According to Harun Farocki, today's photographers working in advertising are, in a way, continuing the tradition of 17th century Flemish painters in that they depict objects from everyday life - the "still life". The filmmaker illustrates this intriguing hypothesis with three documentary sequences which show the photographers at work creating a contemporary "still life": a cheese-board, beer glasses and an expensive watch.

Farocki’s intriguing and troubling film explores the processes of visual perception and how they affect our understanding of history and society. In a work reminiscent of the writings of Paul Virilio and Michel Foucault, Farocki examines a range of phenomena including aerial reconnaissance photos of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Short comedy from Berlin.

Short comedy from Berlin.

At the documentary film seminar given by Gisela Tuchtenhagen at the dffb in 1979, three documentary portraits of women were made that were combined under the title “Küche, Theater, Krankenhaus” (Kitchen, Theatre, Krankenhaus). Students Lilly Grote, Irina Hoppe and Christine Domkowski took turns at doing the camerawork, sound and editing, supported by film editing lecturer Heide Breitel. [...] In Meine Freundin Helma, Irina Hoppe accompanies actress and theatre director Helma Fehrmann at rehearsals and in her private life. Lilly Grote’s film Beobachtungen auf Station 33 was made at the Urban-Krankenhaus hospital in Kreuzberg and doesn’t follow an individual person but rather the patients and nurses there during their everyday work. [...](Frederik Lang)

Documentary about a subway line in Berlin.

Documentary about a subway line in Berlin.

Flug durch die Nacht, shot during Ilona Baltrusch's studies at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin - DFFB, explores the relationship between language and image. The film follows the two protagonists, Gretel Kemeny and Martin Peter, through 1980s nocturnal Berlin.

Documentary short.

In Essen, four ordinary teenage Death Metal fanatics are looking for the best way to kill time. There are girls, cigarettes, drive-ins and petty larceny but nothing moves the needle.