The Words That Built America

Drei Stunden Güstrow

January 1994 •German

December 1981: Helmut Schmidt, chancellor of the FRG, visits the chairman of the state council of the GDR, Erich Honecker. The experiences with the visit of Willy Brandt in Erfurt in 1970 have warned the state leadership: Euphoria for a federal chancellor is out of the question this time. For December 13th, the protocol plans a visit to Güstrow. The Christmas market, the Barlach memorial, and the cathedral of Güstrow are on the agenda. The enormous machinery of the ministry of state security is set into motion in order to ensure the “safety of the guest”. Erich Mielke: “Never before, such a high effort was necessary as here in Güstrow.” People are temporarily arrested, inhabitants placed under house arrest, Stasi employees dressed up as “visitors of the Christmas market”. And like that, the media was supposed to get presented with a favourable image of the GDR. A reconstruction of three hours of state visit to Güstrow.

Microchip Wars

March 2023 •French

When the pandemic hit it highlighted how much Western countries rely on the chip industry. Today Europe, America and China are involved in an intense commercial struggle to dominate this sector that is so strategic for the future. From Taiwan to Shanghai, via Brussels and San Francisco, investigative journalist Nicolas Vescovacci went to meet the most influential players in this microchip war, which is redefining world geopolitics.

The Gulag Archipelago: The Book That Changed Russian History

November 2023 •French

The story of Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) and his masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago, published in Paris in 1973, which forever shook the very foundations of communist ideology.

Quand le vent tourne

March 2024 •French

The Man Card

October 2020 •English

For years, right-wing politicians and pundits have repeatedly criticized the left for playing “the race card” and “the woman card.” This new film turns the tables and takes dead aim at the right’s own longstanding – but rarely discussed – deployment of white-male identity politics in American presidential elections. Ranging from Richard Nixon’s tough-talking, law-and-order campaign in 1968 to Donald Trump’s hyper-macho revival of the same fear-based appeals in 2020, "The Man Card" shows how the right has mobilized dominant ideas about manhood and enacted a deliberate strategy to frame Democrats and liberals as soft, brand the Republican Party as the party of “real men,” and position conservatives as defenders of white male power and authority in the face of transformative demographic change and ongoing struggles for racial, gender, and sexual equality.

Taiwan - Angst vor der Invasion

June 2022 •French

A Guide to Love and Fighting Capitalism

March 2022 •French

Monique and Michel Pinçon-Charlot are a couple of French sociologists, famous for their work on the uber-rich. They have been in love for more than fifty years, and they enjoy a comfortable retirement in their lovely home in the Paris suburbs. They could live a quiet life, but how do you get some rest when there is capitalism to fight against?

Countdown To 1990 : La Réunification de l'Allemagne

January 2020 •French

Jeunesse Rouge: The Story of Young Communist Revolutionaries in France

March 2023 •French

"Jeunesse Rouge" is a documentary exploring young French Communist revolutionaries fighting for a just and equal society. The film follows their organizing and mobilizing, while delving into the history of the Communist movement in France. Archival footage and interviews with activists show their passionate commitment, from protests and strikes to political education. It highlights the power of youth activism and their potential to bring about change in the face of systemic inequality.

HyperNormalisation

October 2016 •English

We live in a world where the powerful deceive us. We know they lie. They know we know they lie. They do not care. We say we care, but we do nothing, and nothing ever changes. It is normal. Welcome to the post-truth world. How we got to where we are now…

Aufrecht gehen. Rudi Dutschke - Spuren

April 1980 •German

Portrait of the spokesman of the student movement and extra-parliamentary opposition Rudi Dutschke, who died on December 24, 1979 from the late effects of an assassination attempt. The film is not limited to the mere biography of the extra-parliamentary politician, but also depicts the political environment as well as the late effects of the student movement. In retrospect, it condenses into a picture of a highly politicized society that had not yet begun its retreat into the private sphere.

Safe Place

February 2024 •English

A Southern Indiana man endures a fatal night of torture after being arrested for a routine traffic stop.

Behind the Lines

April 2023 •Arabic

Amany Al-Ali stands out as one of Syria's few female cartoonists, residing in her father's home in Idlib, the last city unconquered by Assad's forces. Like her remaining neighbours she's submitted to relentless Russian airstrikes and caught between advancing troops and extremist groups. Despite acclaim for her art, she faces threats, condemnation, and degradation, causing her to contemplate leaving. Ironically, her artwork has graced galleries in France and Italy but never received exposure within Syria's borders. The film captures her endeavor to organize her inaugural exhibition in Idlib. This experience compels her to confront the harsh realities of a city defined by bombings and male interference. While organizing drawing lessons for women and girls, comforting her young niece, and sharing her story with the documentary crew, Amany's outlook on the future gradually erodes.

Trump, my american family and i

October 2020 •German

Ingo Zamperoni has been known as one of the anchormen of the popular German late-night news journal Tagesthemen since 2016. The German-Italian knows the USA like only a few people because he studied there and later he reported from there as an US correspondent. He is also married to an American. That is why he has many relatives in the United States. But the rift that runs through American society also runs right through his in-laws living there. While father-in-law Paul is a supporter of the Republicans under Donald Trump, his wife Jiff and mother-in-law Lynn are supporters of the Democrats and concerned for their country. As an African American, the second husband of his mother-in-law brings his own insights into the increased racism in the country. Zamperoni embarks on a family-political search for the causes in order to understand why the whole country and its family are so torn.

The US and Their Guns: An American Story

February 2019 •French

Tracing the story of a student uprising this documentary explores how the NRA manages to keep a permissive gun law alive, and why it has such a strong hold over American society.

Sassnitz vs. Trump: The Dispute Over Nord Stream 2

November 2020 •German

Sassnitz is a small coastal town at the Baltic Sea on the Island of Rügen. In its vicinity are the world-famous chalk cliffs, a tourist magnet. The Mukran Port is also part of the municipality. The overseas port is the starting point for the construction of Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline that connects Germany directly with Russia. In 2020, the port town hit the international headlines. Even the New York Times reported and cited Mayor Frank Kracht as a staunch opponent from the northeast German province against the rumbling America of Donald Trump. The reason is the undisguised threat from Washington to ruin the international port economically if the natural gas pipeline continues to be built from there. Many jobs and the region's economic stability are at risk. Reporter Klaus Scherer documents the case, questions experts as well as those affected and looks at the behavior of national politicians towards the USA and how they react to the interference in internal affairs.

Encantado, le Brésil désenchanté

September 2018 •French

Considered for a few years the “country of the future”, Brazil has seen since 2013 a deep disenchantment between the middle and popular classes that culminated with the rise of Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency in 2018. Enchanted portrays this recent Brazilian history from a homonymous neighborhood of the Rio suburb transfigured by the 2016 Olympics. From Rio to Paris, a political and poetic testimony of Brazil through the eyes of the first generation of the popular class to study abroad.

In Delusion: Trump and the American Catastrophe

October 2020 •German

In 2020, the USA experienced a multiple catastrophe: No other country in the world was hit so badly by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic slump was dramatic, and so was the rise in unemployment. A rift ran through society. In the streets there were protests of both camps with violent riots, authoritarian traits were evident in the actions of the leader of the nation. And all of this in the middle of the election year, when the self-centered president fought vehemently for his re-election. From the start of his presidency, Donald Trump had divided American society, incited individual sections of the population against one another, fueled racism, hatred, xenophobia and prejudice, insulted competitors and denigrated critical journalists as enemies of the people. The documentary shows how this could happen and what role the targeted disinformation of certain sections of the population through manipulative media played.

Nach dem Sturm

April 2019 •German

The protests of 1968 had a significant impact on the great cities of the world. But people like to forget that the periphery went through the same social upheavals – Central Switzerland, for example. This is hardly surprising: in the founding cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy, society followed a strict order; tradition, shaped by centuries of Catholic rule, seemed untouchable. But in the 1960s, the local youth could not take these stifling conditions anymore: starting in 1969, resistance broke out across Central Switzerland.

Gewalt no Mori - Kare ha Waseda de shinda

May 2024 •Japanese

A documentary about the end of the student movement in 1972 and the lynching of Daizaburo Kawaguchi, a student at Waseda University. The documentary interweaves testimonies from japanese intellectuals and a short play, written and directed by Shôji Kôkami, about the murder.