Thomas Giefer

Summer 1994, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Two civil wars in only three years has torn the city apart and destroyed it. The town is split into a Croatian majority in the west and a Muslim majority locked in the east. An invisible wall divides the two areas. The EU appoints German social democrat Hans Koschnick as municipal administrator of the town in the hope of rekindling a sense of community there.

Patrice Lumumba – the first Prime Minister of the newly independent African state, The Congo. To fellow Africans he was a hero – the man who had won his country’s independence from the Belgians. But for the secret services of the western powers he was a threat. It was at the height of the Cold War, when the superpowers of both East and Western blocs were competing for spheres of influence in the New Africa. Congo was vital to Western interests because of it’s vast mineral resources. The West believed Lumumba was pro-soviet and would open the door to communist control of this mineral rich region. CIA agent Larry Devlin received 100,000 dollars from the Agency along with telegraphed instructions to make the “elimination of Lumumba” the “priority goal” of his covert action.

Documentary about one of the most significant migrant battles in the Federal Republic of Germany, a wildcat strike mainly sustained by migrant workers (euphemistically called “guest workers”) at the Ford plant in Cologne-Niehl in August 1973.

Gerd Conradt films men carrying a red flag in a relay race through Berlin, to hoist it on the balcony of the current Mayor’s seat. A cinematic experiment based on Eadweard Muybridge, Andy Warhol and New American Cinema. A study in men, movements and a symbol. This is the 7th part of this series of film exercises. The other 6 parts were staged by Harun Farocki (Part 1), Carlos Bustamante (Part 2), Helke Sander (Part 3), Holger Meins (Part 4), Wolfgang Petersen (Part 5), Philip Werner Sauber (Part 6).

Giefer documents the International Vietnam Congress, which took place on February 17 and 18, 1968 in the Audimax of the Technical University of Berlin (TU). With his photographs of the counter-demonstration, which was organized on 21 February 1968 under the slogan "Berlin stands for freedom and peace" on John-F.-Kennedy-Platz in Berlin-Schöneberg, Giefer also shows the counter-movement.

With his company Palantir, businessman Alex Karp created a powerful piece of data analysis software. It provides intelligence services, the military, and police investigative authorities with information that can be used to solve crimes or kill people. But what drives the creator of the software – ethical fundamentals or a thirst for power? Is he a Faust, a Mephisto, or both at the same time? An investigative journey in search of one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive CEOs.