Film

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CITY, COUNTRY, RIVER – A CINEMATIC JOURNEY ACROSS GERMANY

This free online film series provides an alternative to the cinematic dominance of well-known big cities and embarks on a twelve-month journey through various underrepresented parts of Germany. 

Picture Palace
DOK Leipzig 2023

At the 66th edition of DOK Leipzig, a host of new films was presented. As in previous years, the festival focused on Central and Eastern European film. Goethe-Institut’s Documentary Film Prize was also awarded at the event.
 

Inclusion at the Venice Architecture Biennale
A Red Carpet for All

Open for Maintenance / Wegen Umbau geöffnet is the title of the German Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. The pavilion is dedicated to exploring matters of repair, maintenance, accessibility, and inclusion. But what does accessibility mean in a city made up of roughly 120 islands and 359 heritage-protected bridges and whose transport runs mostly on canals? And how inclusive is the Biennale itself?

In Conversation with Aldri Anunciação
The Pain of Colonization

For Brazilian playwright, actor, and director, Aldri Anunciação, Black cultures of the world come together because of identity. This is evident, for example, in literature, theater, or cinema.

Film Tourism
The Hidden Side of Washington, D.C.

Traveling and discovering new places is an adventure that is both exciting and enriching. Traveling as a film tourist adds another layer of fun to the experience, revealing a hidden side to seemingly banal sites.

Picture Palace
TIFF23 & beyond: German Actors Go Global

The 48th TIFF boasted 14 German films—or 20+, depending on how you define ‘German Film’.

DEFA Film Heritage
“Did they really allow things like that?”

The films of the GDR’s state film production company, DEFA, always bore the stigma of being permeated by propaganda. That, however, is only part of the truth. When it comes to feature and animation films, fairy tales and documentaries there is a valuable artistic film legacy to be found. The DEFA Foundation wants to make them more easily available digitally.

Berlinale 2023
A few surprises at the end of the festival

The audience is back, Steven Spielberg does a dance, and the Golden Bear goes to a French documentary film. What else has been happening at the Berlinale?

Oscars 2023
"All Quiet on the Western Front" – except at this year’s Oscars

A German picture picked up four gold statuettes at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. And with that, Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Im Westen nichts Neues) has made film history.

A Sustainable Film Industry
The Show Must Go Green

Many films and documentaries explore environmental issues or call for a more sustainable lifestyle. Is the industry living up to its own values though, and just how green is German film?

Sexualised violence on the film set
“If it hasn’t been agreed, it’s not okay!”

Abuse at castings, unannounced rape scenes during filming: the film industry is by no means free of sexualised violence. The new movie directed by Alison Kuhn shows what that does to the parties involved: in “The Case You”, five women who suffered abuse of this nature relate their experiences.
 

LGBTQI+
“Queer Cinema belongs to the mainstream here”

Monika Treut is considered to be one of the pioneers of Queer Cinema. In this interview the film director and producer talks about positive developments in western societies, repressive trends and things that aren’t quite running as they should. 

Generation Z on the silver screen
The universal magic of youth

Who are they and how do they live? The advertising and media world has discovered a new target group: Generation Z, fully digitalized since birth, is coming of age. But on screen they are (still) representing the lives of Millennials.

Günter Peter Straschek
With a Persistent Gaze

The political turmoil of the 1960s brought his creative work as a filmmaker to an abrupt end. But by then Günter Peter Straschek had already produced one of the seminal works of the student revolts and would ultimately accomplish his life achievement as a film historian.
 

Interview with Tucké Royale
On Daydreams and Just the Right Pen

To grasp all of Tucké Royale’s artistic work, take a deep breath. Sascha Ehlert gives it a try.

Hito Steyerl
The essayist filmmaker

It is hard to confine Hito Steyerl to just one artistic genre: She is a filmmaker, visual artist and author who has made an international name for herself with her socially critical pieces.

In Memory of Herbert Achternbusch
God, Beer, and the World

In January 2022, German painter and filmmaker Herbert Achternbusch died. Andreas Ströhl knew Achternbusch well and remembers him as a great artist and a close friend. In this interview, Ströhl reminisces about the trips he took with Achternbusch and the countless beers they shared over the years.

Screen adaptations of literature
Grey clouds sweeping across the sea

Novels have been made into films ever since cinema came into existence. Three very different literary adaptations celebrated their premiere shortly before the Corona crisis – “Deutschstunde” (The German Lesson), “Narcissus und Goldmund” (Narcissus and Goldmund) and “Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl” (When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit).

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