1. The Wall
Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological "story". In 1962 Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources and crafted this taut short film about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Straightforward, keenly balanced narration portrays Berliners as "accepting the wall but never resigned to it". The extraordinary footage of the first escapes was propaganda enough-- His challenge was to make the politics human.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
2. Berlin 1945 - Diary of a Metropolis (Berlin 1945 - Tagebuch einer Großstadt)
Berlin 1945 time-travels into the city’s most fateful year through the eyes of those, who experienced it: German people and Allied soldiers. A fast paced collage creates an in-the-moment narrative of how the war was won and lost. Hitlerboy Dirk and Goebbels watch their world implode, while Alice fears for her children in Auschwitz and Russian soldier Victor walks through the plundered Chancellery. When it’s all over, Germans learn democracy and socialism. Giving voice to Soviet, US, UK and French soldiers as well as to the German population anxiously awaiting the outcome of the fighting. BERLIN 1945 creates an innovative, comprehensive narrative of how the war was won and lost, how the city was liberated and how it emerged from the rubble.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
3. Ich will da sein - Jenny Gröllmann (Ich will da sein - Jenny Gröllmann)
(Ich will da sein - Jenny Gröllmann)
4. Einmal Hooligan - immer Hooligan? (Einmal Hooligan - immer Hooligan?)
The documentary accompanies a group of soccer fans twice on a train ride to a soccer match - first in 1991 and then again in 2006. Have the fans learned something or are they still hooligans?
5. White Terror (White Terror)
A video about Neo-Nazis originating in Sweden provides the starting point of an investigation of extremists' networks in Europe, Russia, and North America. Their propaganda is a message of hatred, war, and segregation.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
6. Merkel-Jahre - Am Ende einer Ära (Merkel-Jahre - Am Ende einer Ära)
The film shines a light onto federal chancellor Angela Merkel and her now ending 16-year-long tenure. An era, not an episode. And a vagarious relationship history between the chancellor and the Germans. Who has changed whom here?
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
7. Adolf Muschg – The Other (Adolf Muschg – der Andere)
In his exploration of the cultural dynamic between East and West, Adolf Muschg, the most significant Swiss writer since Frisch and Dürrenmatt, searched for the other in himself in order to understand otherness.
8. Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt (Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt)
(Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt)
9. Klassenleben (Klassenleben)
(Klassenleben)
10. Where On Earth Can We Go?
You've seen them in pictures...Now see them on the big screen! Everyone's favorite best friends make their feature length debut in a slice of life experience fit for the whole family to enjoy. Follow Abuse of Power as they make their way across the world and back while getting into a little trouble along the way! Will they die in a horrible car wreck? Will Yoon be detained for international war crimes? Will Kaleb and Lon drown Lucky in a hot spring? Will J Little laugh at everything? Did Jug capture all of this action? There is only one way to find out...
11. Intersection (Intersection)
The documentary Intersection presents the everyday life of Eduard Bigas, in his current residence in Berlin. The audiovisual piece goes into Bigas' way of looking, while he himself tells his story. And through the interviews with his closest circle, both the social and the professional one, it seeks to expose the way of doing things of this artist with surrealist roots.
12. Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony (Trip to Asia - Die Suche nach dem Einklang)
Journey with the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic and their conductor Sir Simon Rattle on a breakneck concert tour of six metropolises across Asia: Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Their artistic triumph onstage belies a dynamic and dramatic life backstage. The orchestra is a closed society that observes its own laws and traditions, and in the words of one of its musicians is, “an island, a democratic microcosm – almost without precedent in the music world - whose social structure and cohesion is not only founded on a common love for music but also informed by competition, compulsion and the pressure to perform to a high pitch of excellence... .” Never before has the Berlin Philharmonic allowed such intimate and exclusive access into its private world.
13. Spiritual Letters
The film is a story about the deep connection of the life and art of the artist. It takes you on a journey through Berlin like you have never seen before. Take a deep dive behind the scenes of the famous red and blue graffiti letterings that cover the heart of the city and tune into the connection between art, letters and spirituality.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
14. Iragan gunea Berlin (Iragan gunea Berlin)
'Iragan gunea Berlin' follows five people from different origins as they move anonymously around the streets of Berlin. Each of them with another life somewhere else, trying to ascertain where to go.
15. Like It Is
This documentary on the "youth movement" of the late 1960s focuses on the hippie pot smoking/free love culture in the San Francisco Bay area.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
16. This Is Sparklehorse
An comprehensive look at the life and music of Mark Linkous, a influential figure in the alternative music scene.</p><p> Critically-acclaimed Linkous had a dramatic life that saw him battle with drug and alcohol addiction, paralysis, and debilitating depression that resulted in his eventual suicide.</p><p> Mark's music was heralded by his peers and critics; a mix of delicate pop, discordant punk and melodic odyssey; it has been described as defiantly surrealist with all manner of references to smiling babies, organ music, birds, and celestial bodies.</p><p> The film mines Marks life and music and navigates the sacrifices and highs and lows of his art.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
17. Das Märkische Viertel - Aussichten und Einblicke (Das Märkische Viertel - Aussichten und Einblicke)
Documentary about a district of Berlin
18. Once Upon A Time In Germany (Once Upon A Time In Germany)
Indifferent landscapes, refracting light, some lonely bird and the window to the sebum-laden living room made of patterned wallpaper and trivialities. Cut. Tenacious sequences inflate moments to cliff-hangers and shatter their tremulous spectatorship. Thundering leitmotifs – in constant intoxication by German disinterest – with no backrest or lederhosen. Black-red-gold at full mast, the cinema is dead.
19. Sticky Carpet
A documentary focused on Melbourne's music scene around the year 2006. Features bands such as HTRK, The Stabs, Cosmic Psychos, Rod Cooper, and Love of Diagrams.
20. Catalan Poets (Poetes catalans)
At underground film of the 1st Popular Festival of Catalan Poetry filmed in the Proce Theater in Barcelona on May 25, 1970, in solidarity with political prisoners. The participating poets were: Agustí Bartra, Joan Oliver , Salvador Espriu, Joan Brossa, Francesc Vallverdú and Gabriel Ferrater.
