Matthias Hoferichter goes on an autumn journey along this now green belt from south to north. Here, with hard work and new ideas, farmers are trying to utilize the forbidden areas of the past. While herb farmers in Bulgaria dry and proceed the harvest of the warm summer, the grape gathering is about to start in Hungary. In Germany farmers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania breed endangered farm animals and successfully built a new business with the sale of goat cheese. Autumn slowly becomes winter and while the Estonian cattle on the island Hiiumaa can still enjoy the last green blades of grass in the sun the reindeer in the far north of Finland already walk through snow. Right next to the Russian border the reindeer herders of the indigenious Sami still practise the reindeer breeding just like their ancestors did it centuries ago. But even for them it becomes more and more difficult to live in a traditional way only. The journey along the former border discovers landscapes and people which have experienced a unique history in the shadow of the Iron Curtain and offer the visitor a fascinating view of life before and after the opening of the border.
- DirectorCynthia BeattStarsTilda SwintonPoetic passage through varied landscapes along the former Berlin Wall. Beatt and Swinton re-trace its line 21 years after Cycling the Frame, this time on both sides of the Wall that once isolated West Berlin.
- DirectorBartosz KonopkaThe untold story about wild rabbits which lived between the Berlin Walls.
- DirectorMarco WilmsStarsFrank SchäferSabine von OettingenRobert Paris»Comrade Couture« is a journey into the world of the fashionistas and Bohemians of East Berlin in the 80s. A fantasy world within East Germany's restricted everyday life. Director Marco Wilms was himself a model at GDR's fashion institute.
- DirectorMark ByrneRob DennisStarsJonathan BadyHanna BehrendJohn BokCentral Europeans describe life under Communism and offer candid assessments of the transition to freedom, capitalism and democracy in the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
- DirectorHeike BachelierEnemy Engagement tells a story from the GDR from three different angles: The dissident writer and his friend who secretly reported to the Stasi, the GDR secret police and was responsible for his imprisonment. 16.000 pages of Stasi files make the third perspective and reveal their own unique light on the story.
- DirectorEric StangeThe Berlin Wall came down in 1989, bringing the reunification of Germany and an end to the Cold War. This documentary revisits the events surrounding the wall's historic collapse. Interviews with George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl offer insight into political maneuvering while firsthand accounts from Germans provide personal perspectives of this historic event that changed the world forever.
- DirectorMichael Patrick KellyStarsThomas BarWolfgang BradlerLothar de MaizièreBehind The Wall documents what life was like on both sides of The Berlin Wall through the eyes of ordinary citizens from East and West Germany. They give an in-depth and overlooked perspective of life before, during and after The Wall fell. Beginning with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 'Fall of the Wall' then through the voices of the people, weaves a true history of what life was like living on both sides of The Wall.
- DirectorMark HayesStarsJoachim GauckPuhdysWolfgang ThierseAfter twenty years of reunification, is Germany still divided?" Why do many Germans from the east still speak of themselves as "Ossis" and refer to their cousins from the West as "Wessis?" Will they ever really become one country?
- DirectorAnnekatrin HendelStarsPaul GratzikSascha AndersonRenate BiskupOnce 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. 'Vaterlandsverraeter' ('Traitors to the Fatherland') is a portrait of an exceptional man whose tumultuous life was propelled to extremes. Now more than 20 years after the end of the GDR, this is a story that was never told before.
- DirectorMarten PersielStarsDavid NathanAnneke SchwabeBill ClintonThis Ain't California is a celebration of the lust for life, a contemporary documentary trip into the world of roller boarding in the German Democratic Republic. A coming-of-age tale of three teenagers and their passionate love for a sport on the crumbling tarmac of the streets in the German Democratic Republic, which was considered very ill-fitting. The punk fairy tale is a story of the subversive powers of fun in that part of Germany, which had lost touch with its citizens. The film follows its three heroes from their childhood in the seventies through their teenage rebellion in the eighties, ending in the last summer of their life in the German Democratic Republic in 1989, when their life changed forever, and follows them to 2011.
- DirectorStefan WeinertFamilies of people murdered along the border of East and West Berlin tell their stories.
- DirectorErzsébet RáczAnders ØstergaardStarsMiklós NémethGundula SchafitelMathias RösslerThe political drama of the fall of the Iron Curtain as told by one of its power brokers and the widow of one of its casualties.
- DirectorAnia Poullain-MajchrzakBill ThomasStarsTim HardyAdam Kellett-LongAnne ApplebaumOn the morning of August 13th,1961, the citizens of Berlin woke up to discover their capital had been split in two. In the dead of night, one of Europe's largest cities had been divided by the beginnings of what the world would come to know as the Berlin Wall. Reuters journalist, Adam Kellet-Long, saw tensions rise across the city throughout the summer of '61 and exposed this event to the world.
- DirectorHester OvermarsIn 1983 East-Germany the Anhalt family secretly builds a single-engine aircraft to escape life under a communist regime. They are betrayed and arrested by the Stasi. 30 Years later the events are still a determining factor in their lives.
- DirectorLena MüllerDragan von PetrovicStarsRolf EdenDragan WendeDragan Wende has lived in Berlin since the 1970s and has seen the city change throughout the years. His nephew comes to live with him and Dragan remembers the "good old days" he lived as a Yugoslavian immigrant in the divided city.
- DirectorJörg A. HoppeHeiko LangeKlaus MaeckStarsAndiBela B.Blixa BargeldUnreleased footage captures West Berlin's underground scene in the 1980s, from punk to Love Parade, portraying the city's creative energy before the Berlin Wall fell.
- DirectorKarin KaperDirk SzusziesFilm is produced on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the East Side Gallery in 2015. The entire story of the longest surviving part of the Berlin Wall! The longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall is the world's largest open air gallery, attracting millions of visitors from around the world since opening in 1990. Karin Kaper and Dirk Szuszies have accompanied many of the artists and followed the restoration and renovation in 2009 and all following events until 2014. They were the only film team in the world to do so. Private archive material from the artists from 1990 provide a fascinating retrospective. The documentation gives a multi-faceted insight into the overall history of the East Side Gallery. It also covers the current conflicts that threaten the survival of the monument which has been declared symbol of the peaceful revolution. In the film, artists from many countries make an unusual contribution to the reappraisal of the German-German division and the associated culture of commemoration. What does freedom mean to us and what is it worth?
- DirectorHans Christian PostStarsBruno FlierlBodo FuhrmannVolker HassemerLast Exit Alexanderplatz is a film about the ongoing, but politically disputed and so far unsuccessful attempt to transform the former East-German Alexanderplatz into a high-end, Manhattan-like business district. Through interviews with the architects and politicians, who were involved in the competition held for the square in 1993, the film highlights the dogmatism and insensitivity that characterized much of planning in post-reunification Berlin. But it also depicts a square, which despite the failures and missed opportunities of the 1990s, seems to have regained its foothold in the city.
- DirectorJochen HickStarsKurt BiedenkopfMario RölligSahra WagenknechtEven now, twenty-five years after German reunification, historians are still debating whether the GDR was an illegitimate state. In his current work, Jochen Hick tells the story of ex-GDR citizen Mario Röllig. Hick accompanies him as he visits his parents and his former colleagues but also the sites of his attempted flight from the GDR and his incarceration. Röllig was arrested in Hungary in 1987 for attempting to flee the German Democratic Republic; in 1988 the Federal Republic of Germany purchased his freedom. Today he regularly talks about his experiences in schools; he also volunteers as a guide at the former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen in Berlin that is now a memorial. Hick stays close to his subject at all times but remains neutral, instead observing and asking questions from behind the camera.
- DirectorRene RömerStarsCarsten LinkeSigmund JähnEberhard KöllnerEvery child knew his name in East Germany, many wanted to be just like him. Schools and streets were named after this national hero. In the Socialist Eastern Bloc dictatorship of the GDR, in which one could only dream of traveling far away, he was by far the most widely traveled citizen. Today, the first German in space has a little bit fallen into oblivion. Born in 1937 before World War II and raised as a citizen of the German Democratic Republic, the distinguished fighter pilot and Major General of the People's Army was chosen to participate in the Soviet Interkosmos program and to fly into space in 1978 with a Soyuz rocket. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, this documentary traces the cosmonaut's most important stages of life with a wealth of archive material.
- DirectorDavid DietlStarsSven MarquardtFrank KünsterSmiley BaldwinAn exciting piece of Berlin's cultural history from the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall to the vibrant present.
- DirectorAnnekatrin HendelStarsDominique HollensteinSven MarquardtRobert Paris"Beauty and decay" is a documentary about three rebels, who shine even brighter than the rest of the vibrating East Berlin boheme of the 80ies: Sven Marquardt, Dominique Hollenstein (Dome) and Robert Paris. All of them being more mystical creatures than real punks. This movie reveals how little the colorful East Berlin punk-scene had in common with the one-dimensional aesthetic of its western counterpart. The uniqueness, authenticity and offhandedness of this subculture was impressive.