Creative Producing
As a service provider, VIVE LA DOK accompanies projects completely from the development stage to completion and/or supports authors or production companies at various stages of their projects: From the idea to the finished film.
VIVE LA DOK also provides selective support, such as in the financing of projects (acquisition of broadcasters, procurement of co-production partners); in national/European funding applications; in the preparation for pitches; in the writing of film projects; in the production phase; in the handling of post-production and here especially in the creation of German and English language versions (incl. casting & language direction).
A LIFE ON TAPE
KOBERSTEIN FILM - 2021
A LIFE ON TAPE/ KOBERSTEIN FILM
A film by Melanie Lischker /1×75 min /WDR/arte. Supported by BKM
Creative Producer Development
Development Treatment / Financingb/ applications funding bodies / broadcaster aquisition
Synopsis:
With more than 100 hours of Super 8- and video material filmed by her father, the director dives into her Western-German childhood, a growing-up deeply marked by the successive disappearance of her mother until her early death.
Using this unique treasure of archive material, the director – 25 years later – meets the members of her family and embarks on a journey to her female roots.
„Life on Tape – Pictures of my mother“ is a unique document of a time and – in drawing a bow through the decades – investigates the engagement of three generations of women with the traditional role allocations of their time.
World premiere: Competition DOK.fest Munich 2021
LOST WOMEN ART
Koberstein Film
- 2020
LOST WOMEN ART/ KOBERSTEIN FILM
A two-part series by Susanne Radelhof /2x52min /MDR/arte
Concept development / channel acquisition
Synopsis:
100 Years of European Art History RELOADED and full-on female
Women have always witten art history and worked on eye-level with their male contemporaries. Together they claimed new paths and caused sensations – but despite this neither their names nor their works are known today. Up to this day women play minor roles in art history and are rarely mentioned as trailblazers of new art styles. LOST WOMEN ART explores the mechanisms of this systematic omission of highly-talented artists. In two parts the documentary takes a look at the forgotten artists, tells the story of the suppressed female avantgarde and by doing so re-tells art history.
BAUHAUSFRAUEN
KOBERSTEIN FILM - 2019
BAUHAUS WOMEN/ KOBERSTEIN FILM
A film by Susanne Radelhof /45 min /RBB/MDR
Creative Producer
Dramaturgical consulting / commentary work / German language version / language direction)
Synopsis:
Bauhaus is the home of the avant-garde and the foundation of modern architecture. Today, almost 100 years after being founded, the Bauhaus-masters continue to be the stars of the architecture and design history. However, the (his)story of the Bauhaus remains male dominated. Only experts know the names of the female contributors of the art school, even though a great part of its innovative potential goes to its women.
The documentary “Bauhausfrauen” is a homage to the forgotten Bauhauswomen and shows: The Bauhaus idea is alive and is also HERstory.
www.koberstein-film.de
MARCELINE
Elda Production - 2018
MARCELINE – EINE FRAU, EIN JAHRHUNDERT /
Elda Productions (France)
A film by Cordelia Dvoràk / 75,52 min /France 3, AVRO, SRF
Creative Producer Development
Treatment / Financing & Trailer creation / Financing (applications national / channel acquisition international/ pitching Amsterdam & DOK Leipzig co-production meeting/ negotiations Marceline Loridan-Ivens
Synopsis:
MARCELINE - A WOMAN A CENTURY is an encounter with the remarkable French film director Marceline Loridan-Ivens, a radical chronicler, Jean Rouch’s actress, Holocaust survivor, and long-standing companion of the Dutch legendary film pioneer Joris Ivens.
MARCELINE - A WOMAN A CENTURY is also a film about a unique love and partnership in film making, about surviving the Holocaust by film-making and about an unimpeachable witness of the 20th century.
World Premiere: IDFA 2018
www.eldaproductions.fr
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
Kobalt Documentary - 2017
LAB C: CALIFORNIA DREAMING / Kobalt Documentary
A series by Petra Haffter /5x 52 min /ZDF/arte
Creative Producing
Development of series concept / acquisition of broadcaster / dramaturgical support / production support / post-production management / German language versions and language direction
Synopsis:
The real California is hard to grasp: It is a complex juxtaposition of different people, influences and ideas. California has often been described, portrayed, photographed and painted. And even the threat of California’s state bankruptcy cannot destroy these dreams. It seems that the pioneering spirit of old America has congregated here where it could move no further west, manifested and transformed. Transformed?
The series goes on an expedition, portraying the interesting and sometimes absurd productions of “Lab C”, the Californian laboratory: The dreams and Californian Innovations with the correspondent pioneering spirit – in both great and small ways. I will enter the laboratory and show how 100 different languages communicate – how people around the world come together in California and realize new ideas.
www.kobalt.de
UNBINDING MINDS
Kobalt Documentary - 2017
UNBINDING MINDS / MUYI Film (NL) & Kobalt Documentary
A film by Laetitia Schoofs /90,52 min / ZDF/arte & BOS (Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation, NL).
Creative Producing
Co-production with MUYI Film (Netherlands) / editing German & international version / creation German language version & language direction / post production management.
Synopsis:
China is experiencing a sexual revolution that is turning its society upside down – and the women of the country are at the heart of it.
In the major cities, so-called “sex salons” have arisen where, for the first time ever, women are meeting to talk openly about their sexuality and redraw the boundaries of their traditional roles. A film about a major movement occurring in the shadows.
World Premiere: IDFA 2019 - Dutch Competition
www.kobalt.de
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
Filmquadrat.dok - 2015
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU / HIHARBOR (Südkorea) & Filmquadrat.dok
A film by Hyuckjee Park /90 min /ZDF/arte, Aljazeera Doc Channel, BOS (Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation, NL), DR TV (DK)
Creative Producing / Co-Production
German & international financing / pitching FORUM Amsterdam / dramaturgical editing / German version
Synopsis:
Maggi and Chunhee lived for 45 years under one roof as wives of one man. Now they are old and approaching the end of their extraordinary intertwined lives.
The film will follow the two women during their daily life in the Korean countryside. It will intensively capture their intimate and very special relationship, one in which they share night and day side by side. It is not always an easy life, but it is always marked by deep respect and love and the extraordinary humor of both of them
The director Hyuckjee Park has been working on this feature documentary since 2011, visiting the two women regularly and documenting the increasing challenges in their shared life as they become ever older.
About a year ago he completely moved to the village. Since then, he has been a fly on their shoulder" and has been witness to their intertwined lives – a shared life filled with truthfulness, loyalty, love, and respect for human dignity and a rare insight into Korean society.
World Premiere: DOK LEIPZIG 2015 - German Competition
HERBAL WORLDS
filmquadrat.dok - 2015
HERBAL WORLDS / Filmquadrat.dok
A documentary series /5×52 min /MDR/SWR, Encuentro (Argentina). Supported by FFF and MEDIA
Creative Producing
Concept development / national + international financing: acquisition of broadcasters / funding applications (MEDIA, FFF) / procurement of co-production partners Argentina
Synopsis:
Herbs are so fascinating, because they are such “all-rounders”: They are fragrant, tasty, and have healing properties. Since the beginning of human history, they have inspired individuals and cultures around the world, especially through their effects – in the kitchen, laboratory, or witch’s den.
In Europe, the secrets of herbal medicine were preserved for centuries in the seclusion of monastery walls, until the invention of the printing press put herbal primers into family households. Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, modern medicine eclipsed the knowledge of herbal healing, a wisdom handed down for generations.
And today? Herbs are witnessing a revival: Cosmetics makers and pharmaceutical companies are experimenting with active ingredients from nature, while natural healing has regained its place alongside academic medicine. People increasingly rely on the gentle healing effect of herbs in their everyday lives.
The five-part mini-series “The Secret World of Herbs” undertakes a journey of discovery through eleven countries, exploring the intriguing cultural history surrounding the use of herbs – in the Provence, in the Alps, in the Balkans, in Latin America, and in India.
In the individual regions, we meet Ayurvedic doctors, natural healers, farmers, modern herbal fairies, and cooks – captivating story-tellers, all of them, equipped with a deep understanding of the world of herbs.
Elaborate aerial and time-lapse footage transports us to distant regions rich in herbs. With an avid eye, each film examines the complex processes involved in the making of tinctures, oils, and natural remedies. Whether herbs be exotic or domestic, they hold numerous stories – herbs being the seasonings of human culture.
BURY MY HEART IN DRESDEN
ma.ja.de - 2012
BURY MY HEART IN DRESDEN / ma.ja.de
A film by Bettina Renner /75 min /MDR / supported by MDM and the Dresden State Chancellery
Creative Producing
Treatment / Pitching Documentary Campus Masterschool / Financing
Synopsis:
A Catholic cemetery in Dresden. A grey and weathered gravestone protrudes from the snow. At its foot stands a small American flag. The inscription on the old stone reveals who was laid to rest here in
1914: Edward Two Two, Sioux chief. Strange. How did one of the Sioux Indians, whose home is North America, end up in Dresden of all places? And why was he buried here?
Bettina Renner pursues this question, rummaging in archives and travelling to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation to visit Edward Two Two's old homeland and his descendants. Gradually she comes closer to the answer of why the Lakota Sioux Edward Two Two, who in real life was never a chief, was determined that his final resting place be in Dresden soil.
LIFE ABOVE THE CLOUDS
ma.ja.de - 2009
LIFE ABOVE THE CLOUDS / ma.ja.de.
A documentary series /5×52 min /ZDF/arte
Creative Producing
From the idea to the finished films
Synopsis:
In LIFE ABOVE THE CLOUDS five locations on the European continent are presented where humans have managed, through perseverance and in a most impressive manner, to establish themselves „above the clouds“ despite all temptations of a simpler life further down below.
They are one and all an exceptional phenomenon, for in many places, life at this altitude is threatened by extinction. New EU directives make the traditional forms of cultivation of many remote locations impossible, while the new, younger generations dream and desire to take part in the new globalized world of mobile phones and Internet. Likewise, the regional administrations and other institutions no longer concern themselves with some of the distant locations, thus making them uninhabitable.
The series not only presents visually stunning and often extreme lifestyles found somewhere between heaven and earth, but also tells of the remnants of an ancient world that is soon to become part of the past.
God bless Iceland
ma.ja.de - 2008
GOD BLESS ICELAND/ felixfilm & ma.ja.de.
A film by Helgi Felixson /75 min / Supported by MEDIA /NDR/arte, SVT, RUV, YLE
Creative Producing /Coproduction
Supervision coproduction / MEDIA application /dramaturgical consulting editing /postproduction management /German language version
Synopsis:
In October 2008, the Prime Minister of Iceland has to announce the financial collapse of his country as a result of the bankruptcy of Kaupthing Bank. A quarter of a year later, the government resigns.
The documentary long-term observation accompanies various Icelanders over a period of ten months in their everyday lives, which oscillate between shock, resignation and departure, and shows the concrete effects of the financial crisis.
HOTEL SAHARA
gebrueder beetz - 2007
HOTEL SAHARA / gebrueder beetz filmproduktion
A film by Bettina Haasen /75 min /ZDF/arte / Supported by Media Development, FFA, DFFF, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and MEDIA Programme
Creative Producing
Project Development
Synopsis:
A dead-straight, endless road leading to nowhere. And at the end of the road: Nouadhibou, a town in the West African country Mauritania, bordered by the ocean on one side and the Sahara Desert on the other. A bleak and inhospitable departure point for the tens of thousands of people that pour in from neighboring countries, all with only one dream in mind: Europe.
Hotel Sahara is a film journey to the last invisible border from the West-African coast to Europe. This place is a metaphor, a point of arrival, of departure, of broken dreams — of waiting for that better life on the far side of the Atlantic. It is above all, a no-man’s land, a place of endless waiting, and endless hoping. The film reveals how difficult it is to differentiate between "true" and "false" refugees.
Is one "real" only when threatened life and limb? What if one simply desires to escape a deadening lack of perspective? With an observant and cautious eye, Hotel Sahara documents how closely the dream of a better life is linked to sudden stagnancy, and how much patience is required to wait for years to finally, perhaps, arrive somewhere.
Hans-JOACHIM KLEIN
gebrueder beetz - 2006
HANS-JOACHIM KLEIN / gebrueder beetz film production
A documentary film by Alexander Oey /90 min /
In co-production with Submarine (NL) / In association with VPRO (NL), HR/WDR (DE) / Supported by Dutch Cultural Broadcast Fund and MEDIA Development
Creative Producing Co-production
Support German editing / commentary / voice recording
Synopsis:On December 21, 1975, six terrorists led by "Carlos" violently storm the conference room of the OPEC headquarters in Vienna and take seventy ministers hostage. Three people are killed, the terrorists escape to Algeria. 23 years later, Hans-Joachim Klein, who had been in hiding until then, voluntarily turns himself in to the police. After a spectacular trial, he is sent to the high-security prisons of Frankfurt and Stuttgart for five years and has only been living in freedom again in Normandy since 2003. Together with Klein, Dutch director Alexander Oey traces the stages of a life in this documentary. And Klein himself is the unusually open and also unsparing commentator on his own, also post-war German past.
www.gebrueder-beetz.de
JEW BY CHOICE
gebrueder beetz - 2005
JEW BY CHOICE / gebrueder beetz film production
A film by David Bernet and Robert Ralston / 75 min / In co-production with Idan Regev Productions and WDR/arte, The Second Authority (Israel)
Creative Producer Co-Production
Synopsis:
They have chosen to leave everything behind them: Their family, friends, language, culture and old faith. Three Germans go to Israel and convert to the Jewish faith: the former judge Yael Jenner, the nurse Secharjah Schwarzkopf, and Nico B., a young man finding his way between career and calling - "Jew by choice".
The documentary portrays these three converts on their extraordinary and difficult passage to a new life with a new name and a new identity. Theirs is a journey full of yearning for spiritual fulfillment, a sense of belonging and a home.
www.gebrueder-beetz.de
THE ACCORDION PLAYER
gebrueder beetz - 2006
THE ACCORDION PLAYER / gebrueder beetz film production
A film by Biljana Garvanlieva / 30 min / Supported by Robert Bosch Stiftung / Commissioned by ZDF/3sat
Creative Producer
Synopsis:
At the age of seven Emilija gets an accordion, with 14 she wins the national accordion competition of Macedonia. In this documentary the author portrays the life of her 17 years old cousin, who comes from a poor but very musical and swinging family living in a little village. Emilija is one of the only female accordion players in Macedonia and has to prove herself in the men’s world. She fights for the right to participate in an international competition that is taking place in spring. Emilija plays good enough, but the condition is to have a professional and exorbitant expensive accordion.
www.gebrueder- beetz.de
Antonio Negri
gebrueder beetz - 2004
ANTONIO NEGRI. A REVOLT THAT DOES NOT END / gebrueder beetz film production / gebrueder beetz filmproduktion
A film by Andreas Pichler and Alexandra Weltz / 52min / Supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg / ZDF/arte, YLE , SVT
Creative Producing
Financing / channel acquisition / funding applications / production support / postproduction management / german / int language version
Synopsis::
Few European Intellectuals have experienced as much admiration and hatred, as much praise and rejection as Antonio Negri. Few have had so much turmoil in their lives. Antonio Negri is a university professor, philosopher, militant, refugee, enemy of the state and today one of the figureheads of the critical globalization movement. The film portrays a life of a revolt, which never ends.
www.gebrueder- beetz.de
THE WHISPERERS
gebrueder beetz - 2004
THE WHISPERERS / gebrueder beetz film production
A film by David Bernet and Christian Beetz / 70 min / In co-production with WDR/RB/arte, TSR, ETV, RTV, LRT, YLE, SVT
Supported by Filmstiftung Nordrhein- Westfalen, Nordmedia GmbH and MEDIA BROADCAST.
Creative Producing
Applications national/international / international financing / production management
Synopsis:
International affairs would hardly be what they are without conference interpreters. Yet little is known about these language artists working in the shadow of the mighty. The film follows six interpreters, belonging to different generations, through the jungle of international communication. From the Chancellery in Berlin to Strasbourg, the Hague and Brussels, from Geneva to Djibouti and into the history of their profession back to the Nuremberg trials.
www.gebrueder-beetz.de
A LOVE APART
GEBRUEDER BEETZ - 2004
SISTERS OF THE LONG NIGHT - A LOVE APART/ gebrueder beetz film production
A film by Bettina Haasen /30/75 min / With the support of EZEF and Service Culturel of the French Embassy in Niger / In co-production with 3Sat, YLE, France 5, Greece TV, ETV.
Creative Producing
Financing / dramaturgical support
Synopsis::
Rhaissa is a 17 years old Tuareg girl who lives a nomadic life in the Air-mountains, north of Niger. Education, health services and political participation haven´t improved for the Tuareg and their life still turns around the livestock of goats and camels. Rhaissa is about to marry, but it is an arranged marriage, where two families decide hereby to increase their social bounds. The film follows the whole ceremony of preparing and completing the marriage, which takes more than one week. An intimate inside-look into an important moment in Tuareg life and the story of a special wedding.
www.gebrueder-beetz.de
THE CIA`S COVERT WAR IN LAOS
gebrueder beetz - 2003
THE MOST SECRET PLACE ON EARTH - THE CIA`S COVERT WAR IN LAOS / gebrueder beetz film production
A film by Marc Eberle, 52, 90 min / WDR/arte
Creative Producing
Text and consulting for submittable treatment / consulting for trailer / acquisition of broadcasters (WDR/arte) / applications nationally/internationally
Synopsis:
After 30 years of conspiracy theories and myth making, this film uncovers the story of the CIA’s most extensive clandestine operation in the history of modern warfare: The Secret War in Laos, which was conducted alongside the Vietnam War from 1964 -1973. While the world's attention was caught by the conflict in Vietnam, the CIA built the busiest military airport in the world in neighbouring and neutral Laos and recruited humanitarian aid personnel, Special Forces agents and civilian pilots to undertake what would become the most effective operation of counterinsurgency warfare.
Never before seen private archive material of the war and exclusive new footage from Long Cheng, a site no westerner has visited for 30 years, illustrate an audacious and tragic chapter of US history.
www.gebrueder-beetz.de
