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Berlin International Film Festival · 2012

Berlin International Film Festival 2012

Panorama Documentary

Programme

22 films · 5 reviews

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Among Men - Gay in East Germany (Unter Männern - Schwul in der DDR)

Gay In East Germany is a documentary which addresses the question of how gay men lived and could live their lives under ‘real socialism’, where GDR ideology considered homosexuality to be a remnant of bourgeois decadent morality and harmful to a socialist society.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Markus Stein, Ringo Rösener; Writer: Ringo Rösener)

Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992

Documentary celebrating the life of Afro-American poet and writer Audre Lorde who died 20 years ago this year.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Dagmar Schultz)

Brötzmann - That's When The World Is Mine (Brötzmann - Da gehört die Welt mal mir)

A look at the band Caspar Brötzmann Massaker who blurred the boundaries between rock music and noise in their '80s and '90s heyday.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Uli M Schueppel; Stars: Caspar Brötzmann, Eduardo Delgado Lopez, Danny Lommen)

Call Me Kuchu

Review preview for Call Me Kuchu

Despite its grim subject, this is a film full of fight, with all the energy you'd expect from that.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
The story of the Ugandan campaigners who have spoken out against the country's proposed Anti-Gay Bill.

(Country: USA; Year: 2012; Director: Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright; Stars: David Kato Kisule, Naome Ruzindana, Stosh Mugisha) , Official site

Full review

Children of Srikandi (Anak-Anak Srikandi)

Politics, identity, the search for substitute families, the fear of violence, even among lesbians, the social exclusion of minorities and self-imposed silence are some of the topics addressed in Children of Srikandi.

(Country: Germany / Indonesia; Year: 2012; Director: Children of Srikandi Collective)

Democracy Under Attack - An Intervention (Angriff auf die Demokratie - Eine Intervention)

In this documentary, journalists, artists and intellectuals make an appeal for intervention against the lack of progressive politics across Europe and the perceived demise of democracy.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Romuald Karmakar)

Detlef

Detlef takes us back into the turbulent days of the gay rights movement and illuminates an all but forgotten chapter in West-German history, a time of socio-political change during which the battle for fundamental rights for gays and lesbians was fought and won.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Stefan Westerwelle, Jan Rothstein; Stars: Detlef Stoffel, Anneliese Stoffel, Gustav-Peter Wöhler, Lilo Wanders, Corny Littmann)

Henryk from the Back Row (Herr Wichmann aus der dritten Reihe)

Film which explores the workings of grass-roots democracy by following Henryk Wichmann, who is a trained lawyer and the father of three daughters, and also an MP for Germany’s CDU in Potsdam.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Andreas Dresen; Writer: Andreas Dresen)

In The Shadow Of A Man (Im Schatten des Mannes)

This film interweaves the stories of four women and images from their everyday lives into a powerful, intimate and politically explosive portrait in which the ‘little’ things that inform the lives of these four women – their thoughts, their experience of marriage and their wedding night, divorce, family, violence, abuse, work and migration – come together to form an impressive social portrait.

(Country: Egypt; Year: 2011; Director: Hanan Abdalla)

King of Comics (König des Comics)

Humour, irony and razor sharp observation are his liberating weapons against bigoted prejudice in a documentary which pays tribute to Ralf König, Gemany’s best-known comic illustrator and an artist at the height of is creativity.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Rosa von Praunheim; Writer: Rosa von Praunheim; Stars: Ralf König, Joachim Król, Hella von Sinnen, Ralph Morgenstern)

Look At Me Again (Olhe pra mim de novo)

Look At Me Again is a vibrant road movie that whisks us away to the wild, semi-arid expanse of north-eastern Brazil.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2011; Director: Kiko Goifman, Claudia Priscilla)

Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present)

Review preview for Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present

Matthew Akers’ all-seeing documentary cleverly mimics the form of the museum’s retrospective by saving the most revealing facts about Abramovic until professional and personal context is established.

Sophie Monks Kaufman · 5 out of 5
Marina Abramović prepares for a major retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York hoping to finally silence four decades of skeptics who proclaim: 'But why is this art?'

(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Matthew Akers; Stars: Marina Abramovic, Ulay) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

No Man's Zone (Mujin Chitai)

Review preview for No Man's Zone

No Man's Zone is a crushingly dull documentary, at least twice as long as the selected material warrants.

Scott Macdonald · 1.5 out of 5
A journey through the stark post-tsunami landscape around Fukushima.

(Country: Japan, France; Year: 2011; Director: Toshi Fujiwara)

Full review

Nuclear Nation (Futaba kara tooku hanarete)

Review preview for Nuclear Nation

They're interesting people, all with interesting and evolving stories to tell.

Scott Macdonald · 3.5 out of 5
Survivors of the 2011 Japanese tsunami discuss their experiences and reveal the nature of their lives as refugees.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2012; Director: Atsushi Funahashi)

Full review

The Other Chelsea - A Story From Donetsk (The Other Chelsea - Eine Geschichte aus Donezk)

The Other Chelsea – A Story From Donetsk takes a look at issues effecting present day Ukraine.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Jakob Preuss)

Winner First Steps Award Documentary

Our Story - 10-year "guerrilla warfare" of Beijing Queer Film Festival (Wo men de gu shi)

For ten years the Beijing Queer Film Festival has battled official oppression and homophobia to fight for more visibility for gays and lesbian issues in China. This film documents this struggle and the‘guerrilla’ tactics used by the festival’s organisers.

(Country: People's Republic of China; Year: 2011; Director: Yang Yang)

The Reluctant Revolutionary

Filmed over a period of one year, this documentary reveals the tension present in Yemen three months prior to the first protests – a result of thirty-three years of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s dictatorship. Director Sean McAllister takes a seemingly unobtrusive protagonist and turns him into a genuine hero who experiences his country’s revolution at first hand and, in doing so, makes events tangible for the viewer.

(Country: UK / Ireland; Year: 2011; Director: Sean McAllister; Stars: Quais Al-Qalisi)

The Summit

Those who want to know more about what really happened during the violent G8 anti-globalisation protests in Genoa in July 2001, and who want to find out what led to the brutal deployment of riot police and the effects of this operation will not be disappointed by this film.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2011; Director: Franco Fracassi, Massimo Lauria)

Ulrike Ottinger - Nomad from the Lake (Ulrike Ottinger - die Nomadin vom See)

Film which provides an exploration of Ulrike Ottinger’s substantial oeuvre, and provides a keen insight into the artist’s life and work. In addition, this year’s Berlinale will honour Ulrike Ottinger with the Special Teddy – Queer Film Award.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Brigitte Kramer; Writer: Brigitte Kramer; Stars: Ulrike Ottinger, Ingvild Goetz, Irm Hermann, Ulrich Gregor)

The Virgin, The Copts And Me (La Vierge, les Coptes et Moi)

The Virgin, The Copts And Me is a humorous fictional documentary and family-drama-cum-culture-clash set in Egypt about religion in the diaspora, the art of cinema and the boundless creativity of the filmmakers. Making good use of his mother as the film’s wonderful main protagonist, this directorial debut charmingly and wittily exposes the manipulative aspects of documentary filmmaking.

(Country: France, Qatar, Egypt; Year: 2012; Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh)

Vito

Review preview for Vito

A celebration of Vito's life and of the work that long outlives him.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A documentary about acclaimed activist and cineaste Vito Russo.

(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Jeffrey Schwarz; Stars: Larry Kramer, Rob Epstein, Lily Tomlin, Bruce Vilanch, Armistead Maupin)

Full review See: Article about lesbianism in Golden Age Hollywood

Words Of Witness

Words Of Witness follows on from the protests on Tahrir Square and young journalist Heba’s impassioned efforts to reflect the diversity of people’s opinions and their new-found voice.

(Country: USA; Year: 2012; Director: Mai Iskander)