A queer poet navigates heartbreak through writing, techno, and self-destruction.
Since 2013, the Casual Gabberz collective has been storming dancefloors and the stages of the biggest festivals with its gabber surge, that hardcore techno sound born in Holland in the 90s. Until a virus causes the planet to go haywire. And triggered an existential crisis within the collective.
Nikita loves to listen to techno music and dreams to go to Berlin and visit the famous club “Berghain”. His mother Irena doesn’t know about his son’s dreams and soon enough their mutual expectations will clash.
While the student Nora is having a party in her flat, Martin and Sabine are enjoying their anniversary together. However, what seems like cheerful normality turns into a nightmare during the evening as secrets and scandals are revealed. The relationship between Nora and her mother Sabine has been strained for years. Nora condemns Sabine for her mendacious dealings with Nora's biological father and her relationship with the artist Martin. When an anonymous social media account publishes several scandalous photos during the evening, the tide seems to turn in her favour. But the shocking secrets and intrigues of her friends are also made public, causing a much larger façade of lies to begin to crumble. The situation escalates until nothing is left but the plain truth.
An unnamed passer-by is forced to trace a circular route inside an abandoned tram station, facing loss and time. The broken walls act as a channel, transmitting fragmentary, blurred and analogical memories.
In an apartment, a party is in full swing. Sitting on a sofa, Perez is hypnotized by a group of four girls facing him.
At the end of the Cold War, something new arised that should influence an entire generation and express their attitude to life. It started with an idea in the underground subculture of Berlin shortly before the fall of the Wall. With the motto "Peace, Joy, Pancakes", Club DJ Dr. Motte and companions launched the first Love Parade. A procession registered as political demonstration with only 150 colorfully dressed people dancing to house and techno. What started out small developed over the years into the largest party on the planet with visitors from all over the world. In 1999, 1.5 million people took part. With the help of interviews with important organizers and contemporary witnesses, the documentary reflects the history of the Love Parade, but also illuminates the dark side of how commerce and money business increasingly destroyed the real spirit, long before the emigration to other cities and the Love Parade disaster of Duisburg in 2010, which caused an era to end in deep grief.
Centered on Recife's LGBTQ + electronic scene and the dynamics of its party production, FRERVO is a documentary that follows the experience of the people who organize these events in parallel with the performance experiences developed there. The relations between the existence of these bodies and what they cause in the urban space demarcate the political territory they occupy.
New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert unpack a playlist of electro, pop and new wave classics spanning four decades. Stephen and Gillian have been married for 24 years and have been in New Order together for even longer, but they still manage to surprise one another with their musical tastes. While Stephen declares Captain Beefheart an early influence, Gillian confesses her teenage love for a disco classic. During an hour of top tunes, Stephen also reveals the moment he was mistaken for Stevie Wonder, and Gillian recalls how her Dad was a fan of punk. From Kraftwerk to Can, David Bowie to Kate Bush, Magazine to Grace Jones and many more, this stellar playlist by Stephen and Gillian is brimming with iconic performances.
Wayward Canadian, Matthew, crushed by the isolation of being new to Berlin, turns his sexual desires toward Matthias that spiral into a dark fixation of assumed identity. Soon, this obsessive power struggle between the two, careens toward brutal passion and violence in a bid for dominance.
Under the auspicious name "Magical Mystery" the Berlin techno label BummBumm Records wants to go on a rave tour. Karl Schmidt aka Charly himself was once an aspiring artist on the scene, until he retired after a nervous breakdown five years ago. Since then he lives in a supervised withdrawal WG in Hamburg. Now, as a driver and custodian for the party-loving DJs and their producers, he becomes part of "Magical Mystery", trying to lead a self-determined life after years of patronizing and well-intentioned advice.
Featuring the pioneers of techno music Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Carl Craig, and Jeff Mills, Never Stop takes us into the fascinating universe of techno labels in Detroit. This film highlights the deep roots of the creation, more than thirty years ago, by each of the African-American pioneers of techno music, of their own record labels.
XOXO follows six strangers whose lives collide in one frenetic, dream-chasing, hopelessly romantic night.
The definitive acid house documentary
Techno celebrated its 25th birthday in 2013. It has become a culture in its own right, ranking among trendy music, and bringing together millions of people worldwide. Its DJs have become veritable stars. It is a global, worldwide culture, and its creators and fans alike share its common denominators of hedonism, a thirst for freedom, and a sense of suspended time via its musical trances. Thanks to Internet, but also thanks to emblematic festivals, the Techno movement is today undergoing exponential growth. What are the codes and the creative processes of this worldwide culture? Who are the leading players of this global movement? How does this music influence contemporary creation, and increasingly, the economy?
This documentary gives a voice to organizers, DJs and party guests. Through their memories and confessions as well as unpublished videos and photos 20 years of history come back to life.
What’s the “Seilscheibenpfeiler”? What is the origin of the first Modeselektor tracks? Where is Monkeytown? Why is riding a coach more fun than flying? These and many more questions will be answered with the documentary film We Are Modeselektor. In 72 minutes, filmmakers Romi Agel and Holger Wick tell the story of Modeselektor as a post-German reunification movie, a travel report, and a portrait of the special friendship between Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary all in one. We Are Modeselektor is the story of two men, possessed by techno, who took their massive beats from their small hometown village to the world. And it’s a story that has only just begun.
Lose Your Head is a psycho thriller about a Spanish party tourist who gets lost in Berlin. The film is inspired by the true story of a young Portuguese man who disappeared some years ago after a night at Berghain.