FILMS

THE FACES OF EUROPE: BOATS AT THE HILL - THE SKOWRONSKI´S PLEASANT LIFE We are in West Masuria, known as "Ermland", a former part of East Prussia. South of Gdansk lie many lakes some of them connected by a canal. This man-made waterway is 140 years old and acted originally as a goods canal serving the Baltic Sea. Today the canal is used only by tourists. more ...

THE FACES OF EUROPE: LIFE WITH THE GLACIER The glaciologist Benedikt Schnyder lives and works in the Swiss Canton Wallis amongst the snow-covered alpine peaks of the winter sport resort Saas-Fee. For 35 years he has been observing the development of the glaciers, the retreat of the ice and its connected environmental damage and dangers that result from it. more ...

THE RUSK MANUFACTURER BRANDT - THE FAIRYTALE OF THE BAKER AND HIS SON Thinking of your childhood evokes memories of Zwieback: the smell coming from the just opened packet with its child's face, the crumbs scratching you in bed while convalescing from a bout of flu, the dipping of the slices into hot milk or cocoa. more ...

THE FACES OF EUROPE: NATURE IN A BOTTLE The greatest asset of Spa, the world-famous health resort, is its water with a low mineral content. Three hundred springs can be found in and around Spa, and the quality of their water has remained pure and unchanged to this day. more ...

THE REFLECTED GAZE: THE ART OF SELF-PORTRAITS FRIDA KAHLO While living, Frida Kahlo was famous as the wife of the legendary Diego Rivera. She was famous as an "exotic princess with immense powers of seduction", well experienced to deal with "genius men". more ...

THE REFLECTED GAZE: THE ART OF SELF-PORTRAITS EDVARD MUNCH How important a place the self–portrait can take in a painter's work is emphasized by Edvard Munch. He created Self–Portraits; painting, drawing, using lithography, wood cutting and etching, ending up with an extensive autobiography of portraits. more ...

THE FACES OF EUROPE: DANGEROUS IDYLL BETWEEN MAAS AND WAAL "The green heart" is the name the Dutch have given to an inland polder region between the Meuse and the Waal rivers. The idyllic impression of this water landscape with its lush sheep pastures and its thatched cottages can be deceptive. more ...

THE FACES OF EUROPE: WHEN THE EARTH IS BOILING Thinking of Iceland, hot water fountains, the geysers, appear before your inner eye; bubbling springs shooting boiling water from the depth of the Earth: Iceland – personification of life on a volcano in the middle of the North Atlantic near the Arctic Circle. more ...

A RIGHT TO LIVE - AIDSMEDICATION FOR MILLIONS When Krisana Kraisintu can't sleep at night she is thinking of the pregnant women that didn't even know what AIDS or HIV is. For them and all the other women, men and children that suffer from the deadly disease Ms Kraisintu, who used to run the research department of the pharmaceutical organisation of the Thai government more ...

INDUSTRIAL DYNASTIES IN NORTH RHINE WESTFALIA: THE VORWERKS - BEATING, BRUSHING, DUSTING The Vorwerk & Co KG was founded in 1883 by a family from Wuppertal. At the top of the company today is Dr Jörg Mittelsten Scheid, the great–grandchild of Carl Vorwerk. The company managed to get a foot in the electrical industry around 1929 by developing a handy mini vacuum cleaner more ...

INDUSTRIAL DYNASTIES IN NORTH RHINE WESTFALIA: THE UNDERBERGS - A WORLD IN GREEN The Underbergs – the secret of their success is hidden in a little straw–paper wrapped bottle. In 1846 Hubert Underberg mixed in Rheinberg/Lower Rhine the legendary herbal bitters and founded the Underberg Company. His grandson Emil specialized after WW II on 20ml bottles more ...

PRESENCE OF MIND - THE PSYCHOANALYST MARGARETE MITSCHERLICH The 87 year old German psychoanalyst Margarete Mitscherlich is astonishingly curious and unprejudiced. She watched and analysed people and their behaviours all her life. She now thinks psychoanalysis is an essential part on the way to finding the truth. more ...

THE PROVOCATEUR - DANIEL COHN-BENDIT He is the "enfant terrible" of the German Green Party. He is showman, giver of impulses, intransigent thinker, someone that wants to distribute his political convictions amongst the people. Daniel Cohn–Bendit grew up in Paris as the child of German Jews. In the Paris Spring of '68 he, the sociology student, became one of the leaders of the student revolt. more ...

POPPY - FLOWER OF SLEEP The poppy, especially the opium poppy, is a plant with an ancient cultivation history. In the Orient the seed was used as a spice and as ingredient to meals and drinks with aphrodisiac intent. In Europe of the early modern age the poppy juice was favoured as painkilling addition to witch's salves and other miracle tinctures. more ...

GOOD LUCK! - THREE LIVES IN COLLIERY he miner's Family Spranger–Novaczick used to work over generations in the Colliery "Zollverein" in Essen. Father Spranger had come here from Thuringia after WW II to work in the coal mines. The ancestors from the Novaczicks emigrated from Poland. more ...

ATTEMPTS AT LOVE - A PORTRAIT OF WERNER SCHROETER He is thought to be a non–conformist, photogenic, politically consistent and opera loving; always dressed in black with an inclination to dramatic self–aggrandizement and kitsch: Werner Schroeter is 58 years old; a theatre, film and opera director and conscious eccentric. more ...

DREAMS OF SPACE - PANORAMIC VIEWS BY MARTIN LIEBSCHER Martin Liebscher unfolds his visions of space in photographic works of several metres in length. His city–scapes talk to us of the excitement of modern life and describe in a poetic, almost artistic way a world that knows no standstill. more ...

AND YET LIFE WAS BEAUTIFUL - A PORTRAIT OF HILDEGARD KNEF "And yet life was beautiful..." is a portrait of an extraordinary woman that counts amongst the few international stars that Germany brought forward in the last century. more ...

THE BOSS - A PORTRAIT OF ALICE SCHWARZER On 3. December 2002 Alice Schwarzer turned 60. She did not like that one bit, as her story shows very clearly: She is a woman brimming over with energy, endless strength and a certain instinct for power. "Power", she said once "is not obscene. It is necessary should you really want to change something". more ...

ROYAL CHILDREN ROMY SCHNEIDER AND ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA - A DOUBLE PORTRAIT 1854 the Bavarian princess Elisabeth was crowned empress in Vienna. From this moment on the Austrian people idolized the 16 year old and saw her as their lucky charm, turning her into an almost religious figurehead. more ...