MAKING THE BOYS
 
by Crayton Robey
SELECTED FOR BERLINALE 2010!
2010, Culture, 90', USA
English
The Boys in the Band is a groundbreaking play that earned historical significance by being the first successful work to authentically depict gay characters. The play found surprising success and became a must-see phenomenon around the world. It had an impact on mainstream and gay audiences in a way no creative work about homosexuals had ever done before. It stood alone for years as the premiere depiction of the gay lifestyle.
Simultaneously praised for being a landmark moment in gay visibility, and yet often condemned for reinforcing stereotypes, The Boys in the Band became Hollywood's first film about gays and sparked a controversy that still exists four decades later. Featuring anecdotes from the surviving cast and filmmakers, as well as perspectives by legendary figures from stage and screen, MAKING THE BOYS traces the behind-the-scenes drama and lasting legacy of this cultural milestone.
makingtheboys.com
Produced by 4th Row Films
 
ROCK HUDSON, dark and handsome stranger
 by Andrew Davies & André Schäfer
SELECTED FOR BERLINALE 2010!
2010, Culture, 58' & 90', Germany
English
There are two reasons to revive interest in the Hollywood star Rock Hudson in 2010: If he had not died of AIDS 25 years ago, it would have been his 85th birthday in November 2010. The film portrays a very male looking gay leading man who had to perform a secret balancing act between the heterosexual Hollywood world and the dark side of closeted sexuality. In fact he was someone who always needed to tell lies. He had to become a very good actor even in real life.
The film includes interviews with his French doctor Dr. Philippe Siou and Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Rock’s American doctor who became the first physician to describe a new disease that would later become known as AIDS, friends like Stockton Briggle and his personal secretary Mark Miller, Yanou Collart, his French PR manager, Armistead Maupin, bestselling author, Richard Dyer, film historian, Robert Hofler, author of the book “The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson”, Richard Anderson and Salome Jens, co-stars of “SECONDS”, Leonard Stern, producer of Hudson's TV series “McMillan&Wife” and Hollywood reporter Rona Barrett.
Produced by Florianfilm GmbH
EDIE & THEA: A Very Long Engagement
by Susan Muska & Greta Olafsdottir
2009, Culture, 59', USA
English
After 42 years, feisty and delightful lesbian couple Edie and Thea are finally getting married. From the early '60s to the present day, the tireless community activists persevere through many battles, both personal and political. These two compassionate and brave women are a model of courage and strength that speaks to everyone, of any age. Through this film audiences will recognize that dancing, like loving, can continue at any age, and rediscover the timeless message “Don’t postpone joy”. Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir (The Brandon Teena Story) return with a love story of two remarkable women whose commitment to each other is an inspiration to us all.
Audience Award for Best Documentary Outfest 2009
Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary Skeive Filme 2009
Audience & Director's Club Award for Best Documentary Reel Pride 2009
Audience Award for Best Independent Feature Documentary Image Out 2009
Docula-Award for Best Documentary Hamburg Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2009
and many others!!
Produced by BLESS BLESS PRODUCTIONS
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MADE, DORIS DAY SUPERSTAR
by Andrew Davies & André Schäfer
www.dorisdaysuperstar.com
2009, Culture, 52' & 90', Germany
English/German
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MADE, DORIS DAY SUPERSTAR is an endearing account of Doris Day's life and career delivered in a quirky and fun way. It's as cute and as wholesome as the lady it is about - offering a fascinating insight into Doris's distant Germanic roots, her hardworking days in Hollywood and twilight years retired with her dogs in a picturesque and pet-friendly town. Covering serious and respectful journalism which actually enables Joe Public to impartially appraise the woman who is a cultural icon of the 20th and 21st century.
With a healthy dose of movie, television and song clips which represent all facets of Doris Day the entertainer; unique material from private archives; all-new interviews with actors Philip Brown, Peter Graves, Jackie Joseph and Noah Keen, biographers Pierre Patrick and Tom Santopietro, Doris Day fans, childhood acquaintances and even distant relatives from Germany.
This is all wrapped up with some fascinating on-location filming of historical landmarks and buildings relevant to Doris Day's family, career and life from her birth place of Cincinnati, her current home town of Carmel-by-the-Sea to the German province. A 2008 telephone conversation between Doris and the film's makers is also notably contained which occurred during Doris's annual "birthday" call-in on her local radio station with DJ Ed Dickinson [where the production team were visiting].
A timely reminder of what a difference having Doris Day has made to the world.
Produced by Florianfilm Gmbh
LET'S PLAY, BOY!
The cultural and economical phenomenon called Playboy
 by André Schäfer & Ingmar Trost
2008, Culture, 59', Germany
English/German
Back in December 1953, the 27 years old Hugh Hefner published the first Playboy Magazine in Chicago, and the American system of values – God, family and work – got muddled up forever. There was no match for Playboy or for its founder. At the head of the company was a man whose lifestyle stimulated men’s fantasies just as much as the magazine itself. Hugh Hefner, hedonist, icon of virile machismo and the most famous playboy in the world. Initiator of the sexual revolution, a fighter for civil rights and supporter of the arts, a liberal saint – or, after all, just an amoral materialist, chauvinist and pornographer? Fact is, no other magazine has had such an impact on American and Americanised culture as the glossy Playboy from Chicago.
Today, Playboy is one the five best known brands in the world alongside Coca Cola and McDonald’s. According to the Far Eastern Economic Review Playboy is even the most popular brand in the People’s Republic of China – a country in which the its most famous product, Playboy Magazine, is categorised as pornography, i.e. illegal. But the Chinese know absolutely what Playboy represents: sex, beautiful women – and sophistication. And in India too, the sexual revolution, thanks to Playboy, is just a step away.
LET’S PLAY, BOY tells the story of the cultural and economical phenomenon called Playboy – in times in which the species “playboy” seems to be dying out: An acute evaluation of the broad impact both the Playboy magazine and the brand have had over the past 50 years.
Produced by Florianfilm Gmbh
MONSTERLAND
 by Jörg Buttgereit
produced by Avanti Media2008, Culture 59' & 70', Germany
English/German/Japanese
Nothing is more unsettling than the fear that just below the ordered surface of our world something lies slumbering which could suddenly awaken to unleash chaos on us. Such nightmarish visions haunt the last untouched wilderness, descend upon us from outer space, or lurk within us, waiting to arise from the depths of our psyche.
Monsterland journeys through time and around the world, exploring diverse monster types, from the origins of the latex monster in devastated postwar Japan to the aliens and serial murderers of 1980s American cinema, and on to the rise of King Kong's digital descendants in the face of 21st-century terrors. One after another, a broad spectrum of monsters emerges that mirrors the range of our fears and longings.
With the nostalgic gaze of a monster fan, Monsterland traces the history of the genre while probing the deep-seated human fear of, and longing for, violence and destruction. From this kaleidoscope of terror comes the sweet chill that only a true monster can send down one's spine.
With: John Carpenter, Greg Nicotero, Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Teruyoshi Nakano, Kenpachiro Satsuma, H.R. Giger, Shinya Tsukamoto, Joe Coleman
And clips from: Halloween, King Kong, Godzilla, Alien, Tetsuo, Frankenstein, Virus Undead, The Howling, Monster X Strikes Back.
FLIGHTS OF FANCY
The Visionary Spirit of Contemporary Airports
 A new series produced by Florianfilm
2008, Culture/Architecture, 4 x 26', Germany
various languages
FOUR EPISODES, FOUR AIRPORTS
It seems that almost a hundred years after the era of the great railway stations, the vast and lofty architecture of the age of steam was reincarnated in the form of streamlined cathedrals of flight at the end of last century.
The series FLIGHTS OF FANCY shows - by means of four international major airports - contemporary architecture of the superlative.
Kansai International Airport – Osaka
It was opened in 1988 and was designed by the Italian architectural star Renzo Piano. Within the seemingly monumental terminal, silver support beams deliquesce upwards to form a framework which - when looked upon from the outside - looks like the wings of a gigantic bird.
Denver International Airport
Designed by Curtis Fentress, this is one of the most renowned architects of the United States. Fentress and his office are situated in Denver, and for his design he let himself be inspired by the snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains nearby. The snow-white roof of the main creates the impression of an icy mountainscape with 34 peaks by day, whilst by night it conveys the image of a glowing ridge which promises the passengers looking out of their plane’s windows, a near arrival.
Pudong International Airport of Shanghai
Opened in time for the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on the 1st of October 1999. The design of China’s new calling card was taken over by no-one other than the French architectural legend Paul Andréu. With its monochrome structure the Shanghai Pudong Airport appears almost sacral. The grand floor space made of polished grey granite reflects the roof’s structure, which is seemingly interspersed by long white cylinders.
Barajas Airport, Madrid
The new terminal belongs amongst the most ambitious projects of the British master-builder and Pritzker-Award-winner Richard Rogers. Embedded in an artificial valley, the terminal picks up the composition of the Spanish plateau and melts, at the same time, via the separate roof with the surrounding mountainscape.
LENIN ONLY GOT AS FAR AS LÜDENSCHEID
 by André Schäfer
2008, Culture, 88', Germany
English/German
Lenin only got as far as Luedenscheid looks at the ‘68' movement in an entertaining and affectionate light. With an ironic and self-ironic look, both author Richard David Precht and documentary filmmaker André Schaefer paint the picture of a childhood in a West German province and reflect on the big events of those years in a different, smaller and very personal way.
Born at a time marked by political upheaval in Germany and the rest of the world, Richard David Precht remembers the socialist universe of his childhood: his family creates a small left-wing universe in the midst of a capitalistic enemy country. Father Precht reads Marx and Engels, while Richard mistakes these bearded men for famous animal lover Brehm. Richard develops his very own view of the world, where the GDR is a gigantic and heavenly zoo, protected by a high wall. Mother Precht distinguishes sharply between good and bad, socialism and capitalism; thus Coca Cola is considered as unacceptable at home as is Star Trek. On the other hand Richard and his siblings, two of whom were adopted from Vietnam, may read Asterix comics because they are French and therefore somehow subversive, and anyhow the Romans are members of the occupying forces - almost like Americans.
Besides Precht, the film also features his siblings and several other family members, archive footage, documentary footage about the foster family made by German Broadcaster WDR, and re-enacted scenes on Super 8 mm film.
Produced by Florianfilm Gmbh
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