The Good American
By Jochen Hick
2009 | 92 min | Biography
A portrait of Tom Weise, one of the initiators of HustlaBall, a project to promote the acceptance of male prostitutes.
Bruce Villanch
ActorBruce Villanch is an American comedy writer, actor, and singer best known for his long career in writing for television, stage, and film. Born on November 23, 1948, in New York City, Villanch began his career as a writer for the Chicago Tribune. He gained prominence for his comedic writing and became a prolific contributor to various television specials and awards shows, including the Oscars, for which he has written material for over two decades. Villanch also worked on hit TV shows such as "Hollywood Squares," where he was a regular panelist from 1998 to 2004.
In addition to his writing career, Villanch has appeared in various films and TV series. Notable films include "Mahogany" (1975), starring Diana Ross, and "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" (2008), starring Adam Sandler. On stage, he starred in and co-wrote the book for the long-running New York theater production "Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous."
Villanch has received numerous accolades for his writing, including multiple Emmy Awards for his work on television broadcasts. He remains a celebrated figure in the entertainment industry for both his writing prowess and his distinctive, humorous personality.
Films
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Hallelujah!
2006 | 5 min | Queer
Award-winning director Jochen Hick humorous doc HALLELUJAH! follows the Pope's visit to Cologne 2005 and juxtaposes two camps of demonstrators. Award-winning director Jochen Hick follows humorous doc HALLELUJAH! follows the Pope's visit to Cologne 2005 and juxtapostions two camps of demonstrators: Christians on the one hand, and gays and lesbians on the other. Direct Cinema in short form.
The GDR Complex
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Young, gay, and conservative, Mario Roellig is a witnesses to the atrocities committed in the GDR. He guides groups through the Stasi prison where he was once incarcerated. A love affair with a politician from West-Berlin made him try to flee to the West, but he got unlucky and was detained at the famous Stasi prison Berlin Hohenschoenhausen. Today Roellig confronts GDR aficionados and is also confronted by people who still believe in social utopias. And he tries to overcome his hurt feelings: ...
Rising Sun Blues
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Two women from completely different walks of life meet. A filmmaker and a sex worker begin a creative process together in which they exchange experiences and renegotiate boundaries. As they introduce each other to their techniques, the roles between documentation and staging, between director and protagonist, become blurred. What does it mean to show oneself? And how does the narrative change when you stop just observing and start actively shaping it? RISING SUN BLUES by Renata Ferraz and Maria ...
The Last Playboy
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Maurizio Candidi is 70 years old and presents himself as the last representative of a fading lifestyle: an old-school playboy devoted to luxury, women, and the promise of eternal seduction. He claims to have slept with more than a thousand women — a figure that seems less a statistic than part of his carefully crafted self-mythology. The film follows Maurizio through his daily routines between elegant hotels, glamorous seaside resorts, and memories of past conquests. Through conversations and encounters, ...
Zownir: Radical Man
2006 | 60 min | Biography
Stanley Kubrick's screenwriter and satirical novelist Terry Southern called Miron Zownir the poet of radical photography. Born in Karlsruhe in 1953, Zownir moved to Berlin in 1976 and then to the U.S. in 1981. There he spent 15 years in New York, Los Angeles & Pittsburgh. Zownir is one of the greatest existentialist photographers of our time. His images are icons of lust, pain, hunger, madness, starvation & death.
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AIDE MÉMOIRE - ein schwules Gedächtnisprotokoll
1996 | 16 min | Biography
Photographer Jürgen Baldiga (1959-1993) and filmmaker Michael Brynntrup engage in a private discourse and personal investigation into the handling of images of life and death. "AIDE MÉMOIRE recalls a deceased friend in a radically personal way. The intimate, tender gaze of the filmmaker causes a closeness also of the spectators on AIDS disease, death and transience." (Jury statement - International Short Film Festival Oberhausen)
Show Your Wound - Art and Spirituality in the Work of Joseph Beuys
2015 | 84 min | Biography
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Angry Spirits
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Character One: Susan
2020 | 84 min | Biography
Her childhood ended when she was sexually abused for the first time at the age of 11. Even though she has a strong personality and speaks five languages fluently, she was never able to take care of herself. In the 1990s, she became one of the IT Girls of the post-reunification party scene in Berlin. She only feels safe among gay men. Decades of drug-abuse may have destroyed her brain, but not her personality.