In Lindau on Lake Constance there is an opera of a very special kind: here marionettes take the stage. The opera is directed by Bernhard Leismà ller. He literally pulls all the strings: every marionette is created by him, from carving it out of wood to dressing it in the hand-sewn costumes. Since...

quot;Harry Seidler: Modernist" is a retrospective celebration of the life and work of Australia’s most controversial architect. Sixty years of work is showcased through sumptuous photography and interviews with leading architects from around the world. Who was Harry Seidler? A Jewish boy from...

quot;MAUS is a comic about a father and son, trying to understand each other." At the core of Art Spiegelman’s most famous work were countless hours spent talking with his father, who told him the story of his survival. Oddly enough, this was the only time the two spent together without...

Switzerland lies at the heart of the Alps. Lake Zurich, where musician Erika Stucky performs a peculiar mixture of Jodels and Blues. Born in America to Swiss parents, she moved to Switzerland as a child and quickly learned to adapt to this new culture. Her music shows these different influences and...

Douglas Fairbanks was the "First King of Hollywood". His life story unfolds with American history and the emergence of the film industry as backdrop. His films crossed all borders. His physique and style made him the perfect American icon. At a time when the country did not have any self...

In a world filled with noise, there is another sound worth hearing, and her name is Rachel Flowers. She is a multi-talented instrumentalist and composer born in 1993, fifteen weeks prematurely, losing her eyesight as an infant due to Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). Rachel began to play the piano...

LÃ ftlmalerei, (also spelt LÃ ftelmalerei) is a form of mural art that is native to villages and towns of southern Germany and Austria, especially in Upper Bavaria and Tyrol. LÃ ftlmalerei is a popular, folk-oriented variation of trompe-l’Å il from the Baroque and imitates architectural elements....

The oldest Austrian family business is situated in Innsbruck (Tyrol): Since 1599, bells and works of art made of bronze have been cast by the GRASSMAYR bell foundry. But the Grassmayers are by no means dusty or old-fashioned. To compete against international rivals and cheap bell production...

Until today, the whitewashing is a racist tradition in Hollywood, and as the "blackface", the "yellowface" was used in Hollywood as a propaganda tool and manifestation of the racism. Internal Hollywood rules prohibited the portrayal of interracial romances. Actors like Marlon...

The Cardboard Bernini examines the work and life of artist James Grashow as he builds a giant cardboard fountain inspired by the work of the famous baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Grashow got the inspiration for this project when he saw some of his sculptures disintegrating in the rain....

Over more than a hundred years Hollywood has been the leading producer of entertainment having to reinvent itself from time to time. Just imagine the shock when the first "talkies" appeared, the advent of television, new attractions or a financial crisis. Hollywood always found an answer...

Film noir describes a kind of movie dealing with crime, private eyes, plain clothes policemen, hapless grifters, law-abiding citizens lured into a life of crime or simply victims of circumstance and often in the presence of a "femme fatale". The term "film noir" was originally...

When America was establishing its intelligence services at the beginning of World War II and needed spies to gain information, they turned to Hollywood stars. They were used to travelling in secret, had access to power and could get infiltrate areas that were closed for other members of the public....

Gerhard Richter, described as the world’s most influential and expensive living artist, often works with photographs as a basis for his paintings. In this documentary, he explains his fascination with "these little pictures". Even though he enjoys taking photographs, he never wanted to be...

Although the Cold War virtually ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Hollywood still relies on it for box office value. The witch hunt has been on for more than 50 years, and Hollywood has cashed in on fear and paranoia ever since. During World War II there were the Nazis, and the...