Documentary Film in Germany
Documentary film in Germany is alive and well. A survey made by the German Documentary Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm - AG DOK) lists 147 new titles alone for the year 2004: from Allende to Weltmarktfuehrer, with locations ranging from the Carpathians to the primitive peoples of South America, and stories from Borussia Dortmund to Chick Corea. The diversity of themes is remarkable, as is the number of differing artistic signatures.
Documentary film in Germany is also flourishing in cinemas, far more than ever before. At least, one may claim that it is beginning to flourish. In comparison to previous times, large-scale international productions in particular have been attracting big audiences. The films Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Colombine by Michael Moore were both seen by more than a million viewers. And German documentaries also did well in the home market: for example, Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch's Rhythm Is It! recently attracted some 421,000 viewers while Thomas Riedelsheimer's Rivers and Tides was seen by over 100,000 viewers.
Documentary film in Germany also draws healthy audiences on TV. It is true that one often has to search for it there, and it can sometimes only be found at a late hour, since broadcasters have firmly-established program schemes, which limit time and space for documentary formats. In many cases, the «docu», with its various forms from «real life» to docu-soap, has overtaken the classic documentary film in the competition for attention. Nonetheless, those who are looking for large-scale documentary films will find them several times each day on German television, especially the cultural channels ARTE and 3Sat.
However, documentary film in Germany is also experiencing considerable difficulties. The growing demand and the continuing desire for production are opposed by economic and media-political structures that hinder the development of the genre. This is due to the interplay of several factors, all of which have emerged historically. There are three key aspects: the considerable dependence of documentary film on television, the long history of the documentary film as author film, and - directly connected to this - its small-scale, financially weak production structure.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
From the very beginning, documentary film in Germany has been closely associated with television, at least in West Germany. A few of the exceptions that made it into cinemas in earlier times include the ecological films Strahlende Zukunft, Schade, dass Beton nicht brennt, and Keine Startbahn West - eine Region wehrt sich, which in 1981 lured more than 80,000 viewers into the cinema - quite a sensation at that time. In East Germany however, the genre was regarded as having considerable political significance and was integrated into the DEFA state film studios. After reunification in 1989, the DEFA studio for documentary film was dissolved, meaning that eastern German filmmakers also had to adapt themselves to the conditions and demands of television.
Documentary film in Germany developed from two sources, television journalism and the classical cultural film, whose «images of cities and landscapes» contributed to its dominancy up until the late 1950s. It was not until the beginning of the sixties that the documentary film department of Sueddeutsche Rundfunk began to develop new forms, clearly differentiated from the culture film. Authors of the later so-called »Stuttgart School« turned to everyday political and social life in the Federal Republic. The most important films ran in a series entitled Zeichen der Zeit («Signs of the Times»); and Polizeistaatsbesuch («Visit to a Police State») by Roman Brodmann is a key film from this period: a film about the Shah of Persia's visit to Germany and the death of the student Benno Ohnesorg in 1967. The Stuttgart School also had great significance for the emergence of an independent documentary film language. Even today, documentary film retains an important status at Suedwestfunk, and this also applies to the promotion of young talents.
«Direct Cinema» also exercised a valuable influence, and not only on the Stuttgart School. At Norddeutsche Rundfunk, Klaus Wildenhahn set aesthetic and political standards as an author and the editor of documentaries. Wildenhahn, who also produced theoretical writing on film, propagated the documentary film of observation, using long and careful takes to approach people who did not otherwise appear in the medium. Wildenhahn made an impression on an entire generation of documentary filmmakers during the 1970s, and his influence can still be felt today. Thomas Schadt, one of the best-known current documentary filmmakers, still refers to Wildenhahn as his teacher. (Today, Schadt is artistic director at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg). Wildenhahn was not only a film author, but often enough, he also paved the way for others with his work as an editor: younger filmmakers such as Hans-Dieter Grabe at ZDF or Ebbo Demant at SDR. Unfortunately however, the filmmaking editor or the permanently employed maker of documentaries no longer exists today.
The possibilities of Direct Cinema, politicization through the student movement, an operative attitude towards filmmaking, and a certain documentary rigor shaped the filmmaking of the seventies. After the decline of the revolt, many authors turned more to everyday events and an observation of society. Their films now bore stronger signatures of a more subjective character. Authors such as Hartmut Bitomski (Der VW-Komplex and B 52) and Harun Farocki (Auge/Maschine), developed the genre of essayistic documentary film. The political movements led to the development of a film workshop movement separate from television; here members used video for work primarily concerned with the ecological and peace movements. Authors like as Didi and Pepe Danquart or Thomas Giefer emerged from such traditions.
SOLITARY FIGHTERS
However, a shared characteristic of all documentary filmmakers remained their status as author filmmakers. As such, they developed a typical structure of production, via which they delivered work to television for many years. Since television is now formatting documentary programs increasingly, this status and attitude to work is gradually coming into conflict with programming reality. In order to combat this, an initiative of several authors entitled Der zweite Blick («The Second View») was formed in 2001. They see themselves in the following way: «We are not a collective. We are individuals capable of working in a team, solitary fighters.»
Up until today, most documentary filmmakers in television have indeed remained solitary fighters. In artistic terms, this has been the precondition to a wide diversity of signatures. It has meant that outstanding individual achievements have made it to our television screens and - more so in recent years - also into the cinemas. Andres Veiel's film Black Box BRD was as successful in cinemas as Pepe Danquart's Hell on Wheels (Hoellentour) about the Tour de France. Music has also become a well-received source of documentary inspiration: Wim Wender's Buena Vista Social Club was an international hit, as were Stefan Schwietert's Tickle in the Heart and Julian Benedikt's Blue Note. And Thomas Schadt's remake of the Ruttmann-classic Berlin Symphony also impressed audiences on a large scale.
But men are not alone in the field. Important full-length documentary films have often been made by women: Helga Reidemeister examined the position of imprisoned women with her Gotteszell - Ein Frauengefaengnis and most recently compared women's views on war in Texas-Kabul. Aelrun Goette's film Die Kinder sind tot, which received several prizes, presents the background to a social tragedy. Karin Jurschik's award-winning documentary research Die Helfer und die Frauen deals with trade with women violently abducted from Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina. Nor should one forget Irene Langemann's acclaimed portrait of the Brazilian pianist Joao Carlos Martin in Martin's Passion (Die Martins Passion).
Any survey of successful German documentary films would be incomplete without social studies such as Sebastian Winkel's formally exacting film 7 Brothers (7 Brueder), which reveals different perceptions of society and events experienced in individual life stories, or Champions by Christoph Huebner and Gabriele Voss, concerning the young generation of football players at Borussia-Dortmund. This is a film not only about sport, but also about dreams, the future, and life in general.
Contemporary history on television is firmly in the hands of the standardized documentation and its editors, but unusual documentary films on the theme have also been made: examples include Eyal Sivan's film Ein Spezialist about Adolf Eichmann or Romuald Karmakar's Das Himmler-Projekt.
Of course one should not forget the great documentary studies of people and landscapes in the East by Volker Koepp (Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann and Kalte Heimat) or the film descriptions of society in East Germany produced by Thomas Heise (Neustadt Stau - Stand der Dinge and Vaterland), and one of the most extraordinary East German projects in documentary film history: Winfried and Barbara Junge's long-term observations in the many Golzow films.
Finally, and this may be unique worldwide, German documentary films have been made about the most important documentary filmmakers themselves. In the series Dokumentarisch arbeiten («Working in a Documentary Way»), the filmmakers Christoph Huebner and Gabriele Voss have portrayed seventeen important authors, not only from Germany. These portraits were broadcast in three series on the cultural channel 3Sat. The working interviews are also available in book form (Dokumentarisch arbeiten, Dokumentarisch arbeiten 2, Vorwerk Publishers, Berlin), and offer an outstanding survey of the attitudes to work and aesthetic ideas embraced by the author filmmakers.
NOT A BOOM, BUT AN UPWARD TREND
Without television, certainly, very few of the films cited above - and they in their turn are but a small selection - would have been made at all. The relationship remains a paradoxical one. Thomas Schadt describes it in the following way: «Television is the greatest customer and simultaneously the greatest defeater of documentary film.»
The paradox may be ascertained easily by checking the corresponding broadcasting slots. Private broadcasters play little or no role as producers or broadcasters of documentary films or documentation. Private channels only invest in documentation for special events. The public channels, whose program assignment actually includes the cultivation of the genre of documentary film, maintained that documentary genres were important in their declarations of intent for 2004, for example, but in practice they demonstrate little unity. The major channels ARD and ZDF only show documentary features on special occasions. The newly created slots for documentation at prime time are predominantly filled documentary series. In a study dating from October 2002, ARD took the last place, having broadcast only one single documentary film in the course of a month. If at all, the broadcasting slots for documentary film have depreciated to those around midnight. The much-acclaimed ZDF series Das kleine Fernsehspiel also broadcasts at this late hour.
The two cultural channels ARTE and 3Sat are very important and indispensable for documentary broadcasting. ARTE even plays a significant role as a co-producer as well. The so-called «third programs» of ARD also keep slots available for documentary films. But with only a few exceptions, the documentary film genre has very few established editorial departments; at one station it may be assigned to the editorial office of journalism, in another to the cultural office. «It has an uncertain home and a crumbling lobby,» says Thomas Schadt, «and is reliant on the commitment of individual editors.»
Another important factor is the general structuring of broadcasting schemes and formatting - also of documentary programs. This disadvantages individual signatures; instead, there is a demand for dramaturgy and narrative forms which suit calculated audiences and quotas exactly, in which case the author takes a back seat behind the product - a situation that appears particularly intolerable to author filmmakers.
However, the key aspect is that the dominant position of the television stations cements production conditions, making a healthy economic basis for medium-sized producers, for example, almost impossible. Thomas Frickel from the AG DOK estimates that around 1500 small to very small production companies are working to provide the broadcasters in Germany with documentary films, documentation and magazine contributions. Only a small proportion of these - around 70 producers - handles larger volumes of production and employs several people. And an even smaller proportion is in a position to produce for the international market. Many of these production companies - known as «backpack producers» - can only survive financially due to a high level of economic self-exploitation. And the interests of these many individuals are represented to the broadcasters by the AG DOK. The AG DOK, with 750 members, is the largest professional association for independent producers in Germany and is open to representatives of all genres, but sees its general focus in media and political lobby work for the documentary genre.
But the economic conditions for most producers are poor, and despite a growing interest in documentary programs in recent years, they have not improved. The payment structure at the broadcasting stations has been enormously disadvantageous to producers for many years, and this also applies to the conditions for utilization. Costs for research and the development of material generally fall back on the producers themselves.
According to a new study by the media researcher and documentary filmmaker Lutz Hachmeister (Dokumentarische Produktion in Film und Fernsehen. Marktstudie Deutschland. HMR, Cologne, February 2005), the present structure makes it extremely difficult for medium-sized producers of classical documentary films to survive; they finance their work primarily by means of mixed calculations and the provision of common television formats. For this reason, and against all expectations, only a small group of middle-sized producers has emerged to date. They secure their work mainly through increased cooperation with the editorial offices of many broadcasting stations and with funds from the regional film funding institutions. Large, complex projects in particular could not be financed at all without these film subsidies. According to the HMR study, in 2003 around 11 million Euros in subsidies were granted to documentary works, which, although a significant contribution, is slightly less than 5 percent of the overall sum and considerably less than the year before. However, the new German Film Promotion Law has established not only a significant improvement for the funding of documentary films, but the best one ever: each film that achieves admissions of over 25,000 viewers will automatically receive reference funding. And as the figures show, more and more local documentaries are performing on this level in the cinemas.
DOCU-CINEMA
In the case of large-scale productions entirely or partially funded by television, a cinema launch before television broadcasting has become the norm. The number of screens that show documentary films on a regular basis is still relatively small - around 200 from a total of more than 4000, according to Thomas Frickel. But an upward trend may be discerned.
Klaus Staniek, a documentary filmmaker and professor at the Academy of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg (HFF/B), has been following the scene for many years. According to his investigations, the figures are continually rising. In 1980, for example, only one documentary film was seen by more than 50,000 cinemagoers (Septemberweizen by Peter Krieg, with some 70,000 viewers), but in 2004 there were nine. While the three most successful documentary films in 2002 were seen by just over a million viewers, the figures for 2004 were already more than two million. And the proportion of documentary films among the most successful 100 German films has also increased: from four films in the year 1994 to eighteen in 2004. The figures come from a previously unpublished, long-term study by the HFF/B, which Staniek presented in a lecture at the Humboldt University in February 2005. According to the calculations of the HMR study and the German Federal Film Board (FFA), a «significant increase in the status of documentary film in our cinemas» could also be ascertained in the year 2004.
The reasons for this upward trend are diverse. Certainly, the desire for more reality is also a reaction to television's failure, feeding viewers as it does with an increasing amount of escapist fiction and absurd real-life formats. And the political documentary films by Michael Moore have also strengthened the interest in the genre. They broke down past barriers to reach audiences in multiplex cinemas and have been seen by more than a million viewers. But even «less spectacular» German documentaries such as Rhythm Is It! and the OSCAR-nominated The Story of the Weeping Camel (Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel) were seen by impressive audiences.
Finally, it may be the films themselves that explain the increase in attention. After a long-lasting, purist phase of socially-oriented documentary films, the wide possibilities of film language and of opulent film have been rediscovered. Today's films have more narrative qualities and have thus become more attractive. Pepe Danquart pulls out all the stops with respect to dramatic narration and visual effects in Hell on Wheels, and Andres Veiel used the dramatic means of the feature film to create his story of four student actors in Die Spielwuetigen´.
INTEGRATION WITHIN STRUCTURES
The documentary film scene in Germany is integrated into a complex and varied structure of institutions for training, promotion and presentation. Five large film academies, several private schools and the media departments of various universities ensure that the next generation receives excellent training. A wealth of festivals and some specialist television editorial offices create broadcasting slots and opportunities for presentation. Awards for film and television productions generate acclaim, public attention, and often the basis for further films with their prize money.
There are also institutes promoting the genre, such as the Haus des Dokumentarfilms in Stuttgart, which was founded by Suedwestrundfunk as an independent institute in 1991. It serves as an encounter forum for all those interested in documentary film, conducts research on German and international documentary work for television, organizes regular conferences, and publishes a series of texts, Close up. The Documentary Film Initiative at the Filmbuero North Rhine-Westphalia pursues similar aims. It offers the documentary scene a forum for information and discussion, organizes symposia, and publishes the book series Texte zum Dokumentarfilm.
CELEBRATING DOCUMENTARIES: FESTIVALS
There are numerous festivals dedicated to documentary films in Germany. The oldest of which, now in its 48th year, is the Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. It was the central festival in East Germany, oriented on the international political film - primarily from the socialist countries. Despite its loss of state subsidy, after the fall of the Wall it has been possible to maintain the festival as a combination focusing on documentary film and animation. As well as the current competition, it offers various series and retrospective showings. The traditional awards given are the Golden Dove and Silver Dove and the new director Claas Danielsen intends to develop the festival into a meeting place for the documentary film scene as a whole.
The Duisburger Filmwoche is in its 29th year, and takes place on an annual basis. It is devoted to German-language documentary films, and therefore includes productions from Austria and Switzerland as well from Germany. As a consequence of the financial crisis in public spending, the festival is now partially sponsored by the television channels 3Sat and ARTE. Juries from these two channels award prizes, the city of Duisburg contributes a promotional award, and recently the Goethe Institute has also presented its own award. The special feature of the Duisburg festival is its structure. Films are not shown parallel to one another, with the exception of the small competition for children's documentary film. All the festival visitors can thus see all the films and discuss them afterwards with the authors - most of which attend.
The Munich International Documentary Film Festival was founded in 1985 as a project by the Association for Documentary Film Munich within the framework of Filmstadt Muenchen e.V. and concentrates on the artistic documentary film. The festival has developed into an internationally acknowledged event now attended by all the important documentary film directors, and has met with increasing attention from a wider audience. However, like all the other festivals, it suffers from financial restraints. Several series have been developed in Munich over the course of time: an international competition, international programs, Horizonte for films from countries where conditions for documentary filming are (even more) difficult, and New Films from Bavaria, which presents a forum for media workshops, amateurs and up-and-coming authors in addition to those for the better-known authors. The awards include a documentary film prize from Bayerischer Rundfunk, a prize for specialist documentary film, and a promotional award from the local funder FilmFernsehFonds Bayern.
At the Berlinale, documentary film also plays an important role, in the Forum and Panorama sections in particular, which present the Planet Documentary Film Prize. At the renowned International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, international short documentary films are also an important aspect of the program.
Some regional film festivals in Germany show documentary films as well as other genre in their programs. These include the Grenzlandfilmtage in Selb, the Nordisches Filmfestival in Luebeck, the Tage des Unabhaengigen Films in Augsburg, the International Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg, and the Biberach Film Festival, to name but a few.
Beyond national borders, some of the numerous international festivals also offer German documentary filmmakers opportunities to develop international connections. The leading festivals here are the Festival International du Cinéma Documentaire/Vision du Réel in Nyon, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, the Festival International du Documentaire «Fidmarseille» in Marseille, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
AWARDING RECOGNITION
Prizes for documentary films are awarded in relevant competitions within the fields of both film and television. The German Film Award, organized by the German Film Academy in Berlin, includes an award for one of two films nominated in the category »Best Documentary Film«. The acclaimed Adolf-Grimme Award for television productions also presents an award in the category «Information and Culture», for which classical documentary films are also considered regularly. The German Television Award presents prizes in the two categories «Report» and «Documentation».
The Documentary Film Prize of Baden-Wuerttemberg has been awarded since 2003, and is jointly endowed by Suedwestfunk (SWR) and the regional film funder MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg. The prize is presented every two years at the Documentary Film Workshop Baden-Baden.
The Bavarian Film Award and Hessen Film Award also have well-endowed prizes in the documentary category, and on the national level, the German Federal Film Board promoted and supported its Documentary Tiger with three awards, totaling 100,000 Euros in support funds.
SUPPORTING YOUNG TALENT
Support for young talent in the field of documentary film is available at festivals and through various promotional awards in Germany, but is also offered by some editorial offices at various broadcasting stations.
In this context, a very important address in the television world is Das kleine Fernsehspiel at ZDF. This department promotes the first and second films made by young authors, both feature films and documentaries. Forty broadcasting slots are available each year, and 23 low-budget films are produced annually. In addition, there are series such as Deutschland dokumentarisch and Ostwind - a collaborative project by ZDF and RBB - which also encompass documentary films. Here the editorial office also participates in the funding of material examining a specific, pre-defined theme. After it had become clear in recent years that young authors were keen to investigate their own identity and stories, but less willing to approach larger, socially relevant topics, the editorial office selected the theme Absolute Beginners for films about young people's first steps in their chosen professions. And the project proved to be a success: from a large number of applications, nine projects were developed, produced and the films broadcast. A new theme, Agenda 2020 - How We Will Live in the Future has currently been launched.
Suedwestfunk also provides broadcasting slots for the promotion of young authors on its third television channel. The series Junger Dokumentarfilm has been in existence since 1999 (initiated by SWR in collaboration with the MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg and the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg) and broadcasts a series of debut films each year in spring.
First Steps is another newcomer's award that also includes the category of documentary film. It is presented annually to the best graduation films from film academies in the German-speaking countries by the production companies Constantin and teamWorx, the private television stations SAT.1 and Spiegel-TV, and Mercedes-Benz. The prize aims to introduce the great creative potential of the up-and-coming generation to the film world as a whole, and to simplify the graduates' «first steps» in their chosen careers.
TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE
Training for documentary filmmakers is available in several cities in Germany. The five large film academies in Berlin, Potsdam, Munich, Ludwigsburg and Cologne are of course the leading institutions. In all the film schools, it is possible to observe a trend towards increased orientation on the practical demands of media professions, whereby artistic pretensions and a solid, wide-ranging basic training are not neglected. Depending on their emphasis, all the film academies offer training courses for documentary filmmakers. These are often taught by filmmakers with practical experience, who work as authors as well. And in each case, there are also close links with local television stations.
At the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg, for example, director Thomas Schadt has developed the department of documentary film, where lecturers include Helga Reidemeister and Ebbo Demant and there is close cooperation with Suedwestfunk. The course «Documentary Film and Television Journalism» is offered at the Academy of Television and Film in Munich, where the professor of the department is the documentary filmmaker Heiner Stadler. Here extensive contacts with Bayerischer Rundfunk are cultivated. The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) offers no specialist training for documentary filmmakers, but documentary film is taught as part of its foundation courses. The teachers at the dffb are almost exclusively guest lecturers, and all work practically in the field. The Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg does not offer a specific course on documentary film, either, but Helke Misselwitz and Klaus Staniek - two acknowledged documentary filmmakers - are among the lecturers for the course in «Film and Television Direction». The Academy of Media Arts in Cologne offers the group of subjects «Film / Television» in the study course on «Audiovisual Media», where there are a number of professors specializing in documentary film work, including: Janine Meerapfel, Hans Beller, Horst Koenigstein, Dietrich Leder and Thomas Schmitt.
In addition to these academies, there are private schools such as the International Film School Cologne, which was founded by the state government of NRW and the Filmstiftung NRW and trains its students directly for the film business. There are various possibilities for documentary filmmakers among its numerous courses and workshops. The Bavarian Academy of Television trains students primarily for everyday practice at the broadcasting stations and for television journalism.
A third group consists of the universities, which also offer courses in subjects such as Media Science, Journalism and Communications Science. Here, depending on the various curricula, it is also possible to find practical forms of media training.
Each year, hundreds of graduates leave these schools and seek a position on the job market. There they encounter rapidly changing conditions. For example, the new mobile technology with small DV cameras, DVD as a medium of distribution, and beamers as the projection surface currently offer authors the opportunity to escape production conditions that had begun to stagnate. Seen from a different perspective, traditional television has also found a new way to produce cheaper programs in collaboration with the one-man company, video journalist - whether this is a better way, remains to be seen.
Above all, however, it is foreseeable that - alongside the mass medium of television - new modes of distribution will open up for the genre of documentary film, via Internet and DVD, and that this will lead to new narrative and aesthetic possibilities. Conditions are fluid and they will remain so. The large number of documentary films made each year demonstrates many young filmmakers' great, unbroken interest in capturing and processing reality with the camera. Documentary film is very much alive, and it will remain so.