GERMAN CO-PRODUCTION PRESENCE AT DOC EDGE FILM FESTIVAL
Doc Edge Festival 2022 | © Doc Edge
The Doc Edge Documentary Film Festival is held annually in Auckland and Wellington screening the best documentaries from New Zealand and around the world. This year’s forum and festival will be held both digitally and in person. The following five German co-productions will be featured this year:
The Strait Guys
Director: Rick Minnich
Germany, Canada, Finland | 2022 | 99 min
A rail tunnel under the Bering Strait: a utopia, a vision, a mission. But also reality?
A grumpy, Czech-born mining engineer and his fast-talking protégé join forces with Russian visionaries. They dare to try the impossible – to link the United States and Russia with a 100-kilometre railroad tunnel beneath the Bering Strait.
Viral Dreams
Directors: Sagi Bornstein and Udi Nir
Germany, Israel | 2021 | 90 min
Seven young people from across the world share their exciting plans for the year ahead. Suddenly the virus arrives. Their world explodes.
The unprecedented times unfold right before their eyes. From the pandemic, through to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the US elections, the film depicts the resilience of these Gen Z’ers.
Composed entirely of videos uploaded to social media over the course of 2020, this is the story of a generation growing up in a rapidly changing world.
Angels of Sinjar
Director: Hanna Polak
Poland, Germany | 2022 | 110 min
One brave woman’s quest to keep a promise to her dying father and free her sisters, who were held captive by ISIS.
Once the largest settlement of the Yezidis in Iraq, Sinjar today is nothing but endless rubble. Following the 2014 ISIS attack, the Yezidis were executed, brainwashed, tortured, raped and forced into sexual slavery, all of which were meant to wipe out their peace-loving community forever.
Angels of Sinjar traces Hanifa and her footsteps to fulfil her promise of reuniting her family and presents riveting testimonies of genocide survivors.
Balance of the Five Elements
Director: Jan Hinrik Drevs
New Zealand, China, Germany | 2022 | 100 min
Time is Infinite. Nothing is Permanent.
Studying and applying the Five Elements to daily life has become immensely popular throughout the world. This ancient Chinese philosophy known as Wu Xing accepts that everything in the universe is in a constant state of change. This holistic philosophy, closely linked to Daoism, is thousands of years old. In our turbulent times it is still as relevant as ever.
In this epic cinematic exploration German director, Jan Hinrik Drevs, asks how we might achieve balance and harmony amidst the complexities and challenges of modernity.
Speer Goes to Hollywood
Director: Vanessa Lapa
Israel, Austria, Germany | 2021 | 98 min
The implausible second career of the ‘Good Nazi’.
Albert Speer is an enigma. The highest-ranking Nazi in Nuremberg to be spared the death sentence, Speer was one of Hitler’s closest confidants and his chief architect, tasked with rebuilding Berlin as the capital of a global empire. And yet, even now, he has the reputation of being the ‘good Nazi’ – a myth he carefully constructed himself.
Speer Goes to Hollywood investigates rare archival materials selected to look beyond his words to ponder whether this eloquent but ultimately self-serving narcissist was recording history or recording his story.