From the Sideline(2015)

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Tunnel to Freedom(de)

13 August 1961: the GDR closes the sector borders in Berlin. The city is divided overnight. Escape to the West becomes more dangerous every day. But on September 14, 1962, exactly one year, one month and one day after the Wall was built, a group of 29 people from the GDR managed to escape spectacularly through a 135-meter tunnel to the West. For more than 4 months, students from West Berlin, including 2 Italians, dug this tunnel. When the tunnel builders ran out of money after only a few meters of digging, they came up with the idea of marketing the escape tunnel. They sell the film rights to the story exclusively to NBC, an American television station.

Berliner Stadtbahnbilder(de)

Documentation on the Berlin S-Bahn, which threatened to fall into oblivion as a result of the division of the city.

Tobby(en)

Fictional film with documentary elements about a jazz musician in Berlin.

Stimmen im Kopf(de)

Around six to 15 percent of all people (study by John Hearst 2011) hear voices at some point in their lives. Many of them even live with their invisible companions for their entire lives. Well over half of voice hearers are mentally healthy and lead a completely unremarkable life. Despite this, voice hearers continue to be stigmatized and are subject to prejudice. As a result, few speak openly about their experiences. In recent decades in particular, however, voice hearing has been regarded as a symptom of impaired brain function. The documentary sheds light on the phenomenon. Sufferers describe the voices in their heads, as well as the thoughts and feelings they trigger in them, and scientists explain the causes that lead people to hear voices.

A Taboo Identity(en)

Sociologist David W. Wahl explores the identity work involved in Kay Parker shifting from being a legend of the adult film industry to her current occupation as a metaphysical counselor.

The Truth About Marriage(en)

This documentary follows three couples to see how things turned out several years after their weddings. The film presents challenging ideas about relationships, as it answers the question: Why is marriage so difficult?

Space: The Longest Goodbye(en)

Social isolation affects millions of people, even Mars-bound astronauts. A savvy NASA psychologist is tasked with protecting these daring explorers.

Kompleta(pl)

The film is an intimate record of a difficult period in the life of the creators. The main character, eight months pregnant, was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. The dramatic event disrupted the joy associated with the birth of her child.

Die Randgemeinschaft(de)

100 Years of the UFA(de)

The intricate history of UFA, a film production company founded in 1917 that has survived the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, the Adenauer era and the many and tumultuous events of contemporary Germany, and has always been the epicenter of the German film industry.

Voices from the Shadows(en)

‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.

Germany in Autumn(de)

The film does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of Germany during the late 1970s. The movie covers the two-month time period during 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped and later murdered by the left-wing terrorists known as the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction). The businessman had been kidnapped in an effort to secure the release of the original leaders of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. When the kidnapping effort and a plane hijacking effort failed, the three most prominent leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all committed suicide in prison. It has become an article of faith within the left-wing community that these three were actually murdered by the state.

POSSESSED(en)

POSSESSED enters the complicated worlds of four hoarders; people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The film questions whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism. When does collecting become hoarding and why do possessions exert such an influence on our lives?

Symphonie einer Weltstadt(de)

Documentary about the life in Berlin in 1941. The planned premier was stopped by the national party due to the damages and painful changes to the city that soon followed. It thus premiered in 1950.

Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt(de)

A documentary about the clashes between squatters and the police in Berlin in early 1981. Despite the absence of commentary, this is an openly partisan film that aims less for political analysis than for an up-close description of the situation and mood.

The Family Forest(en)

Epigenetics and psychogenealogy ​through a VERY personal experience.

Heimatkunde(de)

Former "Titanic" satire magazine editor Martin Sonneborn takes an undercover trip around Berlin and discovers the East-German mentality and what is left of the socialist German Democratic Republic.

Berlin - Hauptstadt der DDR I(de)

"I'm walking through my city...", sings a cheerful pop singer. She fervently praises the new metropolis of East Berlin. As an emphatically lively, often anthemically condensed revue, the film tells of the "growth and development of our new capital". Accompanied by cheerful music, the camera indulges in high-altitude views, shows squares whose fountains, benches and green spaces are designed to make you forget that you are in a big city, as well as visitors from all over the world in top hotels. An emphatically cheerful, yet meaningful insight into the brave new GDR world.

Tawai: A Voice from the Forest(en)

Explorer Bruce Parry visits nomadic tribes in Borneo and the Amazon in hope to better understand humanity's changing relationship with the world around us.