We previously thougt that light should be bright. But recent scientific studies show that light is more than just brightness. It has – depending on light intensity and color range – a significant influence on the human being. Bad light at the wrong time can even make you sick and also affects nature and animals to an unimaginable extent.

We are pleased that  KNIGHT RUSTY has attracted more than 600,000 visitors to the theaters in the german speaking territories.

Our animated film “KNIGHT RUSTY – yesterday’s hero recycled” is nominated for the GOLDENER SPATZ. The ceremony of the 21st German Children and Media Festival takes place on 31 May at the 2013th. We’re curious.

More information:
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Best Movie, best scenery design (Heike Lange), best costume (Leonie Leuenberger), best make-up (Christina Baier), best film music (Lorenz Dangl) and best sound design (Hubert Bartholomae, Hugo Poletti)

We are very happy and say thank you!

Jury’s statement: “The great picture and sound montage by Andreas Menn in the post-apocalyptic film “HELL” by talented young director Tim Fehlbaum allows you to experience and feel the end of days. It creates fear and suspension and takes the characters, amongst others played by Hannah Herzsprung and Stipe Erceg, on a breathless journey through a world out of joint. As editor of direction, camera, sound design and visual effects Andreas Menn manages to create a virtuoso composition that intertwines to an entity reaching far beyond its genre. This achievement deserves the Bavarian Film Award 2011.”

Since hundreds of years this little island off the Chilean Coast has been the meeting point for adventurers. In 1998 Bernhard Keiser, an American salesman from Chicago, found a treasure map. From then on between the hours of nightfall and daybreak he would hunt for the treasure. Many years passed but all he could ever find was traces of the pirates that hid the treasure.

In the meantime archaeologists and geologists from around the world joined the hunt. We, Terra X, will tell you the story of the search for the amazing treasure of gold with the help of geologists and archeologists all over the Pacific Island Robinson Crusoe. We will tell you the story of the treasure and the men who chased after it and still are chasing it, addicted to the idea of its existence.

3D feature film, in development

Feature film in development.

Feature film in development.

In the debut Film HELL by Tim Fehlbaum, the survivors of a climate catastrophe fight for their survival. They travel through dried up countrysides in incredible heat in search for water and petrol. This state of emergency puts human solidarity to the test. The struggles for survival are portrayed authentically and with surprise. The strong female heroines portray an impressive continuous fight for their lives. The film impresses due to its technical expertise, perfect timing and atmosphere and builds up great suspense. The film also convinces the spectator due to its individual style (choice of settings, costumes) and strong visuals. Tim Fehlbaum is a promising talent and we are anxious to see his future projects.

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“The Mafia´s Amen” is about brave priests who are risking their lives publically preaching against the Mafiosi and their clans, sometimes being the only ones taking actions against them. In areas where single Carabinieri fight a losing battle trying to protect the democratic sovereignty against the power of the mafia, the only real authority lies within the priesthood. It´s about the black sheep within the church, about the circumstances that have driven them into the arms of the godfathers. But it is also about the Vatican and it´s “servants” who internally deal with the mafia; about the will and the strength of the ministerial church to withdraw the multi-billionaire Mafiosi the grounds on which they have built their rule in their regions. A story with exclusive interviews about the past and the present of this “unholy alliance”.

The DVD Release of PRINCESS LILLIFEE AND THE LITTLE UNICORN is on March 9th 2012.

The premiere will be held one year from now in April 2010, from then on visitors from all over the world will come to the small Bavarian town. What is so fascinating about the story of Christ? What mobilizes the people to take part in this event? Between 140 and 160 passion plays are performed worldwide, 27 are enacted in Germany alone.

Caligari Film resorts on the traces of this phenomena and searches for the secret of its success.

In “Abenteuer Forschung“ Harald Lesch approaches the unacquainted world underneath our feet. Which chances and which risks are tied to the advance into the depths? Which unforeseen powers will we generate during our conquest of the subsoil?

In this special edition of “Abenteuer Wissen”, Karsten Schwanke looks for answers. What causes these sea mammals to lose orientation? New insights have been gathered by scientific research institutions in New Zeland, the Azores, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.  This 45 minute long “Abenteuer Wissen extra” is broadcasted as a complementary scientific backing, subsequently to the second half of the ZDF environmental drama “Geheimniss der Wale” (The Secret of the Whales). Starring Veronika Ferres, Mario Adorf and Christopher Lambert.

All couples met in the 50s, 60s or 70s and were never able to forget their former partners. TV presenter Marlene Lufen reunites the former lovers. LOVE IS ALL is the German version of the Dutch TV show MEMORIES.

This documentary was featured at the “Ökofilmfestival 2011″

In this documentary “Abenteuer Forschung” we ask, what will happen in the next four decades whilst all this effects of over population and rapid population growth? We are searching for new strategies of saving mankind and earth in this crisis. Can this ticking “population bomb” be disarmed in time?

Suddenly they come across a bright light gleaming out of Moonbeam Bears house. Happily joined Moonbeam Bear and Moon sit around the table playing cards. The animals are helpess: The moon has to return to the sky, immediately – but how?

On October 16^th 2008 THE MOONBEAM BEAR – THE GREAT ADVENTURE was released, drawing 115.000 people to the cinema already on its opening weekend making it 8^th in the top ten.

With increased regularity the birds postpone their migration – they migrate later on in the year and return earlier or spend the entire winter at their breeding spot. For many years ornithologists have studied the changing behaviour patterns of the birds and ascribe these changes to global warming. But what exactly changes the route of migratory birds? How do the birds adapt to their new flight plan? How do the changes affect bird life? And are humans affected by these changes?

Ramstein the 28th of August 1988. Almost 350,000 spectators are anxious to see the yearly air show on the American military base near Kaiserslautern. The day started out as a spectacle but ended as a catastrophe.

Six sailors are straining to see what lies ahead. One of them believes he has seen a light on the port side. Both the captain and the English pilot assume the light to be a fire somewhere on land. He gives the command to go to half power ahead and makes a course correction – a fatal mistake that costs the lives of 57 passengers.
What actually took place on that terribly stormy night off the coast of England? Why had over 30 hours elapsed before the arrival of help?

Dunwich, located in the economically underdeveloped east of Engalnd, used to be a flourishing seaport. Today the only thing that is left is the myth of the lost town. Dunwich is famous since it no longer exists. The accident happened in the night of the 14th of January in 1328, when a storm surge devoured 600 houses, four churches and the port entrance. It was the ocean that had made the town rich, now it devoured everything. Since then the coastline has diminished by 800 meters. Next to myths, nostalgia and ruins all that is left in Dunwich are a few houses with no more than 100 inhabitants.

The documentary that was first broadcasted as a follow-up to the Hollywood production received a market share of over 20%. The documentary searches for the historical base of the “Ilias” of Homer, the ancient composition of the occident. Did the Greeks really fight a ten-year-long war against the Trojans? Did the Kings Priamos and Agamemnon and the heroes Hektor and Achill really exist? And is the story about the wooden horse in which the Greeks hid really true?

Complex graphics reconstruct on the basis of archaeological knowledge historical Troja. Well-known academics explain their research findings and provide the audience with a description of the historical happenings, which became through Homer’s, work the biggest myth of European culture.

“The first picturisation of literature business. Terrific!“ (DIE ZEIT)

Press:

“Jörg Adolph’s HOUWELANDT- is the stilistic most mature and with his persistant search for truth the most thrilling feature film of the festival.” (Rainer Gansera, SZ  25.06.2005)

This is a TV-documentary about how a group of people, who are accustomed to a certain standard of life, will adapt to the far harder conditions their ancestors were exposed to. How will they do? Will their spirit of adventure triumph over the frustration of having to subsist on dried meat and rusk for six long weeks? What does it feel like to fight against fear, chapped and bleeding hands and seasickness? What would it have felt like to say goodbye forever to your native country? The conditions onboard the vessel will emulate the historical conditions exactly, from the clothing of passengers and crew to equipment, food and accommodation.
also available:

The accompanying book:
Friedrich Steinhardt (Hg.): Windstärke 8 – Das Auswandererschiff 1855
Vgs Verlag, 2005
ISBN: 3-8025-3466-2

DVD:
Windstärke 8
Format: Dolby, HiFi Sound, PAL
Language: German (Stereo)
Pictureformat: 16:9
Rating: PG 6
ASIN: B00099IGIK

Felix is the irresistible hero of the children books by the author Annette Langen and the illustrator Constanza Droop. Since “Letters from Felix” (1994) six Felix-books have been released and translated into 22 languages (kids in Asia know Felix just as well as kids in Europe). So far fife million copies have been sold worldwide

An exiting documentary about the idea, the history and the dangers of swimming the Channel – Mount Everest horizontal.

Hideouts of Love is a documentary series in 12 parts about the secrets and passions of venal love. Aspects of the work in “the oldest profession in the world” are presented in a sensual and vivid but never pornographic or prudish way. The program takes the viewer to exotic and exclusive places of sensuality and explains their sources and changes over time.

Each of them is a force of nature on its own -together they determine the character of our planet: the four elements: water, fire, air and earth. In the ancient world they were recognised as the primary matter of every sort of life. Regardless of the modern natural sciences, the mythic dimension and the emotional impetus of this ancient cosmic order of four distinct elements preserved in the people’s minds until today.The elements of life remain mysterious and fateful and attire our attraction particularly in this year -the “year of geological sciences”.

169 years have passed since his murdering, but the legend about Kasper Hauser lives on. The mystery of his origin can “not be solved” by the means of genetic investigation explains Wolfgang Eisenmenger, specialist of forensic medicine in Munich, towards FOCUS. In 1996 Eisenmenger stated in accordance to a DNA-analysis he had made of the blood from underpants which are supposed to be Kasper Hauser’s, that this blood was definitely not from someone belonging to the house of Baden. The forensic expert Bernd Brinkmann from Münster now tested the DNA taken from an old hair sample for the TV-company Caligari. Brinkmann came to the conclusion that “there is still the possibility” that Hauser was a descent of the house of Baden. Weather the blood or the hair originated from the real Hauser he does “not dare to jugde” says Eisenmenger.

Without the secret map of Sophie and Felix, none of this would have ever happened! The fond traveller, the cuddly rabbit Felix, flies away in a self-built balloon. That is how his adventures around the blue planet begin.

A few days letter there is a letter for Sophie. More and more letters arrive, from the moon, from the Antarctica, from the rainforest and from Australia. Funny and informative are Felix’s stories from around the world. With a special surprise in his suitcase, Felix finally returns to his Sophie.

Mercedes Benz is a myth and in this film the history of this legend is told, from its beginnings in 1901 until present. Moreover Mercedes stands for a century of acceleration and growing mobility. 100 years motorcar mean 100 years Mercedes-Benz: Starting with the first drive of Berta Benz, through the pioneering inventions of Gottlieb Daimler and the legendary “Silberpfeil”, to the World Championship in Formula One with Mika Häkkinen in the years 1998 and 1999. Whether racing car, limousine of the jet-set or state carriage -Mercedes wrote then as today the history of the motorcar in every domain. Juan Manuel Fangio, Grace Kelly, John Lennon and Boris Becker are but few examples of those who became addicted to the star’s magic. Not to forget, Mercedes is the first and only car that bears a female name. And as the film tells us, there is a good reason for this!

Episode 1 ” Adventure Gold ” (“Abenteuer Gold “)
Episode 2 ” The Power of Iron ” (“Die Macht des Eisens “)
Episode 3 “Fighting for Oil” (“Der Kampf um Öl”)

What do we know about our natural resources? About Gold Iron and Oil? This Series examines out most important natural resources, showing how they are drawn from the earth, often at a great risk of life and limb. From the Gold mines of South Africa to the Oil platforms of the North Sea, the search for Nature’s Treasures is a constant and fascinating challenge for man and technology.

A probing look at the resources that keep our civilization going.

Chance missed – TV-Series without the DFB (German Football Association)

Shortly before the beginning of the European Football Championship, the German Football Association missed its chance to promote their own work with talented youngsters. Starting on June 8th, ARD and ZDF Channel for children (KI.KA) will broadcast the documentary series in 13 parts, “Football Fever”, a series that shows the enthusiasm of eight children and adolescents for the round leather. The producer of Caligari Film Gabriele M. Walther has been fighting two years for this production, commenting this struggle as follows: “one must show that millions of children in Germany play football”. The producer asked the DFG for support, but the happenings are said to be “unknown”.
FOCUS 21/2000

In 1932, 10,000 girls graduate from high school, making up one third of all graduates. Among them are fifteen girls from one class. They firmly resolve to pass their final exams. But they also decide something else: to take an empty book and to send it to each other in turn. Over the years one after the other they journalise the events and experiences in their lives and the book becomes thicker and thicker.
The film is based on this book and tells a true coming-of-age story. It leads to a most eventful era from early days of the Third Reich through the second world war until the years of two hostile Germanys, West and East.

A story of courage and friendship during moved times.

Tom Gerhardt, who also writes the scenario for this Synergy film production is one of the stars in the German comedy scene of the last years. In “Hausmeister Krause” he succeeds in kidding in a histrionic and funny way virtues and vices regarded as typically German. Behind finicky orderliness, rigid sense of duty, exaggerated submissiveness to authority and the incapability to laugh about oneself, often hides the fear of exposing one owns averageness -the German square as a tragic but comic person splitting the viewer’s sides laughing.

In 2002, the faddy “Hausmeister Krause” series won the German Comedy Award in the category of “Best Comedy Series”.

The by far most brutal amok in this century happened in Australia. Martin Bryant shot 35 persons before he was overwhelmed. For this documentary the police released interrogation protocols with the mass murderer for the first time. The crime and motif of Thomas Hamilton who killed 16 pupils and their teacher in Scotland, 1996, shows significant parallels.

Eyewitness reports, police videos and amateur films are commented and judged by the German Amok expert, Professor Adler: Amok is no longer a puzzling phenomenon but a serious disorder which can be treated but not eradicated. In regard of today’s research on amok it becomes clear that amok is a serious and inescapable threat – especially in times of weapons of mass destruction.

The history of technology is also a history of setbacks and disasters. In antique mythology the names of Daedalos and Ikaros stand for the dangers of pride and fall. In modern times the explosion of the HINDENBURG and the sinking of the TITANIC reminds us of the danger of failure and catastrophe.
However, technology not only allows us a better and more comfortable life but had also always been a prerequisite and necessary condition of our being. This aspect of technology will further increase in future. As the French author and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry formulates: “technology did not free mankind from the big problems of nature, but even sharpened the confrontation with it.”

Episode 1 Shipping -
The Dream of the Unsinkable Ship
(sinking of the Titanic)

Episode 2 “Flying -
The Dream to Fly”
Explosion of the Hindenburg

Episode 3 “Energy -
Playing with Fire”
Reactor catastrophe in Tschernobyl

Episode 4 “Astronautics -
Reaching for the Stars”
Challenger catastrophe

Episode 5 “Traffic -
Trip to Hell”
ICE-accident in Eschede

The documentary series in four parts shows the dealing of mankind with the forces of nature in a multidimensional panorama with spectacular pictures and impressive richness of ideas.
Stories and events in prehistoric and contemporary human history are the starting point of this production. It documents sources, influences and dependencies of these phenomenon and shows how different humans deal with the elements all over the world. The shootings for the four films had been taken over two years and the film crew thereby worked its way through to the centre of the catastrophes.
Only recently we were reminded of the up-to-dateness of the subject: the latest deluge catastrophes, the earthquake of Kobe and new volcanic eruptions made a continuous revision and actualisation of the films necessary.

episode 1 “Schrecken der Sintflut” (“Frightening Deluge”)
episode 2 “Tanz auf dem Vulkan” (“Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano”)
episode 3 “Im Auge des Hurrikans” (“Facing the Hurricane”)
episode 4 “Das große Beben” (“The Big Quake”)

By intensive training programmes the FBI in the US tries to control the increasing rate of violent crimes.
The statistics of crimes in the United States is alarming: 80 % of the 150 serial killers that have been arrested word-wide in the last twenty years are US-Americans. According to the FBI the rate of serial killers is continuously increasing. The ruthlessness of the murders grows likewise.
The former police officer Gerard Shaeffer is suspected of having assassinated 34 women. Their corpses have never been found. In 1973 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for two murders he himself did not plead guilty for. He is author of numerous stories about serial killers. Some regard these stories as result of his own history, as biographic records of his atrocities. Since he was a child, Ottis Toole has been a pyromaniac.
In the age of only 14 he rendered himself to prosecution first, now he ascribes himself for more than 100 murders. Most of them he committed together with his lover Henry Lee Lucas. They crucified their victims and ate the meat of their corps. Ottis Toole was sentenced to death numerous times but because of on and on new proceedings the execution has been protracting. Since 1983 he has been kept under detention in Florida.

Harald Reinl is one of the most successful directors of post-war-film in Germany. The first films of regional background (“Almenrausch und Edelweiß” (“Alpine Rose and Edelweiss”)), the film version of Karl May’s main work (“Winnetou”), Edgar Wallace’s (“Dr. Mabuse”) as well as the remake of the German epos “Die Nibelungen” made him famous and popular in Germany and abroad likewise.

Remembering their first personal film-experiences, Gabriele Wengler and Michael Feick made a documentary in 1985 about this director who is almost unexplored as far as his personality is concerned. In “Kino ohne Probleme” the star director of the 60ies is finally given the possibility to discuss his works in detail.
Aside from showing parts of his most successful films, many players who took part in his films and also his producers Horst Wendlandt and Franz Seitz speak of their experiences.
A film about talent and success, about a personality with hidden curiosities, about the trivial film and about the admiration of the aesthetics of naivety.
Harald Reinl was assassinated with a bread knife in 1986, one year after the shootings of this film, in the age of 78 by his wife Daniella.

Frankfurt Review 19.9.1985 “The burst corset” (ZDF)
The ZDF broadcast, was a cultural-historical review of the last centuries during which women, from a very young age onwards, wore corsets to maintain and enhance their attractiveness. It was Ulrich Edel and Reinhard Klooss’ aim to show how complex the breathtaking fashion of the time was and how closely it was linked to the socio-political situations of the time.

Hörzu No. 37/1985
“Loved by men, hated by women – the corset”
For more than five hundred years it formed and transformed the female body. A good film was produced about the change of heart and the change of taste of the corset.

The trip around the world stops in Monte Carlo, Bombay, Palermo, St. Moritz, London, New York, Madrid, Kairo, Wien, Aleppo, Bangkok, Los Angeles, Jerusalem, Hamburg and …