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Ken Wardrop

Director
Ken Wardrop is an Irish filmmaker known for his documentary work. He gained international recognition for his documentary features such as "His & Hers," which won the World Cinema Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Wardrop is acclaimed for his unique storytelling style and ability to capture human emotions. He continues to produce thought-provoking documentaries that resonate with audiences worldwide.

Films

Making the Grade

Making the Grade

By Ken Wardrop

2017 | 82 min | Documentary

Welcome to the world of the piano lesson. Every year teachers and students in Ireland prepare for graded musical exams. It can be fun for some students but daunting for others. This endearing and uplifting documentary explores the bond between piano teachers and their pupils as they struggle through these grades. Each student has their own particular goal but reaching Grade Eight is considered a pinnacle. This is a story of the transformative power of music and the pride and happiness it provides ...

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CaRabA - Life Without School

CaRabA - Life Without School

2019 | 89 min | Drama

A world without school – is that possible? The fictional movie CaRabA explores what a world without schools could look like. Five young people carve their own path in an entirely new educational landscape. The film imaginatively examines how life itself can be an ongoing learning experience. The first feature film on the future of education encourages us to imagine together possibilities for our future. The initial question is: when and where does education actually happen?

Dancing Quietly

Dancing Quietly

2016 | 81 min | Comedy

In this romantic tragicomedy, Luca wants to graduate from high school after years of depression. Her little dog Mata and her classmate Kurt help her find motivation. Luca makes a deal with Kurt: English lessons for math lessons to try and pass her math class. Kurt becomes a reliable friend even when things get really bad for Luca. When does "life" actually work out? When you understand math and graduate from high school? When you know how to take sick leave to postpone your exams? When you find ...

Kinders

Kinders

2018 | 95 min | Documentary

Good music lessons can be life-changing for children. The Austrian project Superar focuses on precisely where support is most needed. Funded by donations, Superar gives choir and instrument lessons to children in underprivileged areas. A touching film about hidden potentials, creativity, integration, the power of music and the possible future of our society. The music promotion project "Superar" opens a rich, musical world to children, where they can learn to trust themselves. Arash and Arman ...

Home Game

Home Game

2009 | 22 min | Drama

Wotan Wilke Möhring portrays the ethics teacher Andreas, whose secret life as a football hooligan is under threat of being uncovered by his student, Benny, played by Kai Malina. High school teacher Vossen throws punches in the hooligan mob until the adrenaline pumps through his veins and empties his mind. He's addicted to the rush and it's the only thing he lives for. When a new student joins his class and recognizes Vossen as a fellow hooligan, the cleanly separated worlds threaten to collide. ...

MansFeld

MansFeld

2013 | 98 min | Documentary

Tom, Sebastian and Paul are children from very different families. They live in a small village in Mansfelder Land, an area marked by the decline of mining. However, an archaic custom has remained over the centuries and the three boys play a crucial role in it. For director Mario Schneider, MANSFELD, after HELBRA, and HEINZ UND FRED, represents the conclusion of his documentary trilogy about life in Mansfelder Land on the eastern edge of the Harz Mountains. "What distinguishes the film is the closeness ...

Backstage Vienna State Opera

Backstage Vienna State Opera

2019 | 96 min | Documentary

The film focuses on the employees behind, next to and underneath the stage who keep the huge, complex operation going. And there’s a considerable number of them. This in-depth survey of their work gives viewers an idea of everything that’s necessary for productions to be successful and to run smoothly. The opera house enjoys an excellent reputation -performances take place every day of the year except at Christmas and on Good Friday, and an impressive 99% of its seats are sold.

Candidates - Training in Stammheim

Candidates - Training in Stammheim

2020 | 58 min | Documentary

The old wing of the Stammheim correctional facility towers over the neighboring cornfields. Almost 800 inmates currently live behind the walls of the remand prison. Just a few meters away from the outer wall are the boarding school and the training school for future prison officers of the state of Baden-Württemberg. From an unusual perspective, CANDIDATES takes a look behind prison walls and at the relationships between inmates and prison staff. At the outer wall of Stuttgart Prison in Stammheim, ...

Unplugged Leben: Guaia Guaia

Unplugged Leben: Guaia Guaia

2013 | 92 min | Documentary

Elias Gottstein and Carl Luis Zielke have no permanent residence, no formal training, no bank account, no personal savings. Instead, they live their dream of freedom: radical, anarchic, unplugged! They are young, intelligent, and hungry: for life, for music, for a future far from the average imagination. It is the portrait of two young men who do not want to accept the label male, unemployed, East German. Instead they go their own way.

Brundibar Revisited

Brundibar Revisited

2014 | 84 min | Documentary

Holocaust? Not again! This is roughly the first reaction of the youth theater group of the Berlin Schaubühne, when the kids learned that the next project would the play BRUNDIBAR. And indeed, the background to "Brundibár", premiered in Theresienstadt ghetto, is not easy to stomach. Then the class travel to Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic, and get drawn by the history of the play, thanks in no small part to their fellow traveler Greta Klingsberg, who is one of the few survivors ...

Time Out

Time Out

2011 | 49 min | Drama

What's wrong with today's men? In AUSZEIT (TIME OUT), a 45 minute feature film by Sven Wegner, a bunch of men go on a short vacation and set their inhibitions aside. Experiments, rivalry and new loves lead them to redefine of who they are and how they view life. Five men from an amateur soccer team go for a short trip to a lake in Brandenburg. Out of boredom, very soon, they forget their inhibitions, reveal a lot about themselves and make themselves vulnerable, resulting in various conflicts. One ...