Tag Archives: Documentary

Sunday Documentary: FL – Unpremeditated Movie

MTO - FAST Life (screenshot from FL: Unpremeditated Movie)

MTO is a French street artist who bases himself in Berlin and recently posted the documentary FL – Unpremeditated Movie on Vimeo.

Art has always had its detractors and modern art will always attract the most controversy. Street Art suffers doubly so because it is attacked from within as well as from the traditional opponents.

Over the past decade there has been increasingly intense interest in Street Art, an artform that owes much to graffiti and youth culture.

MTO, as I outlined in a recent post has brought photorealistic art to the streets and no more controversially so than in Sarasota, Florida.

His Fast Life mural, painted as part of the Sarasota Chalk Festival attracted much criticism for what was seen by some as a glorification of gang culture.

In this documentary, MTO presents his version of how events played out.

FL – Unpremeditated Movie

Sunday Documentary: Krautrock – The Rebirth of Germany

Kraftwerk (screenshot from Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany)

The BBC documentary Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany charts the rise of a new musical movement in post war Germany and the importance of music to young people in their attempts to forge a new German identity.

Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

Part 2: http://youtu.be/9LzFkszeoJ4

Part 3: http://youtu.be/x7gmBDLMXZ8

Part 4: http://youtu.be/MfeOGrSVBIk

Part 5: http://youtu.be/jKLSMOdFxoQ

Sunday Documentary: Stauffenberg – Operation Valkyrie

Stauffenberg - Operation Valkyrie (screenshot from the National Geographic documentary)

The National Geographic documentary Stauffenberg: Operation Valkyrie tells the story of Claus von Stauffenberg and the attempt to kill Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944.

A number of plots were hatched to assassinate Hitler but Operation Valkyrie, in which a bomb was planted during a meeting at the Wolf’s Lair (Wolfsschanze), came closest to succeeding.

For anyone interested in learning more about Operation Valkyrie I would recommend a visit to the German Resistance Memorial Centre, which is housed in the Bendlerblock in Berlin.  Unfortunately, only a few of the exhibits have descriptions in English but a free audio guide is available.  The displays on Claus von Stauffenberg are in his former office and a plaque in the courtyard marks the spot where he and his co-conspirators were murdered by a firing squad.

Stauffenberg – Operation Valkyrie

Sunday Documentary: Real Scenes – Berlin

Real Scenes - Berlin (screenshot from documentary by Resident Advisor)

Real Scenes – Berlin by Resident Advisor, like a previous Sunday Documentary post, Children of Berlin, explores the explosion of Techno in Berlin after the fall of the wall.

People who lived through and shaped the development of the Techno scene in Berlin discuss the factors that led to the city becoming the go-to destination for clubbers.

This is another documentary that I recommended on my Facebook page and Twitter feed before I started my Sunday Documentary series on the blog.

Real Scenes – Berlin

Sunday Documentary: Lost Worlds – Hitler’s Supercity

Lost Worlds - Hitler's Supercity (a screenshote of Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer)

In today’s Sunday Documentary, I return to a subject covered in two previous documentaries posted here – Hitler’s Henchmen – Speer – The Architect and Hitler’s Hidden City – Hitler’s unrealised plans for Welthauptstadt Germania as drawn up by Albert Speer.

From around the 15-minute mark there is a very interesting section about the man-made lake in Nuremberg that marks the site of the foundations for a stadium four times the size of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.  The stadium would be capable of holding 400,00 people and Hitler intended that it would host the Olympic Games every year.

This documentary also includes a visit to one of Berlin’s most unusual attractions, the Schwerbelastungskörper, a massive cylinder of concrete in the Tempelhof district used to test the ground for the placement of the planned Triumphal Arch of Welthauptstadt Germania.

Lost Worlds – Hitler’s Supercity

Sunday Documentary: The Real Cabaret

The Real Cabaret (screenshot from the BBC documentary about Christopher Isherwood's inspiration for Goodbye to Berlin)

In this BBC Documentary, The Real Cabaret, actor Alan Cumming sets out to explore the inspiration for Cabaret, the musical based on Christopher Isherwood’s book, Goodbye to Berlin.

Christopher Isherwood moved to Weimar-era Berlin in 1929 – a city in flux, a heady mix of sexual freedom and political upheaval.

Alan Cumming meets with Liza Minelli, who played Sally Bowles in the film, the stepson of Jean Ross (who inspired the character), cabaret artist, Ute Lemper and travels to Berlin to visit some of the streets and buildings Isherwood knew.

The documentary, The Real Cabaret is available on YouTube in 6 parts:

The Real Cabaret – Part 1

Here are the links to Parts 2-6:

The Real Cabaret – Part 2

The Real Cabaret – Part 3

The Real Cabaret – Part 4

The Real Cabaret – Part 5

The Real Cabaret – Part 6

For anyone wanting to know more about Christopher Isherwood, I would recommend another BBC production, Christopher And His Kind, based on Isherwood’s biography of the same name.

Christopher And His Kind

Sunday Documentary: Children of Berlin

Children of Berlin (screenshot from the Berlin Techno Documentary on YouTube)

Today’s Sunday Documentary, Children of Berlin charts the development of the Berlin Techno scene after the fall of the wall.

People involved in the vibrant world of Berlin Techno, including DJs, clubbers and club owners, discuss how the city’s divided past and the unique conditions created by its reunification helped to shape the scene.

Children of Berlin – Part 1

Children of Berlin – Part 2

Sunday Documentary: Hitler’s Hidden City

Hitler's Hidden City (screenshot from the National Geographic documentary)

Probably the best Berlin Documentary I’ve watched, Hitler’s Hidden City by National Geographic follows the work of Berliner Unterwelten (Berlin Underworld Association) – a group of researchers and explorers dedicated to uncovering underground bunkers and tunnels in Berlin.

Amongst the most impressive discoveries are the train and car tunnels designed to carry traffic below Unter den Linden, though never used.  The tunnels were needed in order to create a vast open square in front of the Volkshalle or Grosse Halle as part of Hitler’s Welthauptstadt Germania, as envisioned by his architect, Albert Speer.

In the lead up to the Second World War, Hitler also instructed his architects to design a massive network of tunnels and bunkers to protect the citizens of Berlin from the aerial threat posed by the British and American bombers.

Watch out for Dr Elke Dittrich (at 29 minutes) who led the tour I took of Tempelhof Airport during Berlin Fashion Week.

I originally posted a link to this documentary on my Facebook page before I started my Sunday Documentary series of posts on the blog.

Hitler’s Hidden City

Sunday Documentary: Al Murray’s German Adventure

Al Murray's German Adventure (screenshot from the BBC4 documentary)

British comic, Al Murray, most famous for his character ‘The Pub Landlord’ sets out to dispel some myths about the German people in the BBC4 documentary: Al Murray’s German Adventure.

Murray explores the German people and their culture as he travel around the country and encounters some of the greats of art and science, amongst them: Brahms in Hamburg; Goethe in Weimar; Nietzsche in Röcken; and Wagner in Bayreuth.

In Berlin, he learns to appreciate the dramas of Bertholt Brecht, finds out about Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s transformation of the city’s architecture and admires Schloss Sanscoucci with art historian, Jörg von Stein.

Whilst with his comedy character, Murray, seeks laughs at the Germans’ expense, the former history student’s curiosity and enthusiasm for his journey makes for an interesting and entertaining programme.

Originally shown in two 1-hour parts, the documentary has been split here into eight parts (Warning: Part 3 has been blocked by GEMA in Germany).

Al Murray’s German Adventure

Der Letzte Cowboy der Nation – The Story of the Witte Family and Spreepark Plänterwald

Norbert Witte at Spreepark Plänterwald (screenshot from Der Letzte Cowboy der Nation)

I stumbled across Der Letzte Cowboy der Nation when I was trying to find out more about Spreepark Plänterwald and why this once prosperous theme park in Berlin lies abandoned.

The flashing imagery and chaotic cutting of this short documentary are ideally suited to the extraordinary story of Norbert Witte’s fall from charismatic fun park owner to convicted drug smuggler.

Der Letzte Cowboy der Nation

For those wanting to know more of the intriguing story from the Witte family’s viewpoint, a longer documentary, Achterbahn is available on DVD.

I have previously written about my tour of Spreepark Plänterwald, with photos of the now abandoned theme park.