Techs: QUEER EXILE BERLIN,
Germany 2023, 105 mins, 16:9, stereo or 5.1, DCP, English, German
original language with English subtitles (EN version) or German
subtitles (DE version)
Currently
in development or production
2018-2019
In development AIDS TRILOGY (working title)
tv documentaries
Since 2019
In development UNTITLED (AT) (feature
documentary)
Since
2021 In production GRAN CANARIA LOCKDOWN
Since 2022
In production EUNICE'S JOURNEY (working
title) feature documentary
Since 2020
In production THE DEMO TAPES (working
title) documentary series
MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN Feature length documentary. World premiere at
Berlin Film Festival 2017 and now on festivals worldwide!
Original title: MEIN WUNDERBARES WEST-BERLIN / Documentary, 97 minutes,
Color and B&W,
16:9, Stereo 5.1
Detailled
information at www.my-wonderful-west-berlin.de.
Facebook at www.facebook.com/mywonderfulwestberlinthefilm
Today's hip image of Berlin is based on the city’s vibrant and
subversive subcultures, which originally emerged within the grey walls
surrounding West Berlin. The queer scene played a major role in
creating that subculture, with its sexual diversity and its wild and
unconstrained party culture, ranging from the notorious clubs to CSD.
Many of the scene’s actors, such as the Gay Museum, the Teddy Award,
AIDS help organizations, and the queer magazine Siegessäule originated
before 1989.
Yet gays in West Berlin suffered greatly under an incongruous provision
in German law - the infamous 'Paragraph 175’ - that made homosexual
acts between men a crime up until its reform in 1969. Raids and arrests
in bars were common, yet ultimately failed in suppressing gay life in
West Berlin. Instead, the city turned into a gay capital. The late
seventies in particular were a period of great sexual and political
freedoms and more intense social intermingling between the gay-,
hetero-, and transsexual worlds. Then AIDS struck, wrecking greater
havoc in Berlin than in any other German city.
After OUT IN EAST BERLIN (2013), MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN describes gay
life in the western half of the city in the dynamic period between the
end of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall, all the while referencing
current social issues. The stories and experiences of political
activists, party-goers, hedonists, club owners, musicians, fashion
designers, a DJ, and a make-up artist paint a vivid picture of the gay
scene in that period. The use of never before seen archival film
footage completes the picture by allowing viewers to travel through
time to a hitherto unknown West Berlin.
MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN explores the historic roots of the fascinating
city, that is a dream destination and a place of refuge for gay men
form across the world to this day. The film is the second part of
filmmaker Jochen Hick’s Berlin trilogy, the final part of which will
focus on the period after the fall of the Wall, up until today.
Supported
by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderung Hamburg
Schleswig-Holstein, MFG Filmföderung Baden-Württemberg und Deutscher
Filmförderfonds
Film
started in Germany on June 29 in 13 German cities. In Berlin film
started in 8 theatres plus special screenings in additional tehatres.
German theatrical release by Salzgeber
Medien
THE GDR
COMPLEX Feature documentary.
Theatrical start in
Berlin Nov 10, 2016, all over Germany from Jan 19, 2017!
World premiere at
Berlin International Film Festival / Berlinale 2016
(Panorama section).
Detailled information at www.the-gdr-complex.de.
Original
title: DER OST-KOMPLEX / Documentary, 90 minutes, Color and B&W,
16:9, Stereo 5.1
Screenings @ 66.
Berlinale / Panorama (2016)
Sa 13.02. 17:00 Kino International (E) (Premiere)
So 14.02. 14:30 CineStar 7 (E)
Mo 15.02. 16:00 Colosseum 1 (E)
Fr 19.02. 17:00 CineStar 7 (E)
THE GDR COMPLEX on Facebook!
Press contact
Berlinale: Andreas Strohfeldt as@galeria-alaska.de Festival
requests: festival@galeria-alaska.de
Synopsis:
Being
gay, young and conservative, Mario Roellig is one of the most in-demand
witnesses to the atrocities committed by the GDR (former German
Democratic Republic). He guides groups through today’s memorial site in
the former Stasi (state security) prison where he was once
incarcerated. Roellig confronts GDR aficionados and is also confronted
by people who
still believe in social utopias and who also talk about freedom
(without ever mentioning the GDR).
The film unveils a strange atmosphere of misunderstandings and failures
to communicate. Mario still awaits an apology from his tormentors while
simultaneously being ridiculed by some hardliners.
More than 25 years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall the process of
coming to terms with the past has just begun.
Techs, cast & team:
Funded by Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. Coproduced by
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
Additional information soon on www.the-gdr-complex.de
and here on our portfolio page.
Main protagonist: Mario Röllig
Author, director, producer: Jochen Hick
Co-worker, research, boom operaator, assistant director: Andreas
Strohfeldt
Editor:
Thomas Keller
Re-recording
mixer: Mathias Ludwig
5.1 surround mixer: Michael Kaczmarek
Camera: Jochen Hick & Nicolai Zörn (rbb)
Assistant camera: Timo Kahlenberg (rbb), Jeanine Strehle
Consultant: Karin Wallenczus
Production managers: Hermann Hick & Ursula Scheid
Production managers rbb: Rainer Baumert, Bärbel Kreimes-Lück
Commissioning editor: Rolf Bergmann (rbb)
OUT IN
EAST-BERLIN North American distribution with Nancy Fishman
Releasing
News
article: Nancy Fishman picks up OUT IN EAST BERLIN. Contact and festival information:
nancy@fishmanfilm.com
Our
new doc OUT IN EAST BERLIN at
Berlinale 2013 (Panorama). Theatrical start in
Germany 31 October 2013.
Our new feature length doc with spectacular archival
materials, exciting stories and interesting protagonists is shown at
the Berlinale 2013. For more information in English pls. click here. For
press reviews (English & German) pls. click here.
Link to Trailer
English.
Press contact during Berlinale: press@galeria-alaska.de
Andreas Strohfeldt.
For Berlinale catalogue page click here.
Link to review in The
Hollywood Reporter
All of our documentaries now
out on DVD in English or with English
subtitles.
Please check them out on our order page. For shipments from and
within Germany pls. check the German
order page with a wider range of films and products. Please note,
that we do not deliver titles into countries, where they have already
been released on DVD by local distributors. You will find a list of
those local distributors on our distribution pages.
EAST/WEST - Sex &
Politics at FFGLP Festival in Paris in
November 2010.
Interview with Jochen Hick in the February 2009
edition of
EX-BERLINER, Berlins English sepaking magazine as PDF
or as only
text version.
THE GOOD AMERICAN premieres at Berlin Film Fest and many other festivals
(@ SZIGET Budapest in August 2010).
For more information about the film
please click here!
For the english
press booklet as PDF in English pls. click here. Press
contact: press@galeria-alaska.de.
EAST/WEST - Sex &
Politics Jochen Hicks documentary about the
political fight and situation of Moscows "sexual minority" at festivals
abroad.
For
further
information please click here.
RAINBOW'S END the
new version still showing on festivals worldwide. Out in Europe on DVD.
Released in the U.S. by Frameline, San Francisco.
More information here.
With the advent of same sex marriage, homosexuals have achieved
near-equality in much of Europe. Everything is rosy, so why should they
keep on fighting? A revealing and exciting journey from the center to
the borders of Europe.
The recently accomplished documentary contains exclusive stories,
portraits, interviews and footage of various events in Geneva (United
Nations), Poland, London, Windsor, Amsterdam, Kiev, Minsk, Egypt and
Lebanon. It also features an exclusive interview with the Gay mayor of
Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
Original
Flyer for EFM: Front
Back
Techs: a documentary by Jochen Hick &
Christian Jentzsch - photography: Jochen Hick edited by Jörn Hartmann -
produced by GALERIA ALASKA PRODUCTIONS/Jochen Hick - coproduction: ZDF
in cooperation with ARTE (Claus Josten) - durations: 75’ (festival,
video, theatrical), 63’ & 58’ (tv) commentary - versions: English,
German - ratio: 1:1,33 - subtitles available: English, German, French,
Spanisch, Portuguese, additional language versions on request. More
detailled information at our PORTFOLIO area.
For United States bookings, festivals
requests and educational distribution pls. contact Maura King at FRAMELINE
DISTRIBUTION: www.frameline.org.
HALLELUJAH!
Short about the Pope's visit in
Cologne on many international Filmfestivals!
HALLELUJAH! (Documentary, Germany 2006, 6 Minutes,
written by
J. Hick & Karin Wallenczus, directed, filmed and produced by:
Jochen Hick, editor: Jörn Hartmann).
World Youth Day, Cologne, 2005: The Pope is on his way in the
Papamobile, but there are still three hours to kill. Enough time to
sing and praise the Lord. A few gays and lesbians have come by too,
with their own songs.
"A wonderful and comical snapshot."
Bernd
Sobolla in Deutschlandradio Kultur
"The Berlin short film festival offers the
rare
opportunity to watch a great film of Jochen Hick. In "Hallelujah" Hick
documents the frenetically awaited Pope's visit un Cologne from an
interetsting perspective. Long before the Papamobil arrives, Christian
youth and homosexual counter demonstrators collide (...)"
Siegessäule Berlin 11/06
Festivals (not complete): Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen
(Wettbewerb), Clermont-Ferrand, San Francisco G&L, ExGround
Wiesbaden, Dokumentarfest Kassel, Shadow Festival Amsterdam, Filmfest
Lünen, Barcelona G&LFF and many more.
CYCLES OF PORN - Sex/Life in L.A. Part 2 now out on DVD in Europe and the U.S..
CYCLES OF PORN at 55th Berlin International Film Festival.
Festival and press contact: juttaplatte@galeria-alaska.de.
Link to Berlinale
film archive sheet (external link). Some press excerpts
as PDF-File or all on press page.
US distribution with TLA Releasing www.tlavideo.com.
US DVD start expected for 2006. Theatrical
start in Germany www.cyclesofporn.de!
"MOVIEGOERS PRAISE GAY
ADULT
DOCUMENTARY -'Cycles of
Porn – Sex/Life
in L.A., Part 2' opened the Panorama section of the Berlin Film
Festival this week to rave reviews. Feb 11, 2005, Peter O'Conner in
X-BIZ
"BERLIN
CHEERS DOCUMENTARY ON GAY PORN FILMS -
A documentary about the lives of aging porn actors that throws a
harrowing spotlight on the gay film industry in Los Angeles opened the
Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival Friday to an enthusiatic
reception. One of many films at this year's Berlinale examining sex and
pornography, "Cycles of Porn -- Sex/Life in L.A. Part 2" by German
filmmaker Jochen Hick takes its audience on a riveting journey into the
world of low-budget sex films." Feb 11, 2005, Erik Kirschbaum in
REUTERS
TALK STRAIGHT - The World Of Rural Queers
TALK STRAIGHT - The World Of Rural
Queers on many film festivals worldwide. Theatrically released and
shown on tv in Germany. It is now available on DVD in German (German
Version).
The L.A. premiere of TALK STRAIGHT became #4
pick of
all cultural events of the week for the Greater Los Angeles area in the
online edition of the Calendar Weekly (Los Angeles Times).
Please see also "Screening Room" column in the printed edition of Los
Angeles Times of June 17 and Variety Review of
January 2004.
"Not to be missed Jochen Hicks smart, funny,
moving
documentary TALK STRAIGHT - The World Of Rural Queers, in
which Jochen Hick leaves the queer heaven of Berlin to the Swabian
countryside to explore, what is is to be a provincial gay man." LA WEEKLY June 2004
Stills from TALK STRAIGHT - The World of Rural Queers
"Impossibly optimistic, outrageously clever
and camp
as concentration will allow."
Jerry Springer, MCV Arts, Melbourne
Clicke here for more press quotes!
Teddy Award 2003 for Best Doucmentary for
TALK STRAIGHT
- The World of Rural Queers. That's what the
jury said. So far more than 60 festival inivitations around
the world. Theatrical start in Germany on December 25, 2003 on five
screens in Berlin. General start in Germany in February. Poster by
Artworker/Gerd Huss (German poster on index site)
Quick guide to this site
If you are interested in our production services or if
you
are looking for a line- or co-producer, please check our services at ABOUT US.
There you will find as well a (downloadable) profile of our company.
PORTFOLIO
will show some of the films and projects we´ve realized through today.
Details about current projects (in development / production / post
production) are listed under COMING UP. In the DOWNLOAD
- area you will find press releases, text and audio
documents and printable stills, which can be saved on your hard disk.
If you are interested in buying a video, renting a film print for
theatrical release or licensing some of your products for national or
international markets, please check the DISTRIBUTION
- area.
In any event, we are glad to see you here. Looking forward to your
feedback we will be happy to answer any questions you might have at: mail@galeria-alaska.de
Talk Straight -
The World of Rural Queers - No One Sleeps - Sex/Life in L.A. -
Menmaniacs (The Legacy of Leather) - Via Appia - Höchste Eisenbahn -
Airport Frankfurt - Wohnen in Berlin - Gerd Hansen, 55 - Willkommen im
Dom - Hohe Absätze wirken Wunder - Veronika und der Briefträger - Wie
entsteht ein Wolpertinger - Mond über Pittsburgh - Outing (Der heisse
Stuhl) - Rekrutenausbildung in der Bundeswehr - Spiegel TV Reportage -
Teufel im Paradies - Allein unter Heteros - Das falsche Loch - Ich kenn
keinen - Straight Talk - The World of Rural Queers - EAST/WEST Sex
& Politics - THE GOOD AMERICAN - Out in East-Berlin - Lesbians
& Gays in the GDR - DDR unterm Regenbogen - Out in Ost-Berlin -
Lesben und Schwule in der DDR