ECO Media

In 2020, the USA experienced a multiple catastrophe: No other country in the world was hit so badly by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic slump was dramatic, and so was the rise in unemployment. A rift ran through society. In the streets there were protests of both camps with violent riots, authoritarian traits were evident in the actions of the leader of the nation. And all of this in the middle of the election year, when the self-centered president fought vehemently for his re-election. From the start of his presidency, Donald Trump had divided American society, incited individual sections of the population against one another, fueled racism, hatred, xenophobia and prejudice, insulted competitors and denigrated critical journalists as enemies of the people. The documentary shows how this could happen and what role the targeted disinformation of certain sections of the population through manipulative media played.

January 6, 2021 marks a turning point in U.S. history. The storming of the U.S. Capitol brings the United States to the brink of a political abyss. An angry, armed mob invades the Congress building to prevent Joe Biden from being officially confirmed as the winner of the 59th U.S. election and thus becoming the 46th President of the USA. The lie about Donald Trump's stolen election victory explodes into violence, five people die in the heart of U.S. democracy. The attackers' actions are documented almost completely, as is the helplessness of the security forces. Since then, most of the perpetrators have been identified and charged. But the rift in society continues. Many Republican congressmen remain with Trump, a renewed candidacy for the presidential election in 2024 is still possible. The attack on the U.S. Capitol leaves a shock with all convinced democrats. How could it possibly come this far? This documentary tries to reconstruct and analyze from very different perspectives.

A retrospective on the great election battles of the past in the United States: the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the first ever to be televised; the Republican campaign of 1972, which proved to be the starting point for the Watergate scandal; and the electoral strategy of Barack Obama in 2008, the first election to fully exploit the potential of the Internet.

Though Henry Kissinger is often giving short statements to the media, he refuses detailed interviews about his own life. Now he has agreed to answer questions about his person in an extensive documentary.

In 1987, a small film distributor from Frankfurt/Main brings the film "Dirty Dancing" to West German cinemas against all negative odds. The film becomes the hit of the year, in complete contrast to France, where foreign films have a hard time against the local film landscape.

Castro has outlived generations of US Presidents, Soviet General Secretaries, CIA Directors and would-be assassins. This film offers a psychological profile of the Cuban revolutionary, and a deeply intimate account of his life based on private letters, correspondence, speeches and interviews. It features interviews with some of Fidel Castro's closest relatives, close friends and committed enemies.

Shortly before ten o’ clock in Karlsruhe. Bustle in the court room. The rituals before a major court ruling have been exactly the same for decades. The issues are evolving with the times. ARD law expert Frank Bräutigam is right at the centre.

Mosquitoes - a plague that can even be life-threatening. Exotic mosquito species are conquering Europe - and they can spread dangerous tropical diseases. Author John A. Kantara looks for the latest findings from climate researchers, mosquito exterminators and genetic researchers who are trying to get to grips with the problem with sometimes risky experiments.

While it has been debated for many years, new evidence might finally put one debate to rest: Marco Polo has gone to China. Explore the mysteries of the historical figure in this documentary.

At the beginning of the 1980s, a group of Germans ventured into a social experiment: in the remote hills of Umbria, they founded a self-sufficient community beyond consumerism and bland gainful employment. After 40 years, the rural commune still exists. Not all the plans have come to fruition over the years. How are the dropouts doing today?

Shortly after their formation in Easter 1982, the Düsseldorf punk band "Die Toten Hosen" lead the Stasi around by the nose: the musicians Campino, Andi, Breiti, Kuddel and Trini give a secret concert in a church, in the middle of what was then East Germany. In "Auswärtsspiel - Die Toten Hosen in Ost-Berlin" this unique event is now comprehensively told for the first time.

Over the past twenty years, there has been a growing protest against the widespread sexual assaults committed within the Catholic Church. Yet, even today, few victims come forward to testify openly. In Germany, it wasn't until 2010 that the taboo was broken, when former pupils of a Berlin Catholic secondary school told of being assaulted by Jesuit priests. Suddenly, the "isolated cases" argument no longer held water, and numerous other cases came to light. In France, until recently, the Church has shown a profound indifference towards victims, as illustrated by the Bernard Preynat affair.

Today the steamer is called "Liemba" and is probably the oldest regularly operating liner in the world. Its original owners named it after the German Africa explorer Graf von Goetzen. The ship was commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1913 to support German protection troops in the African colonies. It made its way from the Ems to Lake Tanganyika in what was then the colony of German East Africa in 5,000 crates by ship, rail and even on foot. There, three Papenburg engineers assembled the ship and received a "tropical surcharge" for it. And when the First World War broke out, "Graf Goetzen" even presented itself as a gunboat. The film describes the eventful and sometimes involuntarily funny story of this floating museum piece from the perspective of people whose lives were or are fatefully linked to the ship: Germans, Belgians, Britons, Tanzanians. A piece of colonial history and a journey through recent Tanzanian history, maybe a touch of "Fitzcarraldo".