In Production

_VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS!
For „Vivan las Antipodas!” Victor Kossakovsky takes us on a unique trip around the globe – to the world's few places, situated exactly opposite each other. With breathtaking images and a stunning montage Kossakovsky approaches the philosophically appealing and politically delicate subject of the antipodes. Filming will take place in eight pairs of locations on Earth which are precisely opposite each other. We might accompany a lonely fisherman in an Argentine village and a lonely woman, fish seller on a noisy Shanghai street. Or a Chilean lighthouse keeper on Cape Horn and a Russian deck officer aboard ship on Lake Baikal. Their stories will be antithetic contrary – and then again similar at the very same time. Whatever Kossakovsky might encounter, he will turn the moment into his typical cinematic poetry. Thus, in Kossakovsky's words: “Vivan las Antipodas! is a poem of a multipolar world.”
Check Film Website/Blog: www.antipodes-the-film.com
Development supported by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union

_Skydancer
A documentary by Katja Esson (60‘ / 90‘) HD / DV
Since more than 120 years, six generations of Mohawks have shaped the modern city scape of America. They are called „Skydancers“ because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city streets. Skydancer is a feature-length documentary that takes a provocative look at Indian life in the 21st Century: from breathtaking stealconstruction of New York City to the untouched nature of the reservations the film enters deeply into America‘s substance. Katja Esson allows us to have an unusual insight into the life of the Mohawks and thus offers a fascinating, new perspective on life in general. With humor and sensibility the film challenges the clichés of the suppressed and victimized native American.
In coproduction with WDR.

_YOU MY JOY (Fiction)
The story about a few days in the life of truck driver Georgi seems to be a never-ending nightmare, a spiral of violence and abuses of power. A man goes to work and on his way he is sucked into the everday madness of his country, losing his health and memory in the process and ends up as a murderer, who calmly lies down to sleep after committing the crime. A dark parable about the situation in Russia today
Development supported by MDM, Hubert Bals Fund and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. In
cooperation with Ukraine’s State Cinematography Service. (35mm, 80min)

In Development

_GOOD FRIDAY IS A FRIDAY (Fiction)
It told the story of an agent who worked for different secret services, permanently changing his ideologies and identities in the process. He lies to his wife and his friend, to his family and his different employers. When the family moves house, his 17 year-old daughter uncovers a number of documents which throw up an array of unanswered questions. Maria‘s discovery sparks the beginning of a journey into the heart of her family, a journey which leaves no stone unturned.
A feature film project by Thomas Heise. Development supported by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. (35mm, 90min)

_LIVE ABOVE THE CLOUDS
What is life linke in a place where boils at 80 degrees and everything takes twice as long to cook?; where hardly anything grows and even the hay - winter fodder for cows and sheep, which form the sole basis of life at this altitude - has to be gathered some thousand meters below? This series seeks to portray the world‘s biigest places, villages and settlements and their inhabitants in their daily struggle to survive. It aims to give the viewer an impression of everyday life as well as showing examples of special events such as a typical village fete.
A documentary series. Development supported by the MEDIA Programm of the European Union.

_MUTTER HEIMAT VATER FROST
A portrayal of the native youth in Cloppenburg, western Germany, where of the 33 thousand inhabitants, 7,600 are German emigrants from Russia. A portrayal of the third generation Russian-Germans and their contemporaries from families who‘ve always lived there and they‘ve grown up with, or along side.
A documentary by Stefan Kolbe and Chris Wright.
Development supported by the MEDIA Programm of the European Union.

_OBITUARIES (WT)
We all have to die some day, there‘s no way around it. But then what? A death announcement in the paper, a funeral. Our earthly possessions are given away or thrown out. This documentary is a meant to be a cinematic obituary for the average person... It looks back at the mark left by a person‘s life: how they existed in the world of bureaucracy; their surviving relatives; an unremarkable grave; possessions and documents which haven‘t yet landed up in the rubbish; the place where they lived; the view from their window; neighbours they might have known; shop-owners they shopped from... Some may not remember those who have passed away, but that itself is a mark, albeit a sad one.
A documentary by Caterina Klusemann.

Inhalt aktualisiert 06. August 2009