When one thinks of dance as an art form, images of seemingly endlessly flexible bodies full of beauty, strength and youth inevitably come to mind. But the impression of lightness is deceptive. Dance is hard physical work and, as in high-performance sport, the pressure to perform is high. This takes its toll. With a few exceptions, most dancers have reached their zenith at the age of forty. The duet with their own transience begins and a possible farewell from the stage becomes foreseeable. At the same time, this maturity harbours great artistic potential, for it is their enormous wealth of experience that gives many dancers their magical charisma. The film accompanies the dancers Friedemann Vogel (1st soloist, Stuttgart Ballet), Polina Semionova (prima ballerina, Staatsballett Berlin), William Moore (1st soloist, Ballett Zurich) and Gesine Moog (dancer in Dance On Ensemble, Berlin) on a piece of their journey. All four offer personal insights into their dance careers and reflect on this threshold of “transition”.
Rock Chicks – I am not female to you
The world out there on stages is a man’s world. Or is that just what they want us to believe? What if the true King of Rock and Roll is a Queen? Listen closely and you hear Memphis Minnie’s guitar in Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton, Sister Rosetta’s unbridled spirit in Jerry Lee Lewis, Big Mama Thornton’s growl in Elvis. Still the fact that women rocked the stages from the1950s on has been successfully pushed out of the collective memory. Time to pull out the roots and tell the other side of the story. The women we meet on our journey devote their lifes to rock music, each of them is an icebreaker and they are as inspiring as different. ‘You have to be like a man. But I can do it, I am a woman with balls’, is Linda Gail Lewis’ Credo, while Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s considers herself a ‘rare bird’. Suzi Quatro proclaims that she doesn’t do gender at all, while Rosie Flores emphasizes her female qualities when playing the guitar. And Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses decided to leave the sexist music business to be listener-supported, because: ‘What would my kids think if I looked at every camera like I wanted to fuck it – as they tell you to do?’ Rock Chicks – I am not female to you is a film about music as an inner need, about fighting for your dreams and daring to be yourself.
Magic Moments of Music – Hélène Grimaud 9/11 in London
On 11 September 2001, the world paused. This concert at the Royal Albert Hall shows how grief and horror can be transformed into a musical moment of glory, and how music can be a means of consolation in these tragic moments. Hélène Grimaud makes her Proms debut with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. The musicians enter the stage visibly affected and discharge their anger and sadness in their playing. Hélène Grimaud succeeds in a deeply emotional interpretation of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto. Her playing alternates between intensity and clarity. The wordless communication with the maestro is moving, not least after the first movement: the moved audience partially breaks into applause – Grimaud and Eschenbach cast emotional and assuring glances at each other. They know at that moment: This evening gets under your skin and will not soon be forgotten.
Magic Moments of Music – Barenboim and WEDO in Ramallah
Music under extreme conditions: Only six years after its founding, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra gave what is probably its most legendary concert: the orchestra founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said with young Israeli and Arab musicians gave a concert in the Darwish Palace of Culture in Ramallah in 2005. A historic event and a musical moment of glory at the same time. In Israel, Barenboim was attacked. But the orchestra set an example with its concert, underlined by the choice of programme: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (‘Fate Symphony’). Beethoven’s vision of the reconciliation of people – that was what moved Barenboim. The “peace concert” – Barenboim himself did not call it that – attracted international attention and was broadcast worldwide. This star hour shows the concert and makes musical history tangible in short documentary passages. Contemporary witnesses and prominent interview partners put the concert into perspective from today’s point of view.
Amid Times and Worlds – Music in Romania
Romania is a country of contrasts and astonishing diversity but its rich musical culture is still completely unknown to most. Amid Times And Worlds takes viewers on a fascinating journey to extraordinary musicians. It travels through the country and visits artists in Bucharest and Timisoara, the 2023 European Capital of Culture. We discover folk music traditions in Maramures and the Carpathians and experience singing in the famous wooden churches in the north of the country. Through conversations and interactions with musicians in Romania, the film paints a picture of the diversity of a country caught between tradition and modernity.
David Garrett – The private life of a star
Star violinist David Garrett is now 40 years old – the so-called Wunderkind of classical music is now one of the most successful violinists of his generation. However, he has worked very hard to achieve this success. He is in the middle of his life and draws a first résumé. How did David Garrett become David Garrett? What makes him special? To answer the core question of the documentary, “Who is David Garrett?”, a look at his professional career is not enough. Rather, we get closer to the answer with very private glimpses into his life – by looking into an otherwise hidden world. Interviews of companions, friends and family underpin the picture of the violin genius. An alternation of present and past runs narratively through the film. We make the past visible and tangible through a journey to the most important stations of his life. In addition, there are leaps back into the past through the use of archive and private material (hours of previously unreleased material from his childhood).
The Lucky Tenor – José Carreras turns 75 years
It was the existential turning point of a career that until then had known mainly triumphs: During a rehearsal, José Carreras learns that he has leukemia – an almost certain death sentence in 1987. He is transferred from Barcelona to a special clinic in Seattle. His only chance is a therapy that until then was considered impossible: stem cell transplantation. He survives the disease and feels a real commitment to others suffering from leukemia. Starting with the cancer and the subsequent healing as the frame story, the film tells the stages of a world career in an associative and emotional way, jumping back and forth. Tightly edited archive footage brings these chapters to life. Newly filmed material shows the most important scenes from Carreras’ life and career. In addition, interviews with prominent companions, contemporaries and experts as well as a central interview with the jubilarian himself reflect a dramatic biography without slipping into one-sided hero worship. Cross-genre greetings and birthday serenades from Pretty Yende to Diana Damrau and from Plácido Domingo to David Garrett demonstrate the high regard in which the artists’ colleagues hold his life’s musical achievements and document the enormous impact José Carreras continues to make.
LET’S PLAY – Classical Game Night
World renowned conductor Eímear Noone proudly enters the stage in Grieghallen, setting the scene for Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra to play under her direction – this is Let’s Play! This music documentary tells the story of 4 conductor talents and their journey from preparations to a spectacular concert production in Bergen International Festival 2021. Embrace yourself in the music and the visual story of some of the worlds most iconic computer games – World of Warcraft, Tetris, Halo and Hitman. The story is told by 4 young conductors, discovering a brand new world of music together with their mentor, Eímear Noone.
Mythos Ot(h)ello
Ot(h)ello – the most famous black theatrical hero, a reflection of 4 centuries of racism on stage. What role did black people play in the world of Shakespeare and Verdi? What influence did the colonial period have on the genesis of the play and the opera? How did the ideas of “white people” about “black people” influence their interpretation? Jonas Kaufmann and Antonio Pappano, as well as the legendary football player Jimmy Hartwig, explore the “Mythos of Ot(h)ello”.
Music for Eternity – Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos
The Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are, together with Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, the most famous concerts in the history of early music. They are true “evergreens” with an exciting genesis, brilliantly orchestrated and extremely varied. The flautist Ana de la Vega is one of the dazzling personalities of a young generation of musicians. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Brandenburg Concertos, she embarks on a journey into the history and musical characteristics of the works. Fascinated by Bach and his music, she searches for traces in Leipzig, Weimar, Köthen and Berlin: How did the concerts come about? What makes them so unique? And what is the truth of the claim that they were a secret application of Bach?