Make Me a German

Documentaries showing faces and places that make up the way we live today.

A depiction of the last living generation of German participants in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

In this documentary, filmmaker Nick Broomfield follows the saga of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who has been accused of committing a brutal series of murders. Broomfield conducts interviews with Wuornos herself, and his crew films her trial as well as her interactions with religious fanatic Arlene Pralle, who gives Wuornos dubious advice and legally adopts her. The cameras also roll as the accused's attorney ignores the case at hand to negotiate a deal to sell his client's story.

A documentary crew from the BBC arrives in L.A. intent on interviewing Heidi Fleiss, a year after her arrest for running a brothel but before her trial. Several months elapse before the interview, so the crew searches for anyone who'll talk about the young woman. Two people have a lot to say to the camera: a retired madam named Alex for whom Fleiss once worked and Fleiss's one-time boyfriend, Ivan Nagy, who introduced her to Alex. Alex and Nagy don't like each other, so the crew shuttles between them with "she said" and "he said." When they finally interview Fleiss, they spend their time reciting what Alex and Nagy have had to say and asking her reaction.

Monologuist Spalding Gray talks about the great difficulties he experienced while attempting to write his first novel, a nearly 2,000-page autobiographical tome concerning the death of his mother. Among his many asides, Gray discusses his problems in dealing with the Hollywood film industry, recounts the trips he took around the world in order to avoid dealing with his writer's block and describes his ambivalence about acting as stage manager for a Broadway production of "Our Town."

After decades of rising house prices, many of the North London Hasidic Jewish community are relocating 50 miles east to the more affordable Canvey Island, Essex: a Brexit stronghold voted 'the most English place in Britain'. This film follows the reactions of the island’s Anglican and agnostic residents as they get to grips with their new neighbours. It has the potential to be a culture clash, but leaders on both sides of the sea wall are determined that good neighbourly relations will prevail. The film follows Chris Fenwick, island native and manager of rock band Dr Feelgood, as he organises a party for both communities with social integration at the top of the menu. With Anglican priest David Tudor and key Hasidic elders on side, can Chris join the new Canvey Island community together in peace and integration?

Still in his role as the innocent Brit in Africa, ludicrously encumbered by earphones and microphones, Broomfield turns to Chicco Twala - one of South Africa's black millionaires.

Documentary which follows three gangs of migrant Irish street workers as they tunnel beneath the streets of London to lay pipes.