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    57th Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale 2007

    Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

    Now in his sixth year as director of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, Dieter Kosslick takes particular pride in changing the image of the festival each time around. This year, for the 57th Berlinale (8-18 February 2007), he expanded the European Film Market (EFM) beyond the environs of the roomy Martin Gropius Bau, a […]

    Full Metal Village – Heavy Metal Festival in Wacken

    Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

    Before South Korean-born, Germany-based documentary filmmaker Sung-Hyung Cho visited the famous three-day Heavy Metal Festival in the Schleswig-Holstein village of Wacken to shoot Full Metal Village (Germany, 2006), she admitted to knowing little about rural life in northern Germany. But when villagers opened their hearts to Cho to tell some fascinating stories about their past […]

    Karger – Hard Times at Saxon Factory Town

    Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

    Thanks to the advantages of today’s production technology, realist dramas with nonprofessional casts are making the rounds of international film festivals. Not by chance, many of these awarded films have been directed by newcomers in the “Berlin School.” This past year, Elke Hauck’s Karger (Germany, 2007), a debut feature shot on DigiBeta, was awarded at […]

    Preussisch Gangstar – Hip Hop Club in Buchow

    Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

    For six months, Irma-Kinga Stelmach and Bartosz Werner, students at the Potsdam Babelsberg Film School, followed three youths on their daily routines in the Brandenburg town of Buchow, a popular a health resort for senior citizens just 50 kilometers northeast of Berlin to make Preussisch Gangstar (Germany, 2007).

    La Fine del Mare – Human Traffic Kammerspiel

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    Born in New York, raised in Surinam and the United States, at home in Berlin and Europe, Nora Hoppe first attracted attention as an independent filmmaker when in St. Petersburg she directed the short Brief Gardens (Germany/Russia, 1994), an elegy to her grandmother realized with Russian director Alexander Sokurov’s production company. Her second feature film, […]

    Nichts als Gespenster – Five Judith Hermann Tales

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    Following the publication of Judith Hermann’s second volume of short stories, Nichts als Gespenster (2003), Martin Gypkens approached the author to film five stories taken from both volumes under the latter book’s title, Nothing But Ghosts (Germany, 2007). After the astonishing critical acclaim accorded Judith Hermann’s first volume of short stories, Sommerhaus, später (1998), it […]

    Leipzig DOKfestival 50th Anniversary Books 2007

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    The Leipzig International Festival of Documentary and Animation Films celebrated its 50th anniversary with two highly recommended books on both its topsy-turvy history and yet lasting reputation as surely the most important documentary event on the festival calendar. Herewith short reviews on these key anniversary books on DOKfestival Leipzig by Ralf Schenk and Heidi Martini.

    Import Export – CentEast Despair Personified

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    Ulrich Seidl, a leading figure in Austrian cinema, whose critically acclaimed Hundstage (Dog Days) (Austria, 2001) exposed the soft underbelly of a decaying, prone-to violence bourgeois society, has now turned his attention in Import Export (Austria/France, 2007) to the challenges facing CentEast members of the European Union.

    Der Letzte macht das Licht aus! – East Berlin Hijinks

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    The inspiration for Der Letzte macht das Licht aus! (The Last One Turns Out the Lights!) (Germany, 2007) came spontaneously when filmmaker Clemens Schönborn noticed near his Berlin flat a special language course: Norwegian for Unemployed in Building Trade Applying for Work Under Good Conditions in Land of Fjords. The men, whom Schönborn had become […]

    Progress Film-Verleih – Golzow Premiere at Kino Toni 2008

    Monday, August 25th, 2008

    On 3 April 2008, at Kino Toni in Berlin-Weissensee, the gala premiere of Barbara and Winfried Junge’s …dann leben sie noch heute: Die Kinder von Golzow, das Ende der unendlichen Geschichte (…Then They Are Living Happily Ever After: The Children of Golzow, The End of the Neverending Story), the final episode of The Children of […]

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