A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner(2021)

Amy Macdonald - Under Stars - Live In Dusseldorf(en)

The Scottish singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald gave an exclusive WDR 2 radio concert on her "Under Stars" tour on October 18, 2017 in the Classic Remise. Around 600 lucky winners were able to get hold of tickets for the Amy Macdonald unplugged concert and were enchanted by the perfect show. It was a great evening with Amy Macdonald in the Classic Remise Düsseldorf on the WDR 2 Tour 2017. Amy Macdonald described the classic car exhibition in the Classic Remise as "the nicest backstage I have ever had". Amy Macdonald enjoyed the automotive atmosphere in the Classic Remise and joked with the enthusiastic audience throughout the concert. Before the concert, Amy Macdonald gave the WDR a radio and TV interview in the middle of the vehicles.

Panda(da)

Jacob’s dream is to be a rap artist, so he works on a song that will give him the big breakthrough. To his big frustration, his dreams are tested every time his roomie Adam gets a visit from his girlfriend Frederikke. And through a journey of unforeseen events Jacob meets additional challenges that test his working discipline.

Open Water(en)

Nikki is no professional athlete. Still, she swims the English channel to raise money for a good cause.

The Very Strange Story of the Legendary Joe Meek(en)

Documentary about the influential pop composer and record producer Joe Meek, who died in dramatic circumstances in 1967 after a bizarre childhood and a career, often controversial, which spanned the period from the mid-50s to the rise of the Beatles in the 60s. At the end of his life he was suffering from paranoid delusions that people were watching him through walls. Alan Lewens' film charts an Ortonesque tale of post-war Britain.

Blue Fire(en)

An elite A.I.coder faces a collision between the algorithms of the VR worlds he's creating and the archetypal dimensions of the greater Collective Unconscious. He finds solace in a rural farmhouse he rents from a Professor of Psychology who lives next door with a student he mentors on her dreams. Over two days, the dreams of all three impact their daily discourse in unexpected ways unhinging their lives through a vortex of a greater reality. BLUE FIRE spins the controversial A.I. phenomena beyond the consensus narrative of destroying the world VS. saving the world towards a radical vision of the future.

Death Row Family(ja)

Takanori, from a yakuza family goes to prison for a crime he didn't commit. As soon as he gets out his brother brings him in for a robbery.

Guru Chela(en)

Guru Chela is a heartfelt short film celebrating the timeless bond between a teacher Guru and student Chela. The story revolves around a young Chela who invites his Guru to attend his Bratabandha ceremony, a significant event in Nepalese culture marking a boy's transition into adulthood and spiritual maturity. The ceremony takes place at the Southall Temple in the United Kingdom, bringing together tradition and diaspora life. The Bratabandha combines choodakarma tonsure and Upanayana samskara, symbolizing a promise vrata and a sacred bond bandhana. It is a moment of reflection on cultural identity and spiritual growth. As the Guru blesses the Chela during the rituals, the film delves into their profound relationship. The Guru, representing the source of wisdom and guidance, imparts teachings on life and spirituality, while the Chela demonstrates respect and gratitude for his mentor's influence.

Suddenly Twenty(th)

After taking a magical picture, an elderly woman is transformed into a 20-year-old and decides to live the life she'd always dreamed of.

The Will of Victory (A Doc Opera)(en)

The Will Of Victory is footage from the Russian archives of World War 2 which immerses us into the extraordinary, never before seen images of the Nazi invasion, occupation and finally retreat from Russia without the benefit of Language.

The Karadedeler Incident(tr)

In a remote village, some strange creatures are patrolling around. After 5 pm, no one dares to go out. A young journalist comes to the village and stays for 10 days but nothing happens. He gives the camera to a 14-year-old boy in the village and then he leaves. The plan was that if the boy sees something strange, he would record it for the journalist and send the tapes back to him. After a while the boy and 6 other people are found murdered, and the camera was still recording...

Something for a Lonely Man(en)

The blacksmith of a small western town finds himself an outcast. He had led the townspeople west in hopes of starting a new life, only to find the town that they founded is to be bypassed by the railroad.

A Slip-Up(pl)

The main character has quit school, makes a living by taking pictures. He seduces a nurse who treated his head wound which he earned in a fight. They witness a hit-and-run driver killing a little girl on a sled. He builds up an elaborate trap by putting a doll dressed as a child down the hill in the path of a car. The man hits it and thinking that he hit a child - runs. Marek takes pictures of him and tries to blackmail him to use his car for a week. He wants to use the car to win back the nurse, who could not cope with his humors...

Flesh and Volcanoes(fr)

Laura lives alone with her father in a small village in Auvergne. Fourteen years old, the young teen deals with everyday constraints and makes her way through life, finding refuge in her own private world.

Young Wrestlers(tr)

“Let’s see if you gained any weight. 26,3 kilogram. Ahmet, you need to eat more. Double meals.” Like other boys their age, Baran, Ahmet and their classmates wrestle with the desire for recognition, with homesickness and with their target weights. Most of all though, they wrestle with, and against, one another. They are comrades and competitors, united by one and the same dream: Olympic gold! In their wrestling academy in the Turkish province of Amasya, which is well known for this traditional form of combat sport, they undergo strength and endurance training, they learn lifts and throws, they urge each other on and they console one another. Always responding to the boys’ needs, the trainers give the boys tough love, sometimes fatherly, sometimes strict and disciplinary. The film’s intimate documental camera bears close witness to the fine line between friendship and competition, victory and the lesson of how to lose.

Children of the Revolution(en)

Inspired by the student revolutions of 1968, two women in Germany and Japan set out to plot world revolution as leaders of the Baader Meinhof Group and the Japanese Red Army. What were they fighting for and what have we learned?

Lionel(en)

Lionel Rose, Australia's first Aboriginal world champion boxing hero - the man behind the myth

Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands(fr)

To Be Frank: Sinatra at 100(en)

The life of Frank Sinatra, as an actor and singer and the steps along the way that led him to become such an icon.

Goodbye Chicken, Farewell Goat(en)

Seven years since his last visit to Nigeria, a filmmaker meditates on the death of his father.

Jerry Lewis: The Last American Clown(en)

Jerry Lewis biography

Francisco Boix: A Photographer in Hell(es)

In 1939, just finished the Spanish Civil War, Spanish republican photographer Francesc Boix escapes from Spain; but is captured by the Nazis in 1940 and imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp, in Austria, a year later. There, he works as a prisoner in the SS Photographic Service, hiding, between 1943 and 1945, around 20,000 negatives that later will be presented as evidence during several trials conducted against Nazi war criminals after World War II.

The Last Man on the Moon(en)

The 1960s was an extraordinary time for the United States. Unburdened by post-war reparations, Americans were preoccupied with other developments like NASA, the game-changing space programme that put Neil Armstrong on the moon. Yet it was astronauts like Eugene Cernan who paved the uneven, perilous path to lunar exploration. A test pilot who lived to court danger, he was recruited along with 14 other men in a secretive process that saw them become the closest of friends and adversaries. In this intensely competitive environment, Cernan was one of only three men who was sent twice to the moon, with his second trip also being NASA’s final lunar mission. As he looks back at what he loved and lost during the eight years in Houston, an incomparably eventful life emerges into view. Director Mark Craig crafts a quietly epic biography that combines the rare insight of the surviving former astronauts with archival footage and otherworldly moonscapes.

Grey Gardens(en)

Based on the life stories of the eccentric aunt and first cousin of Jackie Onassis raised as Park Avenue débutantes but who withdrew from New York society, taking shelter at their Long Island summer home, "Grey Gardens." As their wealth and contact with the outside world dwindled, so did their grasp on reality.

Fulci Talks(it)

Rome, Italy, June 1993. Antonietta De Lillo and Marcello Garofalo interview legendary Italian film director Lucio Fulci (1927-96).

Lady Gaga - Encore(en)

Gaga has travelled through time with her ever changing sound, reinventing herself for every album, award ceremony and red carpet. With a strong fan base behind her, she continues to reign as one of the biggest pop stars of the industry.

Straight to VHS(es)

Act of Violence Upon a Young Journalist is a film shot in 1988 and released on VHS in 1989; a mysterious cult work of Uruguayan cinema surrounded by strange theories about Manuel Lamas, its unknown creator. Until now.

Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film(en)

Fifty years after its release, the special effects makeup team behind Planet of the Apes reflect on making the iconic film.

Robert De Niro: Hiding in the Spotlight(fr)

Robert De Niro is famous for his award-winning portrayals of gangsters, criminals and socially disturbed men who show surprising traces of vulnerability. By analyzing his astonishing roles in iconic films through the years, the documentary reveal the complex actor behind these extreme characters. Because the public knows little about the man who is largely silent about his own life and emotions, this film tries to unwraps one of the most fascinating and enigmatic American actors of all time for the audience. For this the filmakers use clips from his feature films, archive footage of his sparse interviews and probe into his background to illustrate De Niro’s methods for becoming the characters he plays and the reasons he’s able to do so. All of this culminates in a rare exposé of the genesis of the hidden pain that enables the masterful actor to bring such intensity to the big screen.

The Memory of Cinema: A Film About Fernando Méndez-Leite(es)

A look at the life and work of Spanish filmmaker and film critic Fernando Méndez-Leite, as he writes his memoirs and a novel with autobiographical resonances.

Je vais tuer Hitler(fr)

One day, in Savigny, an 18-year-old boy left his house in the middle of the war, saying: "I'm leaving, I'm going to kill Hitler." His name was Joseph, he was Jewish, he was my great-uncle. He disappeared during the night of the Occupation, and his existence became a family secret. He disappeared from history, the small as well as the big: he is not on any deportation list, and the only archive where he appears is a family photo of him as a child. It disappeared like a stone at the bottom of the water, instead of going up in smoke in the sky of Poland. What did he become? And why didn't anyone mention his name anymore?

Miss Pym's Day Out(en)

In 1977, after a fourteen year dry spell, the novelist Barbara Pym was nominated for a Booker Award for her novel, Quartet in Autumn. This drama documentary biopic sees Patricia Routledge as Pym and follows the day of the prize presentation, as she observes people and reminisces about life and love.

Barbra Streisand: Becoming an Icon 1942–1984(fr)

Barbra Streisand grew up in working class Brooklyn, dreaming of escape from her tough childhood. A stellar student, she resisted the pressure to go to college as her sights were firmly set on Broadway. She was determined to become an actress and landed her first role aged 16, but it was two years later, when she started to sing, that her career took off. Subverting stereotypes and breaking glass ceilings, this programme looks at her rise to stardom and the remarkable achievements of her early career.

Martha Graham: The Dancer Revealed(en)

Released on DVD as part of The Criterion Collection's "Martha Graham: Dance on Film" collection.

Tin Tan(en)

Germán Cipriano Gómez Valdés Castillo, a young radio announcer from Cuidad Juárez, succeeds in drawing attention to the pachuco movement through his character Tin Tan, laying the groundwork for a new form of binational and mass linguistic expression: Spanglish. He soon became a leading figure in theater and film on the American Continent. Singled out by critics as a destroyer of the language, he quickly won the approval of the public. His ability to improvise revolutionized the film industry. His talent as an actor, singer, dancer and comedian contributed to the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. From El Hijo Desobediente to Capitán Mantarraya, from Cuidad Juárez to Havana, from mambo to rock, the legacy of Tin Tan makes him one of the great icons of Mexico today. This film tells his story as it has never been told before.

Los Felices(es)

A love letter to Mar del Plata made of images, times and a road trip. "The Happy Ones" is an experimental short documentary composed of past and present family footage. It portrays a place in the summer, the city of Mar del Plata, with a span of 20 years between past and present images (January 2000 and 2020). Despite the time that passed by, it's beaches, essence and people remain, always willing to keep dancing.