Berlin Documentary Film Club

Berlin Documentary Film Club is founded to bring compelling documentary films to the great public of Berlin that are otherwise not shown in the city. @berlindocclub

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Screening: Dec 6, 2019, Ladenkino

SIBERIAN LOVE dir. Olga Delane 2016 80 mins Russian/English with English Subtitles Synopsis: After living for 20 years in Berlin, Olga Delane returns to her family in Siberia. Members of her familiy and the village community comment on her modern, single life in the city, and tell her about their own none-too-happy marriages. Their relationships are traditional and practical: the man is the head of the household, the woman takes care of the housekeeping – and in fact, everything else. And what about love? “Love, marriage, it’s only a custom,” an elderly woman says. “If your husband hits you, take a frying pan and hit him right back,” she advises. “If you give in once, he will always beat you.” In the end, children and family are what life is about, the interviewees all agree. At times amusing and moving, the elegantly filmed scenes paint a picture of a hard farming life with little room for romance. But when all the unhappily married uncles and aunts are dancing cheerfully together at a village celebration, Olga is left alone on the sidelines. Admission: 6 EUR

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With our November 26, 2019 screening at Ladenkino, we remember the Fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago: 1989: A film by Anders Østergaard and Erzsébet Rácz In Coproduction with Magic Hour Films, Proton Cinema, ZDF/arte, DR, VPRO, NRK, YLE Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Eurimage, Danish Film Institut, Nordisk Film & TV Fond Dureation: 90  mins Language: Original language with English subtitles Synopsis: 1989’ is a high-politics drama about the collapse of the Iron Curtain. A young and unknown technoc trat, Miklós Neméth, is brought in to become Hungary’s new prime minister.  He is to save the country’s appalling economy and soon decides to remove the massive  – and expensive – border control apparatus from the state budget.  He soon finds out, that this decision sets him up against formidable adversaries and communist hardliners. In the meantime, a young couple from East Germany is encouraged by the rumours that the Hungarian border to Austria will be opened for a few days to allow for the Pan-European picnic. Like thousands of other East Germans, they decide to make a go for it, but they are caught up in the political power-game that plays out behind closed doors in the Eastern Bloc.  They young man is shot dead at the border, a tragic event that paradoxically accelerates Nemeth’s final decision to open the borders, and soon after the Berlin wall falls. A feature documentary by Anders Østergaard (previously Tintin and Me, and Burma VJ). Anders Østergaard recreates the events of 1989 and invites the audience into the secret meeting rooms through a mixture of ’testimonials’, archive material, recreation, and reconstructed dialogues lip-synch’ed  to archive footage of the real political key characters. Admission: 5 EUR

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We are screening two films at our club, at ladenkino, Berlin, on Oct 16. Both come from very exotic places of the world and both have sheep in them. You gotta like at least one of those features, right?, so this should be your evening. If that's not enough, Teboho Edkins, director of Coming of Age, will be present at the screening for a Q&A.

CLICK HERE FOR FACEBOOK EVENT AND MORE DETAILS 1) COMING OF AGE dir. Teboho Edkins 2015, 63 mins Trailer (above)

Lesotho is the highest (in terms of altitude) and lowest (in terms of affluence) mountain kingdom in the world. For two years, director Teboho Edkins followed four teenagers in this country, which is completely surrounded by South Africa: brothers Mosaku and Retabile, who are growing up in a family of shepherds, and BFFs Senate and Lefa from the village of Ha Sekake. Scenes with the two duos alternate in this observational film, in which the young protagonists also talk to the filmmaker. One of the brothers tells him what he would most like to have: at least 10 cows, 100 sheep, two horses and a few donkeys. With this, he would be able to take care of himself and his family. The village where the two girls are growing up is equally short on resources. But at least the best friends have their voices to sing with and to chat and fantasize together – about how they’d rather be boys, for example, because boys dress better. Their lives change dramatically when both pairs can no longer be together 24/7. The best girlfriends are split up because one does better at school than the other, while in the severe mountain landscape the two brothers continue to watch their flock – also separated from one another, but in this case by an old initiation ritual. 2) APOLLO JAVAKHETI dir. Bakar Cherkezisvili 2017, 16 mins Trailer

Bandura is growing up with his single mother in the Georgian region of Javakheti. The climate is harsh, the roads are bad and the views are gray and rocky. In the rural village where he lives, time seems to have stood still. The teenager earns extra money herding sheep, helping the local cheesemaker and planting potatoes. Home at the kitchen table, his mother reads aloud from the Bible, but Bandura has other things on his mind: he wants to travel to the moon. Between his daily duties, he begins to build an actual rocket and to plan out his future. By selling sheep, he can make enough money to catch a boat to the United States, where he can start asking around about where to study to become a space traveler. Even though time appears to have come to a halt here, with a bit of fantasy—which our protagonist has plenty of—Javakheti by night really does look like the lunar landscape.

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Moldovan Miracle (Stian Indrevoll, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere followed by a Q&A with the film’s director at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on September 11, 2018.

Facebokk event: https://www.facebook.com/events/281947865754669/

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Napalm (Claude Lanzmann, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on August 14, 2018.

Facebokk event: https://www.facebook.com/events/654547978256938/

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Golden Dawn Girls (Håvard Bustnes, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere followed by a Q&A with the film’s director at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on June 12, 2018.

Facebokk event: https://www.facebook.com/events/256033471634352/

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The Poetess (Stefanie Brockhaus, Andy Wolff, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere followed by a Q&A with Hissa Hilal, the Poetess herself and the filmmakers at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on May 25, 2018

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/592893167749048/

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Urban Cowboys (Paweł Ziemilski, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere along with Loving Lorna (Jessica Karlsson, Annika Karlsson, 2017), followed by a double Q&A with the directors at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on May 15, 2018

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/213463362793918/

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Communion (Anna Zamecka, 2016) is having its Berlin  premiere along with a Q&A with the director at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on April 3, 2018

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/157697904914641/

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He She I (Er Sie Ich, Carlotta Kittel, 2018) is having its Berlin English language premiere along with a Q&A with the director at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on March 13, 2018

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/102006853959155/

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Unrest (Jennifer Brea, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere along with a Q&A with the filmmakers at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Feb 20, 2018

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/157635958217822/

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Bobbi Jene Smith (Elvira Lind, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere along with a Q&A with producer Julie Leerskov at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Jan 23, 2018

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/539611769734960/

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The Islands and the Whales (Mike Day, 2017) is having its Berlin premiere at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Dec 19, 2017

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/182517768968863/

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On the Edge of Freedom (Anita M. Hopland & Jens Lengerke, 2016) had its Berlin premiere at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Nov 14, 2017

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/403887196694842/

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The Longest Run (Marianna Economou, 2017) had its Berlin premiere at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Nov 2, 2017

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1928628890791162/

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The Art of Moving (Liliana Dulce Marinho de Sousa, 2017) had its Berlin premiere at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Nov 1, 2017

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/141834443104061/

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The Last Men in Aleppo (Firas Fayyad, 2017) had its Berlin associate premiere at BDFC at ladenkino, Friedrichshain, on Oct 31, 2017

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/141834443104061/