Background

The ‘Mundus Archive’ collection offers insights into various parts of the world through documentaries, interviews, and B-roll footage, telling stories and showcasing encounters between people of different cultures. The documentary ‘Between Two Worlds’ accompanies nomads in Niger, while ‘Bad Weather’ sheds light on the plight of sex workers in Bangladesh, who are directly and existentially affected by the climate crisis. ‘Pinochet's Children’ reports on the generation that grew up under Chile’s dictatorship. The five-part documentary series ‘Harbours. Gateways to the world’ accompanies passenger ships on their journeys across the world's oceans, docking in ports on three continents, while ‘MS Völkerfreundschaft’ documents the GDR's first cruise ship of the same name on its journey across the Baltic Sea. The documentaries are complemented by unique and largely unknown B-roll material, including footage from the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, filmed by Andy Skrzypkowiak. Another integral part of the ‘Mundus Archive’ is the extensive collection of interviews and B-roll material by documentary filmmaker Joachim Tschirner. His footage of Berlin in the 1990s documents the city's transformations and developments after the fall of the Berlin Wall, capturing places such as the Hackesche Höfe, the Spandauer Vorstadt, and the Scheunenviertel. It also showcases institutions of the alternative arts and cultural scene, including Tacheles, the Sophienclub, and the Chamäleon Varieté. The documentary ‘The Aral Sea – Where Water Ends, the Earth Ends’ and its accompanying B-Roll footage document one of the greatest human-made environmental disasters. Additionally, interviews with Russian and American astronauts, along with footage from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Star City (Swjosdny Gorodok), the Kennedy Space Center, and the astronaut bar ‘The Outpost Tavern’, provide insights into the development of Russian and U.S. spaceflight after the end of the Cold War.