A cup of my famous Java

“You need a cup of my famous Java”: Scene from Dead Man Don’t Wear Plaid

Adventskalender I

Ein Türchen öffnet sich jeden Tag im Video-Adventskalender beim Thalia Theater, jeden Tag mit einem kleinen Filmchen. Gebastelt von einer guten Freundin von mir, Sonja Dürscheid. Viel Spass und schöne Adventstage!

Radar Hamburg Film Festival

Radar Hamburg Film Festival

The development of independent movies accelerated by the digital medium has enabled filmmakers to produce at tremendously low costs. As a consequence there are loads of good features that are sometimes produced by people without having attended film academies, acting courses or script clinics. Unfortunately, most of them never make it to the big screen, to TV or to a DVD release, because established institutions are overrun by the mass of productions.

RADAR HAMBURG´s mission is to kick that door wide open for small and independent productions. RADAR will screen about 100 films from 2nd to 7th November 2009, which will compete in the traditional categories: Fiction, Documentaries, Shorts, Art and Animations.

Rathausmarkt Kino 30.7.-9.8.

Feine Filme beim Freiluftkino auf dem Rathausmarkt.

Coraline

Soon the movie Coraline will start in Germany. And after reading the book and seeing the musical (in New York, music by Stephen Merritt from the Magnetic Fields!) I might already consider myself a fan, without having seen it yet. It is recommended for all fans of Nightmare before Christmas!

Found this great Coraline blog Evil buttons.

Everything Remains Raw

An interesting documentary is coming up: “Everything Remains Raw” by Moncell “ill Kozby” Durden, who shows how Hip Hop and older dance forms like Charleston are connected. Big history! The trailer is fascinating to watch, showing the same dance steps in Hip Hop and in very old black/white clips.

Hitlers Hitparade

Recently I watched the documentary Hitlers Hitparade, a collage which risks an unusual view on the german national socialist era. In contrast to the usual martial, black-and-white and deliberately deterrent pictures this movie mixes propaganda, colour and amateur videos, cabaret and entertainment; accompanied by music from the era (also swingin german music!).

This selection gives an idea of the allurement of the national socialism. At the same time, the movie is creating a second film with all the horror from that time in the mind of the beholder – it stays politically correct. “Hitler’s Hitparade” won a Grimme-Preis.

PS: I get similar goose bumps by the scene “Tomorrow Belongs to us” from the movie cabaret, which was was censored first.

Working men

Two interesting documentary movies:

Workingman’s death

“Is heavy manual labor disappearing or is it just becoming invisible? Where can we still find it in the 21st century?
Workingman’s Death follows the trail of the HEROES in the illegal mines of the Ukraine, sniffs out GHOST among the sulfur workers in Indonesia, finds itself face to face with LIONS at a slaughterhouse in Nigeria, mingles with BROTHERS as they cut a huge oil tanker into pieces in Pakistan, and joins Chinese steel workers in hoping for a glorious FUTURE.”

Breathtaking pictures, also visually stunning – great camera work.

Herr Pilipenko und sein U-Boot

Documentary about Wladimir Pilipenko who built a submarine in his garage – in the middle of the Ukrainian steppe. After 30 years of work, see him trying out the green submarine in the village’s pond, and finally follow his journey to the black sea.