Bauhaus Spirit

Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt

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.

Der Traum von einer Sache

In the spring of 1980, anti-nuclear activists occupied a drilling site near Gorleben and set up a "village of peace" there, consisting of homemade wooden houses and tents. The 33-day occupation was accompanied by discussions, concerts, and theater performances—and by the Wendland Film Cooperative, which documented the anti-nuclear movement from the very beginning. The "Free Republic of Wendland" was a dream that came true for a short time before several thousand police officers cleared the site. In addition to the construction and clearance, the film also shows what is at risk: the untouched landscape and the people who live there.

Original Wolfen

The Woman with the 5 Elephants

Documentary about Svetlana Geier, a Ukranian who has translated the great works of Dostoyevsky into German. First her father ends up in one of Stalin's prison camps, then young Svetlana herself experiences the German invasion. In order to survive she learns German at home in Kiev. She is good and gets work as a translator before ending up in a German camp in 1943. Now, 65 years later, she is a renowned translator who in her twilight years has translated the great works of Dostoevsky. For the first time in all these years, she returns to Kiev together with her granddaughter.

Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus

Founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, Bauhaus was supposed to unite sculpture, painting, design and architecture into a single combined constructive discipline. It is a synthesis of liberated imagination and stringent structure; cross-medial concepts that embellish and enrich our existence, illumination and clarity, order and playfulness. But Bauhaus was never just an artistic experiment. Confronted with the social conditions of that particular time, as well as the experience of WWI, the movement concerned itself with the political and social connotations of design from the very outset. Hence, Bauhaus history is not just the history of art, but also the history of an era that stretches from the early 20th century to the modern day.

Die Natur vor uns

Documentary about the Bauhaus student Alfred Ehrhardt, who devoted his photographs to the archetypes of nature.

Bauhaus - Modell und Mythos

The bauhaus school has been and still is the most influential art School not only in Europe. Till today the Bauhaus is remembered to be the nucleus of modern architecture and design. But bauhaus was more than a cubic building or a steel tube chair. It is a model till today. Bauhaus-teachers has been international well known artists as Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee Oskar Schlemmer, the architects Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. The documentary shows how the school started after World War I, how it became revolutionary and tells the true story about the closing and the enmashment of some of the Bauhaus-people during Nazi-Germany. Most of these is told by former students at the Bauhaus male and female Bauhaus-alumni.

Sounds from the Fog

Chronicles the odyssey of a gay musician in Nazi Germany. Director Klaus Stanjek's cheerful Uncle Willi lived with his family, except when he was touring as a musician across Germany. Only when Willi turned 90 did his nephew Klaus Stanjek detect what his whole family had hidden: that Uncle Willi has spent eight years in Nazi camps and that he was gay. In a radical personal approach, veteran filmmaker Stanjek follows the complex turns that his family takes when they confront his Uncle Willi's secret. The result is a personal and political portrait of his beloved uncle, a talented singer and accordion player, that is one part historical inquiry and one part fascinating detective story.

Abstract: The Art of Design

Step inside the minds of the most innovative designers in a variety of disciplines and learn how design impacts every aspect of life.

Mysteries of the Abandoned

Documentary series investigating why some of the world's most advanced architectural achievements were abandoned.