Return to Vienna
By Ruth Beckermann, Josef Aichholzer
1983 | 91 min | Documentary
Franz West (1909-85) remembers his youth in Vienna: the diverse Jewish population the Red Vienna labor movement and the rise of Austrofascism.
Josef Aichholzer
DirectorJosef Aichholzer is an Austrian film producer known for his work on both documentary and fiction films. He has produced numerous successful projects including the film "The Bone Man" (2009) and "Paradise: Faith" (2012). Aichholzer has also been involved in projects that have received critical acclaim and have been recognized at film festivals. While specific awards for Josef Aichholzer are not readily available, his contributions to the film industry have made a significant impact.
Films
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Towards Jerusalem
1990 | 85 min | Documentary
The film moves from the lights of Tel Aviv discos to the immigrant housing of Ethiopians to the burial site of Samuel the Prophet, capturing the voices and vistas of contemporary Israeli culture and politics.(National Center for Jewish Film) "An expressive overview of Israel in 1990" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) What became of the dream of a Jewish homeland? In this documentary road movie, Austrian filmmaker Ruth Beckermann records the diverse views and activities of Israelis and Arabs as she travels ...
A Fleeting Passage To The Orient
1999 | 82 min | Biography
Rigorous and engrossing, Ruth Beckermann's documentary retraces the steps of Austria's restless "sad empress" Elizabeth during trips to Egypt in both 1885 and 1891. When the camera gazes from the deck of the ship towards the endless horizon of the Mediterranean, the image of a woman who travelled the globe without pause takes shape. Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, also gradually disappears from view, as it were: from the age of 30 she refused to be photographed.
Fritz Bauer - Death By Installments
2010 | 98 min | Biography
Ilona Ziok's documentary about Germany's most prominent state prosecutor and a pioneer of modern "civil society". Fritz Bauer's name is linked with Eichmann's extradition to Israel, the legendary Auschwitz trials and the founding of the Humanistic Union. This film not only provides the exciting biographical depiction of a unique life, it also paints an impressive portrait of one of the most important lawyers of the 20th century.
Those Who Go Those Who Stay
2013 | 75 min | Documentary
Nonetheless, the analysis closes without conclusion: it is like an offer to her viewers to draw their own associations, their own connections. Beckermann's great strength becomes clear: the free, spontaneous leap from individuality to universality. "A grim ode to Europe" (indiewire) "Ein Film wie eine musikalische Komposition" (Jan Tabor) This film offers an intentionally unintentional gaze that allows for chance encounters, for stories and memories that lead Ruth Beckermann across Europe and ...
The Waldheim Waltz
2018 | 94 min | Documentary
Lies. Truth. Alternative Facts. This film analyses how the UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s wartime past was revealed by the World Jewish Congress. Ruth Beckermann documents the tangled web that ensnared former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim when he concealed two years of his wartime biography. It shows the swift succession of new allegations by the World Jewish Congress against him, the denial by the Austrian political class, and the outbreak of antisemitism and patriotism which led to ...
Of Neo-Nazis and Superheroes – How the Far Right is Changing a Small German Town
2018 | 56 min | Documentary
This small town has hosted right-wing rock concerts in the past, but now, remarkably, a diverse group of anti-right activists has emerged to challenge local right-wing organizations. The film offers new insights into how the societal shift to the right took place and how a right-wing parallel world that was able to establish itself in town and how creative forms of protest can flourish.
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)
East of War
1996 | 112 min | Documentary
Testimony by former Wehrmacht soldiers recorded by Ruth Beckermann remains horrifying today. A controversial photography exhibit about atrocities committed by the German army on the Eastern Front during World War II inspired Ruth Beckermann to interview soldiers. What are their experiences beyond the bounds of "normal" warfare. An uncompromising film on remembrance and oblivion. "Between interrogation and pity. I must keep a distanced view. How do you film enemies?" (Ruth Beckermann’s Shooting ...
The Dreamed Ones
2016 | 89 min | Documentary
The correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan forms the basis of the text. The story begins in Vienna in 1948, when she is 22 and he 27, and ends with Celan's suicide in 1971 in Paris. Two young actors, Anja Plaschg and Laurence Rupp, meet in a recording studio to read from their correspondence. The dramatically fluctuating feelings of the letters - between intoxication and fear of loss, delight and horror, closeness and strangeness - are passed on to the actors.
Age of the Gods
1993 | 92 min | Documentary
How does art influence politics – and how much does politics influence art? This question is particularly pressing in the case of Arno Breker, a sculptor whose works played a central role in National Socialism. Breker was Adolf Hitler's official state artist and created monumental sculptures that embodied the ideal of National Socialist aesthetics. Between 1936 and 1945, Arno Breker worked almost exclusively for the architect Albert Speer and his plans for the redesign of Berlin into the “world ...