Glimpses of Western Germany

This James A. FitzPatrick Traveltalks short visits the West German cities of Hamburg, Bremen, Munich, and Heidelberg. Included are scenes of World War II destruction that lingered at the time.

Schauburg Mon Amour

Alte Filme aus Bremen

"Don't throw away your old films!" This is how Radio Bremen and the State Film Archive turned to the people of Bremen and Bremerhaven. True treasures were unearthed.

Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention - The Lost Broadcast: The Beat Club '68

This DVD contains a filmed rehearsal of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the legendary Beat Club in Bremen, Germany, on 6th October 1968. The music is largely one long improvisatory continuous performance rather than a run-through of their greatest hits, but is punctuated by Zappa directing the band to play the opening themes of some of his more well-known pieces.

The Edge of Heaven

The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.

Neue Vahr Süd

Frank Lehmann, 20, still lives with his parents in the dreary high-rise housing project "Neue Vahr" in Bremen. It's the year 1980 and Frank gets drafted to the army even though his friends assure him that "he's not really the guy for it". When he gets back home, after his first week at the army, his Dad has turned his room into a TV repair shop, so Frank has to move out. Luckily his old friend Martin is starting a commune with two other Punks in Bremens leftist borough "Viertel". Frank, without further ado rents the unlivable walk-through room. From now on Frank is a traveler between the Worlds. Each week he goes from the Army, with all the unconditional rules and regulations to the commune where his friends are preaching the world revolution. Frank is trying to avoid to stick out, but fails miserably, in both worlds.

Town Musicians of Bremen

Four farm animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, leave their home to become musicians in Bremen. Based on the tale of the Brothers Grimm.

The Fearless Four

Four aging animals, a dog, a cat, a donkey and a rooster escape from their former homes because they weren't as productive and useful for their owners as they used to be. To avoid death, they all move out on a musical journey to Bremen to find a better life.

Das Gesetz sind wir

Maja Witt and Klaus Burck have been a well-rehearsed team for years, ensuring law and order as police officers in Bremen. At least that's what they try to do. Time and again, however, they are shown their limits. Criminals are set free again, and they themselves get no respect at all. When the arrogant teenager Ahmed Issa spits at Klaus during a mission, this finally goes too far: the two fight back and start to take the law into their own hands, using any means necessary. But the other side is not standing idly by...

Pasta Mista

The Town Musicians of Bremen

An old donkey resolves to break away from the unbearable hardships of working for a fat miller. By and by, he recruits three more unsatisfied animals and convinces them to accompany him on his way to Bremen where they want to become musicians.

The Bremen Town Musicians

"Is this all there is to life?" thought the donkey, who was working as a tourist attraction for in the "Animal-Adventure-Park ", after his boss kicked him out. And because people again and again told him that his voice sounded lovely, he decided to make a career as a musician and go to Bremen. On his way, he met a dog, whose fate was to spend the rest of his life in the animal asylum, because his old master had died. The dog was a great drummer, so the donkey asked him to come along with him. On their way they met a cock and a cat, who were also living in a desperate situation. Since they too were good musicians, it was only logical that they completed the band. And what nobody ever believed came true. After many adventures, they were finally on stage. Where? Of course in Bremen.

Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony

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.

Rubens: A Life in Europe

The Flemish painter, humanist and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was fortunate to be recognized during his lifetime as an artist of genius and one of the most prolific among his peers, making him a key figure of the Baroque.

Mein Nachbar ist Nazi - Was tun?

How do you deal with right-wing extremists in the neighborhood? Exclude, tolerate or involve? Rural regions in particular are prone to infiltration by nationalist settlers. Right-wing extremists systematically penetrate village structures, pretending to be nice neighbors, committed citizens and problem solvers in a completely non-ideological way. Local volunteer fire brigades and football clubs are infiltrated by Nazis. Done among others in the village of Groß Krams in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where two right-wing extremists seem to be part of everyday village life. One of them works as a firefighter. In Appen, Schleswig-Holstein, the state chairman of the Hamburg NPD wanted to join the village's football club. But the club's management refused when they found out about the political background. The documentary by Hans Jakob Rausch illuminates the infiltration strategies of the extreme right and the difficult balance between tolerance and engagement against right-wing radicalism.

Madagascar: Africa's Galapagos

This film reveals some of Madagascar's secretive and rarely filmed inhabitants, from the apex predator, the fossa, to the aye aye – possibly the weirdest creature on earth.

Grisha

An up-close look into the life of the often misunderstood movie director Grigori Kromanov through the lens of old friends and colleagues.

The Good Cinema

An authentically marginal cinema created in Catholic university in Brazil. One of the most intriguing and imaginative moments in modern cinema in the voice of some of its select conspirators—with Carlos Reichenbach at the lead—, and through the most razing flow of images that can possibly be conceived.

The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face

A daughter's search for justice for her mother following a traumatic sexual assault.