Directed by Cynthia Beatt • Documentary • With Tilda Swinton • 2010 • 60 minutes
In 1988 director Cynthia Beatt and the Tilda Swinton embarked on a filmic journey along the Berlin Wall to create the short film CYCLING THE FRAME (28', color, 1988). Riding her bicycle from the Brandenburg Gate to the suburbs, passying by lakes, fields, and checkpoints, Swinton retraced the concrete and oppressive structure encircling West Berlin, cutting through neighborhoods and buildings, seeming indestructible at the time. One year after filming, the Wall was opened and the process of reunification of Germany began.
More than 20 years later, in 2009, Beatt and Swinton reteamed and retraced their ride, but this time weaving through both sides of the fallen wall. THE INVISIBLE FRAME (60', color, 2009) depicts this poetic passage and reflects on history, memory and freedom.
Swinton's reactions and inner monologues, enriched with texts by Stevenson, Yeats and Akhmatova, and a soundscape by Simon Fisher Turner, create a deeply engaging and personal vision. Together these films offer a fascinating journey through time and bring a poetic and meditative view on one of the most important events of the 20th century.
"Playful, essayistic film, which leaves a deep and lasting impression in one's mind."—Anke Westphal, Berliner Zeitung
"Swinton fans will surely appreciate her unflappable company and literary insights (she recites works by Robert Louis Stevenson, William Butler Yeats, and Anna Akhmatova)…"—Video Librarian
Directed by Akiz • Drama • With Carolyn Genzkow, Sina Tkotsch, Wilson Gonzalez • 2015 • 88 minutes
After an intense party, 17-year-old Tina begins having severe nightmares. From this point forward she is haunted daily by a profoundly hideous creature. Her parents do not believe her story.
The o...
Directed by Ramon Zurcher • Drama • With Jenny Schily, Anjorka Strechel, Mia Kasalo • 2014 • 72 minutes
In the case of THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT, an extended family-dinner gathering becomes an exquisitely layered confection ready for writer-director Ramon Zurcher's razor-sharp slicing. A mother des...
Directed by André Meier • Documentary • 2006 • 52 minutes
This is about sex. About sex in Germany and who, on which side of the Iron Curtain, was better at it. At the end of the Second World War, Germans shared the same culture, lifestyle, morals. But four decades later, everything had changed. ...