dbate - Video Diaries

„You have Cancer!" – many who hear this diagnosis are looking for advice from people who got over the illness, or from those who are still fighting. The web gives them the opportunity to build themselves up with help from others experiences. It's about fears, hopes, also about practical advice. This documentary gives a very intimate insight into the life of patients. It shows their life of suffering and their fierce exposure with the disease. Seven cancer patients from Germany and North America take us on their journey – from the diagnosis, the first therapy, backlashes and glimmers of hope, until the healing – or the goodbye.

Today the web gives an answer to almost every question – tutorials for mobile-reparations, singing, cooking and even survival tips. The documentation puts spotlight on the booming phenomenon of counseling via video stream. Six German youtubers tell us about their experiences of spreading their knowledge and abilities to a consistently growing audience. They talk about the pressure of commercialization, their ways to Youtube-fame and the hard critics coming from the viewers.

Youtube is the perfect platform for self-display. Many people present themselves and their body to a very critical community here. Eight German bloggers tell stories about their very personal body image between bodybuilding, obsession with slenderness, plastic surgery and tattoo cult. The wish for transformation unites them all. They document the difficulties connected to this topic and describe their motivation to self-display.

How does the web change our sexuality? How do relationships differ in Germany, Japan and the USA? How does the state interfere with the sexual life as it does in Russia? Which problems do couples have in India or Turkey? In this documentary people from six different countries speak open about sexuality and gender roles in their society. The interview partners live in Japan, Germany, India, Turkey, the USA and Russia. Also video bloggers show their own recordings that give an insight into the sexual moral of their society.

One year after the bloody climax of the Maidan riots, the film looks back on the problems in Kiev. What was the goal of the protestors? How did it come to the escalation? And how do Ukrainians evaluate the incidents of 2013 and 2014? In My Revolution - Video Diary from Kiev eyewitnesses report on the revolution and its consequences.

One year after the bloody climax of the Maidan riots, the film looks back on the problems in Kiev. What was the goal of the protestors? How did it come to the escalation? And how do Ukrainians evaluate the incidents of 2013 and 2014? In My Revolution - Video Diary from Kiev eyewitnesses report on the revolution and its consequences.

Neo-Nazis that chase homosexuals. And president Putin adds fuel to the flames. He signs the bill that treats homosexuality the same as pedophilia. How is life under fear of death? The video diary My life Under Putin shows how enemy stereotypes are being created in Putins Russia, how rights of minorities are cut back by law and their life is put in danger.

There are many rumours about North Korea but only few impartial informations. Not much has been said about the every day life of North Koreans. In the video diary My Trip to North Korea – Inside Kim Jong-un’s Empire six travelers report about their visit to the isolated country.

What brings a riot to escalation? Why do protests so often turn into pure violence and which role does the police play? In the video diary My Riot people from different countries report about their motivation on taking part in the youngest civil commotions, their relationship to the police and what was the straw that broke the camels back.

Bombed-out streets, hunger and death. What do people experience in times of war? How does their every day life look like? The press photographer Christoph Bangert has been to Iraq and Afghanistan and documents the horrors of war in brutal images. In My War victims document with self-made videos their struggle and their experiences in the war zone.

In January Albert Nisman the Argentinian special investigator was found dead, the inflation is rising and the distrust of the population towards politicians increases. In the video diary My Argentina residents and political activists talk about their every day life.