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Norman Specht

Actor

Films

Berlin Excelsior

Berlin Excelsior

By Erik Lemke

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.

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Homeopathy Unrefuted?

Homeopathy Unrefuted?

2021 | 86 min | Documentary

After investing 30 million euros in homeopathy research, pressure is mounting for proof that homeopathic remedies are more than placebos in treating at least one medical condition. Filmmaker Erik Lemke asks 19 representatives of the homeopathic mainstream - most of whom have a medical education - the same questions, and skillfully intercuts their contradictory answers. Lemke's non-judgmental interviews are a contribution to positive error culture, and "the result is decidedly worth seeing." (Kontext: ...

After the Future

After the Future

2017 | 47 min | Documentary

Gay left-wing activist and disaster relief volunteer Ortwin Passon navigates between a military-like bourgeois world and wild sex parties. For a while now, he has been writing a dissertation on barebacking (anal sex without condoms) and the political and judicial implications of unprotected intercourse among men in Germany. Passon, who is HIV-positive, wants to obtain a legal demarcation between "unreflective risk behavior without intent" (unsafe sex) and "intentional, risk-conscious, consensual, ...

Berlin: Hasenheide

Berlin: Hasenheide

2010 | 72 min | Documentary

Although the Hasenheide, a park in Berlin's district Neukölln, has been sensationalized by the German media as a mecca for drug dealers and as a discount drug store, Director Nana Rebhan (WELCOME GOODBYE) shows local people at home in the park's many secret and not-so-secret places. A documentary about BERLIN: HASENHEIDE in all its funky glory. "The film BERLIN: HASENHEIDE, with its atmosphere of pleasant cheerfulness, could have been a little longer - but maybe that shows just how good it the film ...

Scala Adieu - Von Windeln verweht

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 ...

Betongold

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 ...

Lebe schon lange hier

Lebe schon lange hier

2019 | 98 min | Documentary

A year in the life of an ordinary street in Berlin. "Summer from of a balcony in Berlin - but also spring, fall and winter: Sobo Swobodnik spent a year observing life in his neighborhood from his apartment and made a unique film about it - with intimate perspectives and vantage points." Filmportal.de The minimalist work of art unfolds a fascinating image-sound-music collage about the “productivity of waiting”.

Welcome Goodbye

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 ...

Zwischennutzung

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 ...

Night Shifts

Night Shifts

2010 | 97 min | Documentary

Some people work and live at night by choice, others because fate has compelled them to do so. Still others use darkness to operate in secret. At time when most of the city is asleep, the film accompanies the night active as they go about their business and sheds light on the essence of night in today’s big cities. Director Ivette Löcker's declaration of love for the night. The film looks at the many the different angles of what it means to live and work in darkness.

Der Stoff, aus dem Träume sind

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 ...