Black Box BRD

Last updated

Black Box BRD
Black Box BRD.jpg
German release theatrical poster
Directed by Andres Veiel
Written byAndres Veiel
Produced by
CinematographyJörg Jeshel
Edited byKatja Dringenberg
Music byJan Tilman Schade
Distributed by Warner Home Video
Release date
  • 24 May 2001 (2001-05-24)(Germany)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

Black Box BRD is a 2001 German documentary film written and directed by Andres Veiel. The film deals with West German politics of the 1970s and 1980s, a period marked by turmoil and the highly publicized activities of the left-wing terrorist group known as the Red Army Faction (RAF). [1]

Contents

The film focuses on the lives and deaths of Alfred Herrhausen, a prominent banker and chairman of the Deutsche Bank who was assassinated in 1989, and Wolfgang Grams, member of RAF who was a suspect in the attack on Herrhausen and who later shot himself in the head while being chased by the German police in 1993. A number of relatives, friends, and colleagues of both men were interviewed for the film.

In Germany the film was released in May 2001, and then re-released in September 2002. It was screened at a number of festivals and won several awards in 2001 and 2002, including the 2002 German Film Award for Best Documentary Film and the 2001 European Film Award. [2]

In the United States the film was shown on PBS, retitled as Black Box Germany.

Awards

YearAwarding BodyAwardNomineeResult
2001 European Film Awards Best DocumentaryAndres VeielWon
2002 Bavarian Film Awards Best Documentary Andres Veiel Won
2002 German Film Awards Best Documentary Zero Film GmbHWon

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Army Faction</span> Far-left wing militant organization from West Germany

The Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang, was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998. The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered a fascist state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term "faction" when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF a terrorist organization.

<i>Schindlers List</i> 1993 film by Steven Spielberg

Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel Schindler's Ark (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish–Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Aronofsky</span> American filmmaker

Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, melodramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent Cassel</span> French actor (born 1966)

Vincent Cassel is a French actor. He has earned a César Award and a Canadian Screen Award as well as nominations for a European Film Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

<i>Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl</i> 2003 film by Gore Verbinski

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl  is a 2003 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film is based on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney theme parks and is the first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The film stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. The plot follows the pirate Jack Sparrow (Depp) and the blacksmith Will Turner (Bloom), as they attempt to rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Knightley). The trio encounters Captain Hector Barbossa (Rush) and the crew of the Black Pearl, who are afflicted by a supernatural curse.

Wolfgang Grams was a member of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a German far-left militant organisation from 1970 to 1998. Grams' death, officially while resisting arrest, caused a major political scandal and the circumstances continue to be debated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Burnett (director)</span> American film director

Charles Burnett is an American film director, film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. His most popular films include Killer of Sheep (1978), My Brother's Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007). He has been involved in other types of motion pictures including shorts, documentaries, and a TV series.

<i>Dark Blue World</i> 2001 film by Jan Svěrák

Dark Blue World is a 2001 war drama film by Czech director Jan Svěrák, the Academy Award-winning director of Kolya. The film is about Czech pilots who fought for the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. The screenplay was written by Zdeněk Svěrák, the director's father. The film stars Czech actors Ondřej Vetchý, Kryštof Hádek and Oldřich Kaiser. British actors include Tara Fitzgerald, Charles Dance and Anna Massey.

<i>The Longest Day</i> (film) 1962 epic historical war drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck

The Longest Day is a 1962 American epic historical war drama film based on Cornelius Ryan's 1959 non-fiction book of the same name about the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox, and is directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki. The screenplay was written by Ryan, with additional material written by Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall and Jack Seddon.

Mauro Picotto is an Italian electronic music producer and DJ, and previously a member of the Italian Euro house group "R.A.F.". He became well known as a solo artist with songs including "Komodo ", "Pulsar", "Iguana", and "Lizard". He has collaborated with other electronica/trance musicians such as Tiësto and Mario Più.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonas Åkerlund</span> Swedish director

Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund is a Swedish filmmaker and musician who is best known for his work in music videos. Åkerlund was a member of the Swedish black metal band Bathory. He has directed well-known videos for artists such as Queens of the Stone Age, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Blink-182, Blondie, Duran Duran, Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Jamiroquai, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Metallica, Moby, Ozzy Osbourne, P!nk, the Prodigy, the Smashing Pumpkins, Rammstein, Britney Spears, the Rolling Stones, U2, Robbie Williams and Ghost.

<i>A Yank in the R.A.F.</i> 1941 American black-and-white war film directed by Henry King

A Yank in the R.A.F. is a 1941 American war drama film directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Betty Grable and John Sutton. Released three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II, it is considered a typical early-World War II production. Originally titled The Eagle Squadron, it is based on a story by "Melville Crossman", the pen name for 20th Century Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. It follows an American pilot who joins the Royal Air Force (RAF), during a period when the United States was still neutral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of the Netherlands</span>

Cinema of the Netherlands refers to the film industry based in the Netherlands. Because the Dutch film industry is relatively small, and there is little or no international market for Dutch films, almost all films rely on state funding. This funding can be achieved through several sources, for instance through the Netherlands Film Fund or the public broadcast networks. In recent years the Dutch Government has established several tax shelters for private investments in Dutch films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Herrhausen</span> German banker (1930–1989)

Alfred Herrhausen was a German banker and the Chairman of Deutsche Bank, who was born in Essen and assassinated in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe in 1989. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group and from 1971 onwards a member of Deutsche Bank's management board. An advisor to Helmut Kohl and a proponent of a unified European economy, he was also an influential figure in shaping the policies towards developing countries. He was assassinated, when an explosively formed projectile penetrated his armoured convoy. West German far-left terrorist group Red Army Faction claimed responsibility, but the charges against the organisation were dropped due to lack of evidence and nobody has been charged with the murder since.

<i>A Beautiful Mind</i> (film) 2001 film by Ron Howard

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical drama film about the mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, played by Russell Crowe. The film is directed by Ron Howard based on a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the 1998 biography by Sylvia Nasar. In addition to Crowe, the film's cast features Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. The story begins in Nash's days as a brilliant but asocial mathematics graduate student at Princeton University. After Nash accepts secretive work in cryptography, he becomes liable to a larger conspiracy, through which he begins to question his reality.

The BRD Trilogy consists of three films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder: The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982). The films are connected in a thematic rather than in a narrative sense. All three deal with different characters and plotlines, but each one focuses on the story of a specific woman in West Germany after World War II. The three letter acronym "BRD" stands for Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the official name of West Germany and of the united contemporary Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Mangan</span> English actor (born 1968)

Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).

<i>Target for Tonight</i> 1941 film by Harry Watt

Target for Tonight is a 1941 British World War II documentary film billed as filmed and acted by the Royal Air Force, all during wartime operations. It was directed by Harry Watt for the Crown Film Unit. The film is about the crew of a Wellington bomber taking part in a bombing mission over Nazi Germany. The film won an honorary Academy Award in 1942 as Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. Despite purporting to be a documentary there are multiple indicators that it is not quite as such: film shots include studio shots taken from the exterior of the aircraft looking into the cockpit whilst "in flight"; several stilted sections of dialogue are clearly scripted; on the ground shots of bombing are done using model trains; and several actors appear, including Gordon Jackson as the young rear gunner. The film does give a unique insight into the confined nature of the Wellington's interior and some of the nuances of day to day operation such as ground crew holding a blanket over the engine while it starts to regulate oxygen intake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andres Veiel</span> German film director

Andres Veiel is a German film and theater director and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Kufus</span> German film producer

Thomas Kufus is a German film producer especially known for documentary films.

References

  1. McMadden, Connor. "Black Box BRD". Allmovie . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  2. "Awards for Black Box BRD". Internet Movie Database . Retrieved 7 March 2011.