Monika Abspacher

Zubin Mehta is one of the most charismatic conductors of our time. A citizen of the world with many facets: Indian culture and Parsi spirituality, North American lifestyle and European musical tradition. The portrait accompanies Zubin Mehta to current places of activity and important stages of his life. [arte.de]

The phone call from Sybille was usual. Her family didn't even know that this call just started their last fine day...

They do not earn millions, yet they are happy nonetheless: Maria Meissner (87), Josef “Sepp” Schmid (74), and Rudi Egerer (65) have spent most of their lives working for FC Bayern. Maria still cleanses the trophies nowadays, Sepp still washes and prepares the jerseys of the players in the basement, and Rudi is still the bus driver. They are simple people who may have access to the glamourous world of the big stars, but who never wanted to adopt to the ‘modern times’ unconditionally. They have remained side characters and experience their club from a special angle: Being witnesses of the development from a people’s sport to star cult and commercialisation.

Christian Blackwood's fascination with the open road has led him to visit some interesting places and even more interesting people, several of whom are the subjects of this unique documentary. It's a road movie set just off the road, at the type of unassuming overnight lodging most travelers take for granted. The director's natural curiosity enables him to separate uncommon individuals (mostly women) from their otherwise common surroundings: a trio of owner/managers in Santa Fe; the wives and girlfriends of men behind bars in Florence, Arizona (including one touching May/December romance); and (best of all) the eccentric dancer who, single-handedly, revived the old Amargosa Opera House in the semi-ghost town of Death Valley Junction, California. The film is a reminder that everyone has a story to tell, and those related here are too unusual to be anything but the truth.

Christian Blackwood's fascination with the open road has led him to visit some interesting places and even more interesting people, several of whom are the subjects of this unique documentary. It's a road movie set just off the road, at the type of unassuming overnight lodging most travelers take for granted. The director's natural curiosity enables him to separate uncommon individuals (mostly women) from their otherwise common surroundings: a trio of owner/managers in Santa Fe; the wives and girlfriends of men behind bars in Florence, Arizona (including one touching May/December romance); and (best of all) the eccentric dancer who, single-handedly, revived the old Amargosa Opera House in the semi-ghost town of Death Valley Junction, California. The film is a reminder that everyone has a story to tell, and those related here are too unusual to be anything but the truth.

Documentary filmmaker Christian Blackwood profiles controversial Filipino director Lino Brocka, detailing his rags-to-riches rise in the mainstream film industry of the Philippines. Primarily using interviews with the effusive director himself, Blackwood allows Brocka to describe, in his own terms, the common thematic threads tying together his work, from his own homosexuality to the political repression suffered by Filipinos at the hands of Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorial government.