Norman M. Klein

Made in Hollywood: Die Welt des Raoul Walsh

Documentary about Raoul Walsh

Made in Hollywood: Hitchcocks Blondinen

Documentary about Alfred Hitchcocks infatuation with blondes.

Hollywood Scandals

TV review of a litany of Hollywood impropriety.

Anatomy of Failure

Carlos Castaneda, sixties author and ‘celebrated godfather of New Age’ died in his Los Angeles home in 1998. Five women forming his ‘harem’ disappeared within days. In 2004, bones are found at the edge of Death Valley belonging to one of the disappeared women. In a series of Californian road trips, filmmaker Minou Norouzi reflects on what the women’s obsession with Castaneda may have been and begins to wonder if her own life isn’t mirroring theirs. She meets a concoction of Castaneda associates who are all invested in telling her about Castaneda, whilst the story of the women remains in shadow.

Glamour vs. Paparazzi

Documentary about Hollywood stars, paparazzis and professional photographers.

Jane Russell - Der Star aus dem Heu

Documentary about the American actress Jane Russell.

Silent Hollywood: Cult, Stars, Scandals

Documentary about Hollywood during the silent film era.

Männer im Trenchcoat, Frauen im Pelz

Film noir, which enjoyed particular success in the 1930s and 1940s, is probably the most profound genre of classic Hollywood cinema. Eckhart Schmidt tries to show the background and developments and speaks, among others, with directors such as Richard Fleischer and Robert Wise as well as with "femme fatale" actresses. Filmmakers of the following generations explain how the style and themes of noir continue to shape cinema today.

Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles 1920-1986

A multimedia documentary that focuses on the day-to-day life of Molly, the protagonist of the story. She lives in Downtown Los Angeles, in the Bunker Hill area and witnesses the transformations of the place over the years. From Molly's story the project zooms out and excavates the history and legends about the area of Los Angeles, building on a rich collection of archival materials, interviews, and re-photography. Navigating through this database the viewer can trace the events, people and places Molly never noticed, engaging with the ethnically complex reality of the area and its fictionalization in countless Hollywood movies. Bleeding Through - Layers of Los Angeles is an allegory of the process in which memory emerges as a distorted hybrid produced by historic documents, personal recollection, and imagination.

Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs

Ekchart Schmidt examines the machinery behind the dream factory; the Hollywood myth is unmasked. How does the studio industry work? What role does marketing and the hype surrounding the stars play?