Ralph Quinke

A behind-the-scenes documentary of "The Black Rider/Der schwarze Reiter" or "The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets" a "musical fable" in the avant-garde tradition created through the collaboration of theatre director Robert Wilson, musician Tom Waits, and writer William S. Burroughs. The story is based on a German folktale called "Der Freischütz", which had previously been made into an opera by Carl Maria von Weber. Here we meet the makers and the ensemble of the Thalia Theater production in Hamburg that opened on March 31, 1990.

This series presents the definitive history of the Cultural Revolution, its background, and aftermath, blending an incredible array of documentary footage with discussion by Chinese contemporaries, diplomats, and scholars, including Roxanne Witke, the only Westerner to interview Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing.