Akris: Fashion With a Heritage

Accidents occur time and again on German highways. The culprits are speeders who do not adapt their driving style or speed to the traffic and harass and endanger other drivers. For months, the two authors Thomas Schadt and Reiner Holzemer observed and interviewed a large number of drivers and accompanied the highway police on their missions.

In 2008, after a show celebrating the 20th anniversary of his fashion house, Maison Margiela, visionary designer Martin Margiela left the fashion world for good. Throughout his career, the Belgian designer remained anonymous, refusing interviews and never being photographed, leading some to call him the fashion world’s answer to Banksy. Now, more than a decade after his departure, Margiela digs into his meticulous and idiosyncratic personal archives to reflect on his revolutionary career and legacy.

Lars Eidinger is one of Germany’s most talented and versatile actors with his love of improvisation and physical acting style. This documentary seeks to dispel some of the mystique surrounding this exceptional actor’s unique art and also provide an exciting insight into the world of theatre and filmmaking.

For the first time fashion designer Dries Van Noten allows a filmmaker to accompany him in his creative process and rich home life. For an entire year Reiner Holzemer documents the precise steps that Dries takes to conceive of four collections, the rich fabrics, embroidery and prints exclusive to his designs. As well as the emblematic fashion shows that bring his collections to the world and have become cult “must sees” at Paris Fashion Week. This film offers an insight into the life, mind and creative heart of a master fashion designer who, for more than 25 years, has remained independent in a landscape of fashion consolidation and globalization.

On the occasion of the last “Berlinale” under the direction of Dieter Kosslick in February 2019, the camera follows the festival director on his professional assignments and also takes part in the few moments of breathing deeply.

In the world of superstar fashion designers, Thom Browne stands apart with his theatrical runway shows, dramatic ready-to-wear creations, and eye-popping originality. From his headquarters in New York City’s Fashion District, Browne recounts his early breaks in the fashion world, how his work garnered support from celebrity fans such as Michelle Obama, Billie Eilish, Zendaya, Lebron James and Anna Wintour, and how his reconceptualization of the classic men’s business suit became his signature achievement. Sparkling highlights from Browne’s personal archives showcase the years of growing wit, edge, and mastery, all the while contrasted with Browne’s humble, gently welcoming persona.

LEICA - A CENTURY OF VISION shows how the invention of the 35mm format revolutionized documentary photography. Featuring legendary and contemporary photographers the film reveals the camera's enduring power to capture history as it unfolds.

This video artfully weaves together a sort of history of Magnum Photos, one of the world's premier photo agencies, with a fresh look at where new Magnum photographers are taking the group. Magnum is more than a traditional photo agency, though, which is not widely known. It is a cooperative of photographers founded in 1947 whose original members tended to focus on documentary-style photography. This focus has developed over the years to become almost an ethos: to compassionately record the human condition.

As the first documentary filmmaker, Reiner Holzemer has produced a film about the most famous German photographer, which shows both, the work and his biography. It introduces Sanders heritage from a poor minors family in the „Westerwald“, a region located in the midwest of Germany, as well as his early career as a studio photographer in Trier and Linz, and his most productive period between the Twenties and Thirties in Cologne, where he developed his big project „People of the 20th century“.

This mesmerizing documentary, a profile of photographer William Eggleston and his work, puts particular focus on one hugely pivotal moment in not only his own career, but in the art world at large. Although it failed to inspire critics at the time of its unveiling, Eggleston’s simply titled exhibit "Color Photographs by William Eggleston" is widely recognized as legitimizing and basically conceptualizing color photography in modern art and entertainment.