Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger

Race tracks are places of longing. But only the Nürburgring in the Eifel is truly spectacular and idyllic at the same time. Loved by fans, feared by drivers: Dozens of bends, many of them with illustrious names: Schwedenkreuz, Karussell, Fuchsröhre, Bergwerk, Brünnchen. To mark the 100th anniversary of the ground-breaking ceremony in 1925, this documentary tells the story of the ups and downs of the Nürburgring.

For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of the masses, was quite simply their most important weapon. Government authorities monitored the production of feature films and the military itself produced documentaries aimed at rallying the American people to support the troops. This film tells the story of four Hollywood directors of European origin, who returned to the "Old World" during the Second World War to make propaganda documentaries for the US Army at the front: William Wyler from Alsace, Frank Capra from Italy, Anatole Litvak from Ukraine and - in post-war Germany - Billy Wilder from Austria.

The Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River and connects Manhattan and Brooklyn, the two centers of the port city of New York. Its architect Johann Roebling was one of the great inventors and master builders of his time. The wire rope: his product. The suspension bridge: his dream. The film tells the amazing story of the Roebling family and the spectacular history of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Out of hip West Berlin and into the wild East. That's where Moritz von Uslar wants to find him: the Superproll. Jackboots, beer, cigs, spit - the full program. But the city dweller gets to know the country and its people, the members of the rock band "5 Teeth Less" become his boys. And while we learn that body tune-ups such as waxing, tattoos and eyebrow trimming are serious business, the reporter realizes: Germany is a fine guy!

A feature film that traces the 50-year journey behind Confessions of Felix Krull, revealing the writer’s hidden struggle with his homosexuality. Though a literary superstar with a polished, upper-class façade and a married life with six children, Mann’s diaries expose an insecure man suppressing deep desires. The film follows Mann’s creative and personal exile—from Eltville to Paris and Lisbon—using archival letters and diary entries alongside dramatized scenes. It blurs the lines between Mann and his seductive alter ego Felix Krull, both masters of deception navigating identity, longing, and survival amid exile and political upheaval. This hybrid documentary unveils the fragile, often hidden man behind the myth.

Several high-budget epic films became Omar Sharif (1932-2015) a film star. He was an actor, but also a bridge player, a womanizer, a bon vivant; he was a man full of contradictions, who enjoyed card games more than movies; he was an eternal nomad who spent half his life in a hotel.

In 2001, Jimmy Wales published the first article on Wikipedia, a collaborative effort that began with a promise: to democratize the spreading of knowledge, monopolized by the elites for centuries. But is Wikipedia really a utopia come true?

John Irving's literary worlds are satirically exaggerated, socially critical, unexpectedly magical. But how do these dazzling, sometimes bizarre, narrative worlds emerge? A unique insight into his writing workshop and a search of the places and people who have become part of his stories.

The collar of his coat turned up in New York: Images which have collaborated on building a myth – the image of eternal and misunderstood youth. Unlike Marlon Brando, the proletarian rebel with identifiable goals, James Dean was the timeless and androgynous youthful rebel. His death on the Interstate 46 leads us back to 1950s America, a time when youth was re-interpreted all anew.

From 1957 —the year in which the Soviets put the Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit— to 1969 —when American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon—, the beginnings of the space conquest were depicted in popular culture: cinema, television, comics and literature of the time contain numerous references to an imagined future.

Life in the GDR was not only documented on behalf of the state, but also by photographic artists and journalists. The documentary goes on a journey through time with some of them and shows little-known aspects of the GDR from its foundation to the fall of the Wall. Photographers in the GDR had a surprising amount of freedom; there was no explicit censorship of images. This allowed them to make visible what the state wanted to hide. This documentary presents two photographers who observed life in the GDR and whose work has been rediscovered in recent years.

Yekaterinburg, Russia, July 17th, 1917. Czar Nicholas II Romanov and his entire family are brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks. This tragic event puts an end to the long dynasty that had ruled the country with an iron hand since the coronation of Michael I Romanov in 1613.

Documentary on the history of gay and lesbian film.