Stephan Lamby

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This documentary tells the forgotten stories of some of the most influential personal computer pioneers in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the late 1960s, big mainframe computers owned by large corporations and the government were seen as tools of control. The Hippie movement and the anti-Vietnam war protests served as a hotbed for a revolutionary idea: creating an affordable home computer to be used by ordinary people as a counterbalance to Big Brother. Well, the rest is history, but what has happened to the early ideals and the initial ethos of free sharing? As one of the visionaries puts it: Its true that what I helped to create is todays establishment. Thats what I was trying to get rid of:the establishment.

It was months full of drama: Wolfgang Schäuble races through Europe and negotiates for Greece. On Schäuble's countless trips: the closest collaborators, bodyguards and filmmaker Stephan Lamby. Grexit - yes or no? That's the suspense of this extraordinary movie. Rarely before has there been such insights into the backstage of international politics. And Wolfgang Schäuble and his adversary, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, speak more clearly than usual. Incidentally, this portrait of the Federal Minister of Finance also contains a statement that could put one of Germany's biggest political affairs in a new light.

Fidel Castro is, without a doubt, one of the most controversial and captivating figures of the twentieth century. As indicated by the title of this documentary, he has become a living legend viewed contrastively as hero or dictator. Although the recent history of Cuba plays a role in this work, this documentary instead focuses on the individual as it recounts the life and times of Fidel Castro from childhood through the present day. Castro: Man and Myth is based on the book Fidel Castro, a Biography (2004) by Volker Skierka, originally published in German in 2001 using resources not previously accessible, such as those in the former German Democratic Republic’s archives on Cuba. Skierka also co-directed and co-produced this documentary.

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.

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".

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".