André Schäfer

For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of the masses, was quite simply their most important weapon. Government authorities monitored the production of feature films and the military itself produced documentaries aimed at rallying the American people to support the troops. This film tells the story of four Hollywood directors of European origin, who returned to the "Old World" during the Second World War to make propaganda documentaries for the US Army at the front: William Wyler from Alsace, Frank Capra from Italy, Anatole Litvak from Ukraine and - in post-war Germany - Billy Wilder from Austria.

Explores how Hitler’s personal library provides a look into his mind and how it significantly informed his worldview.

In the 19th century, Baden-Baden was the summer capital of Europe. The city is particularly attractive to Russians. With Dostoyevsky and Turgenev come two authors who share a deep dislike for each other: Turgenev loves the West; Dostoyevsky hates him. He is passionate about playing roulette, a game that is banned in his homeland...

Documentary about German comedian Loriot alias Vicco von Bülow, who would have been 100 years old in 2023.

A funny walk through the life story of Billy Wilder (1906-2002), a cinematic genius; a portrait of a filmmaker who never was a boring man, a superb mind who had ten commandments, of which the first nine were: “Thou shalt not bore.”

The biography of Hildegard Knef – born in Ulm in 1925, died in Berlin in 2002 – reflects post-war and divided Germany. It also reflects the vitality, hypocrisy, and sensationalism of our society and the media that feeds it. The film features numerous original interviews with Knef, excerpts from feature films, concert recordings that testify to her stage presence, which is still incredible today, as well as TV reports from Berlin, New York, and elsewhere. In addition to her, friends and relatives, contemporary witnesses, colleagues, and journalists also have their say.

The history of Playboy magazine as told by Hugh Hefner.

Race tracks are places of longing. But only the Nürburgring in the Eifel is truly spectacular and idyllic at the same time. Loved by fans, feared by drivers: Dozens of bends, many of them with illustrious names: Schwedenkreuz, Karussell, Fuchsröhre, Bergwerk, Brünnchen. To mark the 100th anniversary of the ground-breaking ceremony in 1925, this documentary tells the story of the ups and downs of the Nürburgring.

In 2001, Jimmy Wales published the first article on Wikipedia, a collaborative effort that began with a promise: to democratize the spreading of knowledge, monopolized by the elites for centuries. But is Wikipedia really a utopia come true?

Documentary on the history of gay and lesbian film.

The collar of his coat turned up in New York: Images which have collaborated on building a myth – the image of eternal and misunderstood youth. Unlike Marlon Brando, the proletarian rebel with identifiable goals, James Dean was the timeless and androgynous youthful rebel. His death on the Interstate 46 leads us back to 1950s America, a time when youth was re-interpreted all anew.

Documentary about the song “You'll Never Walk Alone,” the most famous sports anthem of the world.

The first episode is a journey of discovery through the northern Irish Midlands. With their mountains and lakes, vast moorlands, cultural history, and the open-hearted nature of their inhabitants, they are the true lifeblood of the Emerald Isle.

A feature film that traces the 50-year journey behind Confessions of Felix Krull, revealing the writer’s hidden struggle with his homosexuality. Though a literary superstar with a polished, upper-class façade and a married life with six children, Mann’s diaries expose an insecure man suppressing deep desires. The film follows Mann’s creative and personal exile—from Eltville to Paris and Lisbon—using archival letters and diary entries alongside dramatized scenes. It blurs the lines between Mann and his seductive alter ego Felix Krull, both masters of deception navigating identity, longing, and survival amid exile and political upheaval. This hybrid documentary unveils the fragile, often hidden man behind the myth.

The man who invented James Bond: The story of Ian Fleming, real-life spy, ladies' man and sportsman, who was there at the birth of MI-5 and the CIA, and gave the world one of its most enduring and iconic heroes: Bond. James Bond.

The second episode is a journey of discovery through the southern Irish Midlands. This is where the heart of Ireland beats. Largely unknown, this region reveals worlds of scenic beauty, tradition, and Irish cheerfulness—despite the decidedly changeable weather.

The extraordinary story of Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), creator of Nils Holgersson, a memorable and legendary literary character, and the first female storyteller to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1909); a woman as pioneering in her life as in her remarkable work.

Life in the GDR was not only documented on behalf of the state, but also by photographic artists and journalists. The documentary goes on a journey through time with some of them and shows little-known aspects of the GDR from its foundation to the fall of the Wall. Photographers in the GDR had a surprising amount of freedom; there was no explicit censorship of images. This allowed them to make visible what the state wanted to hide. This documentary presents two photographers who observed life in the GDR and whose work has been rediscovered in recent years.

British author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the world's most translated author: her heroes, private detective Hercule Poirot and amateur sleuth Miss Marple, are known the world over. But who is the woman behind her bestsellers? A biographical search for clues, the unraveling of an iridescent personality whose existence and works were shaped by the tragic history of the 20th century: the eventful life of the Queen of Crime.