To Live to Sing
By Johnny Ma
2019 | 107 min | Drama
Faced with the imminent destruction of their opera house, a traditional Sichuan opera troupe plans a big show to save their opera house.
Johnny Ma
DirectorJohnny Ma is a Chinese-Canadian director known for his work in independent cinema. He made his feature film debut with "Old Stone" in 2016, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ma is recognized for his unique storytelling style and focus on social issues in his films.
Films
Recommended for you
Welcome Goodbye
2014 | 82 min | Documentary
Fear of gentrification, animosity towards tourists, feeling one’s very existence is endangered. The documentary WELCOME GOODBYE captures prevailing attitudes by lending an ear to both the advocates and the adversaries of tourism. Author Harald Martenstein, the philosopher Bazon Barock, the "Tacheles" activist Martin Reiter, "Freies Neukölln"-host Matthias Merkle, residents annoyed by tourists, profiteers, and, of course, the tourists themselves have their say. "WELCOME GOODBYE clarifies the complex ...
Scala Adieu - Von Windeln verweht
2018 | 80 min | Documentary
Filmmaker Douglas Wolfsperger, who grew up in Constance, accompanies the disappearance of one of the last arthouse cinemas on Lake Constance, which had a strong influence on his own career. The "Scala Filmpalast" in Constance was a cinema with an 80-year tradition. In 2017, a branch of the dm drugstore chain moved into the building, although another drug store was already located directly opposite. Eva Mattes, known from Tatort, Woyzeck, Kopfstand, and UNTER SCHNEE, tells Douglas Wolfsperger about ...
The Wheel
2017 | 9 min | Shorts
THE WHEEL, originally conceived as a dance performance, was developed by Sara Fortune and Daniela Lucato into a short film that combines philosophy and dance. Daniela Lucato, dancer, actress and producer, directed and conceived the choreography. The screenplay by Sara Fortuna, a language philosopher exploring the origins of language and body perception, is inspired by Lars von Trier's Dogville. The wheel, as a real object in the center of the stage, creates a purely symbolic conceptual space in ...
Lifetimeshort
2009 | 87 min | Comedy
Theater director Gesine Danckwart's feature debut LIFETIMESHORT is an ironic comedy about Berlin big city girls and how they cope with life and love in a late capitalist urban setting. ACHTUNG BERLIN 2009 Danckwart contrasts the women's tumultuous lives against a backdrop of cool, almost clinical-looking Berlin architecture. The city becomes another character in the story. Danckwart collaborated with her six actresses over the course of a year to develop the film's situations and dialogue. The result ...
Zwischennutzung
2022 | 95 min | Documentary
Nestled in a niche between the city's motorway and industrial sites lies a former meat factory, now home to a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and creatives. From the growl-metal band's rehearsal room to the conceptual artist's studio, the film uncovers a patchwork of interests and perspectives, as diverse as the city itself. Kowalski's documentary offers a refreshing take on urban development, challenging the notion of gentrification by celebrating the beauty of impermanence. With a laid-back ...
Unmensch
2016 | 26 min | Drama
In Jasmin Baumgartner's short film, three young actors take part in an experimental play called 'Youth Sucks' at the Vienna Theater. The situation quickly becomes explosive. The main actor is supposed to improvise a monologue that comes across as left-liberal self-abuse of a politically impotent young generation pretending to care about the world. While the ensemble members Dany (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) and Patrick (Dominik Brauweiler) perform appropriately with emotion and expression, Jasper (Daniel ...
Dance Fight Love Die: With Mikis On the Road
2017 | 87 min | Independent
A man in an uninterrupted creative frenzy: composer Mikis Theodorakis is the enfant terrible of contemporary European music history. Here, Asteris Koutoulas ignores biopic conventions to weave archive material with grotesque fiction and the various interpretations of Theodorakis' music. Asteris Koutoulas has accompanied the composer, politician and folk hero Mikis Theodorakis since 1987 on his many journeys. Their personal friendship offers a deep insight into the turbulent life of a person that ...
Der Stoff, aus dem Träume sind
2019 | 76 min | Documentary
What inspires people to take the initiative and organize communal living for themselves? What ideals drive them and how does the financing work? On the basis of six self-managed residential buildings in Austria from 40 years, this documentary sets out to find answers. The pioneers of the cooperative living project in Graz-Raaba talk about their experimental ideals of the 1960s and about growing old in community. The most recent buildings, the housing project Vienna Nordbahnhof and the project willy*fred ...
Betongold
2013 | 52 min | Documentary
They try to force her out of her apartment in Berlin's gentrified Mitte district. BETONGOLD is a first-person account of the rampant gentrification that affects many throughout Berlin and in big cities all over the world. Whatever Rothe couldn't capture on film for legal reasons, she depicts in ingenious animated sequences. Katrin Rothe has been living in Berlin-Mitte for years. One day, she and her neighbors are notified that their apartment building has been sold to an investor specialized in ...
Berlin Excelsior
2018 | 87 min | Documentary
The anonymous Berlin concrete building "Excelsior" is only a temporary stop for its residents, yet some have been living there for more than 50 years. Things are expected to improve and everyone helps .With his "invisible make-up", 49-year-old Michael wants to build on earlier successes as an escort boy. Claudia's time as a dancer is over, but new photos are to pave her way back onto the stage. Norman wants to help other people find happiness with his start-up "ChangeU", and himself to a chic ...