Germany: A Regional Geography
Release date: 1964-01-01
Votes: 1
Genres: Documentary
A BAFTA award nominated documentary intended for secondary schools exploring the three distinct geographical regions of Germany from a British perspective.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
This is an example of one of those rather dryly narrated documentaries that we might have seen at school. It divides the country of West Germany into three segments and uses the Rhine river as a conduit for much of our tour. The West and South is a major source of timber and home to Heidelberg University. Further upstream, the Mosel joins at Koblenz - famous for it's wines. The Rhine gorge is narrow but it carries a great deal of trade before hitting Bonn and then Cologne - itself an important intersection of trade routes and very close to the vast Ruhr coalfields and the industrial heartland of a country linked extensively by a network of canals. Next we head to the uplands in the North. The odd volcanic feature and reservoirs that feed hydro-electric power stations are all that's left of the once prosperous silver mining community. It's intensively, and surprisingly traditionally, farmed now with some peculiarly spooky clocks on ornately decorated town halls and some typical twisted church spires. Frankfurt now thrives as an industrial centre - even amidst the violent thunderstorm we see here! Lake Constance separates Germany from Austria and Switzerland and is dotted with towns and villages that can trace their origins back to Roman times. Munich is now the regional centre - "the place of monks": the last bastion before the Alps rise up steeply fit for hay and little else. The Bavarian community is deeply Catholic in faith and the buildings frequently reflect that with their external illustrations and roadside icons. With winter looming, the farming community reconvenes at a lower altitude to avoid the excesses of the alpine conditions. Finally, we heard to the part of the territory that stretches from the Baltic to the North sea, includes Berlin and, of course, the entirety of what constitutes East Germany. Fishing is important to this community as are the muddy spas. The Kiel canal is an impressive structure even if it's importance to shipping has largely diminished. Lübeck is not now what it once was but Hamburg on the Elbe has proved much more adaptable following its near destruction during WWII. Indeed much of the thrust of this latter part focusses on the speed with which Germany has recovered from the war and we end up in the capital city - a vibrant and diverse city that still shows signs of it's Nazi past and illustrates the wall poignantly with the DDR flag flying from the Brandenburg gate.
Movie Recommendation
Sonic Youth: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (April 12, 2003)2003-04-12Filmed April 12, 2003 at a benefit concert held at and for The Anthology Film Archives, the international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of avant-garde and independent cinema. In addition to screening films for the public, AFA houses a film museum, research library and art gallery. The event, which raised money for the Archives and celebrated the life and work of avant-garde film maker Stan Brakhage, featured Sonic Youth providing an improvised instrumental collaboration with silent Brakhage’s films. The band performed with drummer/percussionist Tim Barnes (Essex Green, Jukeboxer, Silver Jews).More...
Heal the Living2016-11-01The intersecting lives of teens on a surfing trip, a woman with a weak heart and two teams of doctors and medical experts.More...
Sharknado 2: The Second One2014-07-31A freak weather system turns its deadly fury on New York City, unleashing a Sharknado on the population and its most cherished, iconic sites - and only Fin and April can save the Big Apple.More...
Hero2007-09-08After six years away, D.A. Kuryu Kohei (Kimura Takuya) returns to his former Josai branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, just in time for a brewing storm. Kohei's first case starts out simple enough. The suspect, a blonde-haired security guard, had already confessed to manslaughter, but he suddenly retracts his confession and takes things to court with big-shot defense attorney Gamo (Matsumoto Koshiro). It turns out that the security guard is a key alibi witness in a high-profile political corruption case, and the results of his case will directly affect the next. With the media, politicians, and a special investigative team breathing down his back, Kohei must handle the case with care (and flair) to find out the truth.More...
Grudge Match2013-12-25A pair of aging boxing rivals are coaxed out of retirement to fight one final bout -- 30 years after their last match.More...
Standing Tall2015-05-13The film tells the story of Malony and his education as he grows from a six-year-old into an 18-year-old. A minors’ judge and a caseworker work tirelessly to try to save the young offender.More...
Helter Skelter2004-07-23The rise of Charles Manson and his "family," who are responsible for a series of famous murders in the late 1960s. Manson, a magnetic and mysterious man, attracts road-weary single mother Linda Kasabian to join his collection of outcasts on a ranch outside of Los Angeles. After murdering actress Sharon Tate, Manson and his followers are investigated by district attorney Vincent Bugliosi.More...
Gomorrah2008-05-16An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.More...
The Lobster2015-10-15In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into animals and sent off into The Woods.More...
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes1972-06-29In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, a chimpanzee named Caesar resurfaces after almost twenty years of hiding from the authorities, and prepares for a revolt against humanity.More...
Funny Girl1968-09-19The life of famed 1930s comedienne Fanny Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of New York, to the height of her career with the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as her marriage to the rakish gambler Nick Arnstein.More...
Laurence Anyways2012-05-18The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred and a transgender woman named Laurence who reveals her inner desire to become her true self.More...
The Grifters1990-08-08A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.More...
Blue Ruin2014-04-25When the quiet life of a beach bum is upended by dreadful news, he sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. However, he proves an inept assassin and finds himself in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.More...
Offering to the Storm2020-07-24Inspector Amaia Salazar confronts the origins of her nightmares as she unfolds the darkest secrets of the Baztan valley. Part 3 in the Baztan Trilogy.More...
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde2003-07-02Now a rising young lawyer, Elle Woods is about to make partner at her firm, but when she finds out her dog's relatives are being used as cosmetic test subjects, she heads to Washington D.C. to fight for animal rights.More...
The Sicilian Clan1969-12-05An ambitious mobster plans an elaborate diamond heist while seducing the daughter-in-law of a ruthless mob patriarch as a determined police commissioner closes in on all of them.More...
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood2019-07-24Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…More...
Anomalisa2015-12-30An inspirational speaker becomes reinvigorated after meeting a lively woman who shakes up his mundane existence.More...
Another Woman1988-10-13Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.More...
Similar Movies
Night and Fog
1959-04-27Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.Blood Money: Inside t...
2021-02-02How did Nazi Germany, from limited natural resources, mass unemployment, little money and a damaged industry, manage to unfurl the cataclysm of World War Two and come to occupy a large part of the European continent? Based on recent historical works of and interviews with Adam Tooze, Richard Overy, Frank Bajohr and Marie-Bénédicte Vincent, and drawing on rare archival material.Germany: A Summer's F...
2006-10-03A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.Counter Shot: Departu...
2008-02-11There is no descriptionWhite Man with Black ...
2007-01-13Christof Wackernagel, best known in Germany as an actor and former member of the Red Army Faction ("RAF") lives in Mali. In his compelling portrait, Jonas Grosch shows a man who simply cannot stand still if he senses injustice. The courage to stand up for one’s beliefs coupled with vanity? However one chooses to look at it, it is easy to imagine what made him connect with the "RAF". With his irrepressible will for freedom, Christof Wackernagel gets entangled in the horrors of day-to-day life in Africa.AN OCEAN
2021-03-27The trembling starts in his neck when Markus gets closer to the images that have chased him for 49 years. Now he steers his motor home south, as far away from his past as possible.Sieg im Osten
1993-10-05The army of the GDR, called NVA had not survived the reunification of Germany, it was completely absorbed by the Bundeswehr and scrapped subsequently. But what apparently went on so smoothly as a peaceful unification of hostile brothers quietly left deep scars in the East German landscape.Tatort Ostsee - Wer s...
2023-09-26There is no descriptionGermany in Autumn
1978-03-03Germany in Autumn does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of Germany during the late 1970s. The movie covers the two month time period during 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped, and later murdered, by the left-wing terrorists known as the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction). The businessman had been kidnapped in an effort to secure the release of the orginal leaders of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. When the kidnapping effort and a plane hijacking effort failed, the three most prominent leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all committed suicide in prison. It has become an article of faith within the left-wing community that these three were actually murdered by the state.The Unpredictable Fac...
2022-11-03In today's climate debate, there is only one factor that cannot be calculated in climate models - humans. How can we nevertheless understand our role in the climate system and manage the crisis? Climate change is a complex global problem. Increasingly extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and more difficult living conditions - including for us humans - are already the order of the day. Global society has never faced such a complex challenge. For young people in particular, the frightening climate scenarios will be a reality in the future. For the global south, it is already today. To overcome this crisis, different perspectives are needed. "THE UNPREDICTABLE FACTOR" goes back to the origins of the German environmental movement, accompanies today's activists in the Rhineland in their fight against the coal industry and gives a voice to scientists from climate research, ethnology and psychology.Breath of Freedom
2014-02-17In World War II. African-American GIs liberate Germany from Nazi rule while racism prevailed in their own army and home country. Returning home they continue fighting for their own rights in the civil rights movement.The Ugliest Car
2017-05-30The youngest protagonist of the documentary is Wartburg, an automobile over 50 years of age. The car is still on the road, driven by Bogdan, a 70-year-old who is taking his mother to visit the German factory where she was forced to work during WWII. In this road movie which takes place between Majdanpek and Germany, the trip becomes a journey into the past, retracing memories from the war and revealing a unique relationship between an old son and his elderly mother.Wolves Return
2019-11-07Wolves divide and fascinate us. 150 years after they were driven to extinction in Central Europe, they are returning slowly but inexorably. Are they dangerous to humans? Is it possible to coexist? Using Switzerland as a point of departure, where wolves have returned in the very recent past, this documentary sheds light on the wolf situation in Austria, eastern Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and even Minnesota, where freely roaming packs of wolves are more common sight.Peter Eisenman: Build...
2009-02-20This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect Peter Eisenman. Reaction of the German public to the completed memorial is also shown.Der grosse Kanton
2013-05-16Is the solution to Switzerland's future to integrate Germany into the confederation? After all, like Michael Ringier, CEO of the Ringier media group, says, blithely ignoring all minorities, we're very close in culture and language. Oskar Freysinger takes out his guitar and sings his answer. Politicians from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino think expanding will help the country survive. The former German foreign minister thinks the two countries' traditions are too different. The banker Oswald Grübel is worried about Germany's debts, although he'd be prepared to take over its assets. With serious interviews interspersed with gags (boat people on Lake Constance, the last Habsburger as a peasant), Giaccobbo gathers off-the-cuff reactions which reveal a lot about the different mentalities. The movie laughs at preconceived notions, redefines neutrality and reflects on what designates a nation. Switzerland, which loves to teach the world a lesson, will soon helvetize the planet, oder?The Nuremberg Trials
2006-01-30One journalist described it as a chance "to see justice catch up with evil." On November 20, 1945, the twenty-two surviving representatives of the Nazi elite stood before an international military tribunal at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany; they were charged with the systematic murder of millions of people. The ensuing trial pitted U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge Robert Jackson against Hermann Göring, the former head of the Nazi air force, whom Adolf Hitler had once named to be his successor. Jackson hoped that the trial would make a statement that crimes against humanity would never again go unpunished. Proving the guilt of the defendants, however, was more difficult than Jackson anticipated. This American Experience production draws upon rare archival material and eyewitness accounts to recreate the dramatic tribunal that defines trial procedure for state criminals to this day.Nuremberg: The Nazis ...
2006-10-25The documentary of the Nuremberg War Trials of 21 Nazi dignitaries held after World War II.Italia '90
2010-06-06Uli Köhler and Nick Golücke have visited the protagonists of the 1990 World Cup 20 years after their championship win and looked back together. The Writers Nick Golücke and Uli Köhler have, 20 years after World Cup triumph of the German national soccer team in Rome in 1990, visited the protagonists of back then once again and indulge with them together in memories.Spielball der Weltpol...
2021-05-06It is an unknown chapter of the German post-war history: On April 23rd, 1949, the kingdom of the Netherlands occupied German soil as a pledge for demanded war reparations. Part of the annexed territories was also the small municipality of Elten. While the people of Elten were initially afraid of the occupation, the time “with Holland” actually became a miracle of prosperity and economy about which many people from Elten still rave today. The occupation period ended with the largest organized smuggling in the history of the federal republic of Germany. The Documentary shows this in never before released 8 mm footage!The Team
2014-11-13Documentary about the victorious German national football team - called "Die Mannschaft" - and their journey to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.