Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-20 of 20
- Queer people from all over the world have made Berlin what it is today. Many leave their home because they want to, others because they have to. This film follows a few of them.
- Frank, a (HIV infected) former Lufthansa steward, goes back to Rio from Germany with a film crew to look for Mario, a young man with whom he had a one night stand. Before Mario departed the morning after, he left a message scrawled in soap on the bathroom mirror: 'Welcome to the AIDS club'. Frank and his director hire a fast talking hustler named José (Guilherme di Padua) to help them to find Mario who seems alway to have just left whenever they arrive. Via Appia is the nickname of a Rio district where male prostitutes hang out...
- Los Angeles in the year 2005: 19-year-old lads move through an apartment that has been equipped with webcams and looks like some sort of futuristic internet doll's house. Not-quite-so-young men fulfil their sexual dreams as protagonists in bareback productions. And, at private sex parties, almost every second guy has either taken part in a porn film or wants to. In 1997, I followed on camera the fortunes of a group of men who had chosen to wok - either artistically or commercially - with their bodies. This footage later become part of my 1998 documentary, SEX/LIFE IN L.A.. I'm still in touch with some of the men in that film, these include: lone battler Kevin Kramer, mature shooting star Cole Tucker, American boy-next-door Matt Bradshaw and friends of the occasional model John Garwood, who died of an overdose in 1998. Some of these men have successful careers behind them, others have left the sex industry altogether. Driven by a sense of adventure or by their narcissism, young men today are still keen to put their own stamp on porn cinema. But the days of a purely non-commercial fulfilment of one's sexual desires has long gone, and the interests of consumers, models and producers no longer coincide. Gay life - like the entire industry - has become something of a profession and is now thoroughly commercialized. Young models begin their sexual careers in internet containers; they enter the business fully aware of their self-exploitation and yet, at the same time, they are somehow unconscious of how they are being exploited. Meanwhile, bareback video producers scout the country in their motorhome on the lookout for new protagonists. But can there be winners in this game? Is there anything left of sex itself? And is there a life after porn?
- A look at the sex lives of the guys who make L.A. adult movies.
- Was the AIDS virus created during an experiment gone awry at the Pentagon top security genetic laboratory? Stefan, an East German medical student whose father was a high-ranking AIDS scientist in the former GDR, is determined to find out.
- Jochen Hick's film portrays Tom Weise, the producer of the HustlaBall, an event originally created in order to encourage the acceptance of male prostitutes, but also to launch a rent boy website. After his parents split and, having lost all contact with them, this slightly-built former student of politics decides to go to New York at the beginning of the 1990s. Being virus-positive, he is obliged to live in the USA illegally. In fact, according to the law, he cannot even pay a visit to this country. At first Tom has a hard time eking out a living as an escort. Unable to earn enough money, he winds up on the streets without a roof over his head. In the end, he succeeds in helping Jeffrey Davis set up an internet page, rentboy.com, which, ten years later, becomes the largest website for escorts. Increasingly beset by health issues, loneliness and drug abuse, in 2006 Tom eventually finds someone with whom he can share his life. He and his African-American partner decide to go to Berlin. This marks Tom¹s first trip to Germany in 15 years. A few days after their arrival, the Berlin Hustla Ball takes place. The ostensibly self-confident businessman of the film¹s first few minutes gradually reveals himself to be a man with weaknesses, fears and dreams. Initially following Tom Weise as he organises the last of his parties in the US, the film then accompanies him as he returns to Berlin. Besides being a vibrant portrait, Hick's film is also a socio-cultural exploration of the New World and the old, as reflected in a marginalised group. His documentary also affords a fascinating insight into the universe and the minds of escorts and party-makers.
- The Hamburg Bollenmädels stand for many homosexuals who suffered their coming out in the German province in the early 80s. Nine very different men met in Hamburg at the end of the 80s, became friends and have since been dressing up as Black Forest girls at CSDs and other events. They act anarchically and with a lot of fun. Their commitment to diversity and equality is still as strong as ever. In 2018, at an official invitation, they give the Manneken Pis a self-made dirndl - the first female costume of the Brussels landmark in 400 years. The onsite dressing-up spontaneously turns into a multicultural street party. Interview topics range from childhood, coming out, sexuality and AIDS crisis to the care and death of parents and preliminary résumés of individual life stories. Through the different archive media and animation parts, the film also becomes a portrait of the generations and depicts a section of the gay movement in Germany.
- Today's hip image of Berlin is based on the city's vibrant and subversive subcultures, which originally emerged within the grey walls surrounding West Berlin. The queer scene played a major role in creating that subculture, with its sexual diversity and its wild and unconstrained party culture, ranging from the notorious clubs to CSD. Many of the scene's actors, such as the Gay Museum, the Teddy Award, AIDS help organizations, and the queer magazine Siegessäule originated before 1989. Yet gays in West Berlin suffered greatly under an incongruous provision in German law - the infamous 'Paragraph 175' - that made homosexual acts between men a crime up until its reform in 1969. Raids and arrests in bars were common, yet ultimately failed in suppressing gay life in West Berlin. Instead, the city turned into a gay capital. The late seventies in particular were a period of great sexual and political freedoms and more intense social intermingling between the gay-, hetero-, and transsexual worlds. Then AIDS struck, wrecking greater havoc in Berlin than in any other German city. After OUT IN EAST BERLIN (2013), MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN describes gay life in the western half of the city in the dynamic period between the end of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall, all the while referencing current social issues. The stories and experiences of political activists, party-goers, hedonists, club owners, musicians, fashion designers, a DJ, and a make-up artist paint a vivid picture of the gay scene in that period. The use of never before seen archival film footage completes the picture by allowing viewers to travel through time to a hitherto unknown West Berlin. MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN explores the historic roots of the fascinating city, that is a dream destination and a place of refuge for gay men form across the world to this day. The film is the second part of filmmaker Jochen Hick's Berlin trilogy, the final part of which will focus on the period after the fall of the Wall, up until today.
- A controversial documentary about four gay men, who are living on the countryside of Swabia (a rural area in the south west of Germany) far off big cities. Being alone as Gays among a entirely heterosexual environment, they still try to live a rich and happy life.
- In 1968, paragraph 175, which made homosexual behavior punish able by law was abolished in the German Democratic Republic. At first homosexuality was considered a negligible issue in 'real existing socialism'. The nuclear family constituted the center of social society. »Out in East Berlin« tells the various, impressive-to-absurd personal histories of gay men and lesbians during socialistic GDR until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their experiences on the path to a self-conscious, outed sexual identity share one specific perspective: They are accompanied by the watchful eye of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi). Even their actions in the bed room were recorded in innumerable personal files. Based on the homosexual perspective, filmmakers Jochen Hick and Andreas Strohfeldt elucidate the political picture of the GDR, in which citizens are monitored, spied upon and whose movements are restrained. In addition, they are called upon to betray one's own cause: homosexual emancipation. An exciting, fascinating and vivid portrait of society is created from impressive interviews, situational scenes and historical material never shown before. A film that especially today possesses actuality and explosiveness.
- Even now, twenty-five years after German reunification, historians are still debating whether the GDR was an illegitimate state. In his current work, Jochen Hick tells the story of ex-GDR citizen Mario Röllig. Hick accompanies him as he visits his parents and his former colleagues but also the sites of his attempted flight from the GDR and his incarceration. Röllig was arrested in Hungary in 1987 for attempting to flee the German Democratic Republic; in 1988 the Federal Republic of Germany purchased his freedom. Today he regularly talks about his experiences in schools; he also volunteers as a guide at the former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen in Berlin that is now a memorial. Hick stays close to his subject at all times but remains neutral, instead observing and asking questions from behind the camera.
- Both in 2006 and 2007, the Gay Pride Parade attempts in Moscow are violently beaten down. For many observers, the attitude towards the sexual minorities seems to be the litmus test of the state of democracy in Russia. In January 2007, for the first time in Russian history, a Russian leader, president Vladimir Putin mentions the situation of the LGBT community: He won't criticize the politics of Moscow mayor Yuri Lushkov, who forbid the event, but he is concerned about the demographic future of the country. And Putins opinion seems to be repeated by the right wing contra demonstrators on the streets. The film shows both the organizers of the Pride events and also the survival strategies of the majority Russian lesbians and gays, to whom the fight for democracy on the streets doesn't seem to be an attractive alternative.
- The history of lesbians and gays in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) explored through the lives of five people.
- One summer in S&M and leather. Chicago, New York and San Francisco are only three stations in the annual circuit of a leather crowd which travels from event to event - in order to meet, to have sex or just to fantasize about it. Amsterdam based "Tom of Hamburg" is a former "International Mr. Leather"-titleholder, S&M pornstar and porn producer. He and his friends take us on an intense and erotic trip to the two main events: the "International Mr. Leather" and "Mr. Drummer" contests. We meet contestants and leather women, SM-porn-actors and titleholders, uniform fetishists and longterm slaves.
- With the advent of same sex marriage, homosexuals have achieved near-equality in much of Europe. Everything seems rosy, so why should the keep on fighting? RAINBOW'S END is a revealing and entertaining multinational journey from the center to the borders of Europe. It also shows exciting footage of the gay and lesbian manifestations in Warsaw and Cracow (Poland). Touching personal stories and social, religious and political insights. From street activism to the highest political scene at the United Nations in Geneva (Switzerland). A must see and a starting point for the most relevant discussions about the future of lesbian, gay and transgender people within Europe and throughout the world.
- Hallelujah! - The Pope is coming to Cologne. In about three hours. Time enough to praise the Lord and sing. A small group of lesbian and gay activists also knows a few songs.