Thomas Mann worked on his novel “The Confessions of Felix Krull the Impostor” for almost 50 years. In no other work did the writer incorporate so many of his personal longings and fears. BEKENNTNISSE DES HOCHSTAPLERS THOMAS MANN takes a look behind the façade of the celebrated storyteller and at the same time into the dazzling world of his literary alter ego Felix Krull. While Krull attracts the elite like a magnet, deceives, seduces and stages himself as a successful impostor, Thomas Mann struggles with his inner conflicts: he longs for recognition, hides his true identity and constantly strives to play the role of the irreproachable family man. The intertwined lives of Mann and Krull weave themselves into a captivating journey through exile, self-dramatization and the bittersweet art of disguise. From a kaleidoscope of exclusively original quotes and fictional scenes, a cinematic homage to the man behind the myth of Thomas Mann and the impostor in each of us is created with subtle irony.

THE BOOKS HE DIDN’T BURN takes a critical look at the history of Western thought by examining the remains of Adolf Hitler’s private library. The dictator and mass murderer owned 16,000 books at the end of his life, 1,200 of which are kept in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C today.
The documentary follows American historian Timothy Ryback, who studied these books for almost a decade. Hitler’s private library shows that he sprang from a long line of racist and anti-semitic thinkers and writers, many of them representing the intellectual mainstream of their time. The hateful ideas in them paved the way for Hitler – and influence far-right extremists until this day.

Jewish humor has travelled from the Shtetl to Hollywood, from the Torah to Comic books. Jewish humor is tradition and pop culture – and also a cliché? Especially in Germany and Austria, Jewish jokes became very popular after the Second World War. Jewish humor is, allegedly, self-ironic – and laughing about the Jews together with the Jews seems like a convenient way for the perpetrator countries to cope with their dark pasts. But is Jewish humor really always self-mocking – or is the matter more complex?

Wikipedia begins with a promise: knowledge production, which for millennia was in the hands of elites, is to be radically democratized. Anyone can contribute, regardless of education level or background. Is the online project a utopia come true? In the film, „Wikipidians“ from Egypt, Germany, Ghana, South Africa, Tunisia and the USA have their say. Is today’s Wikipedia conservative or radical? Is it an online re-launch of Eurocentric and androcentric knowledge production – or a truly global project?

Eight people, eight turning points. The web series tells the story of fleeing and a new beginning in a foreign country. The protagonists come from different countries, their experiences range from 1945 to the present. They describe formative moments that still resonate in their lives today. In eight chapters, "Refugees in their own words" shows that the history of mankind is a story of migration.

The US military had fewer than half a million troops in 1939. That number rose to over 12 million by the end of the war. Among the many new conscripts were some of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors, including Frank Capra and Jewish emigres Billy Wilder and William Wyler. Too old to fight, they used their talent to produce documentaries and propaganda movies. The documentary tells the little-known story of how an industry built on entertainment and escapism helped win a deadly, vicious war.

“There are three golden rules to filmmaking: thou shalt not bore, thou shalt not bore, and thou shalt not bore!” Director Billy Wilder was as a legend in his lifetime and embodies a period of contemporary history. He was successful beyond measure, and became very rich as a result – but he never sold out. In exclusive, newly-filmed interviews companions and contemporaries of Billy Wilder, such as Volker Schlöndorff, Marthe Keller und Paul Diamond the portrays a person who above all was never boring.

This film is not a classic portrait but a documentary using fiction to bring Martin Suter’s novels to life while introducing us to the author behind the stories on a whole new level. “Fantasy is usually more true than reality itself,” says Suter. He strolls through his stories, cinematically and aesthetically impressively staged, exposing his protagonists and their secrets – and especially his own private cosmos: a world drenched in contradictions and marked by an addiction to stories. This film reveals everything about Martin Suter – everything but the truth.

The documentary follows seven trans people on their way to finding themselves. It shows how varied the paths can be and the kinds of hurdles that lie along the way. TRANS – I GOT LIFE is a journey into the in-between realms beyond rigid gender norms, into intimate living spaces, and into the operating room, which becomes a delivery room for a second birth.

YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE tells the story of a song. A song that has become the epitome of a global folk song. Each and every weekend, hundreds of thousands of football fans sing it in stadiums all over the world. But who would know that the roots of the tune go back to Budapest in the year 1909 – to a young playwright and a stage play called ‚Lilliom'? Together with actor Joachim Król, the documentary follows the footsteps of the song: from Budapest to New York, Hollywood, Liverpool – and from Liverpool around the world.