The Breeding of a New Mankind
Documentary by Boris Karadjev & Wolfgang Bergmann
In the early period of the Soviet Union breathtaking experiments have taken place. Crossbreeding between man and ape; blood refreshment by transfer; fixing conditional reflexes to the genes; artificially inseminating women by sperms of genius men, everything seemed to be possible in this short time period, ending 1936 with mass murdering of so called opponents.
The film will lighten this period by archive footage, authentic places and with the words of specialists.
After the victory of Bolshevist revolution breeding of “a new man” (in a broad sense – new mankind) became one of the main goals of grandiose experiment carried out at “one sixth part of the earth”.
The struggle for “a new man” had not only ideological reasons. Strange, as it may appear at the first sight, but its active development was stimulated by disease and death of Bolshevist leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin’s death became alarming signal for his comrades. Communist elite rushed to doctors’ rooms requiring to prolong their lives due to the newest medical discoveries. Different scientists were involved in the solution of this problem. An old Lenin’s comrade and later his ideological opponent Alexander Bogdanov, physician, philosopher and science fiction writer was among them.
His speculative novel Red Star, , narrates the life of selected inhabitants on Mars. The people there are truly connected by blood: The elder and younger Martians exchange blood regularly and, as a result, becomes “blood brothers.” The Martians have also long recognized that the mixing of one’s own blood with that of other people is rejuvenating for the whole body. In 1924 Bogdanov began to experiment with blood transfusions on real humans. The blood of old and young people was exchanged, just like in his novel. He often experimented on himself, and he kept track in his records of the improvements of his general condition, production capacities and appearance. Following 11 successful experiments, Bogdanov undertook another blood transfusion with a student who was suffering from a form of tuberculosis. Bogdanov hoped to transfer his own immunity onto the student. But, with the 12-th time, the tragedy happened – 54-year scientist died. The supposable reason of his death – it was the so-called rhesus incompatibility. But it had not been known by that time – blood Rhesus – factor would be discovered only in 1940.
THE MEN/APE EXPERIMENT
Lichtfilm proposed to MDR (Heribert Schneiders/Katja Wildermuth) a historical documentary about the men/ape breeding experiment in the Sovietunion of the 30th. They failed at that time. Today hybrid breeding is possible and done and seems to be ethicly accepted by the western societies.
The 52 minute film will be produced in HD and released in December 2008 and be broadcasted at first on ARTE.
Liverpool – Beat City by Irene Langemann
As an order from ZDF/ARTE, Hans-Robert Eisenhauer, Irene Langemann will realize a 52-60 minute documentary about Liverpool as a city in transition from downwards poor industrial to a cultural capital second after London. Of course the Beatles will play…
The film will produced in HD, 52-60 minutes and released in December 2008
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THE COMPETITORS – RUSSIA’S WONDERCHILDREN 2
A documentary by Irene Langemann
At June 22nd the shooting of the continuation of the new film started in Moscow. A love story and confession for music starts again.
When we began in early 2007 with the financing of the film, we would not have believed how difficult this turned out to be. At the end we did it.
We built some sequences of old and new footage to give you an idea of the film project!!
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THE DAY MY HUSBAND FALL OUT OF HEAVEN
A film project by Kai Christiansen
In the 60s and 70s nearly 300 fighter jets of the Federal German Air Force, known as “Starfighters”, crashed and more than 100 pilots lost their lives. Never during peacetime have more soldiers been killed. The depth of this trauma of German post-war history can be gauged by the fact that no film has ever explored the dramatic human and political dimension of this tragedy.
In more than 20 locations, from the Allgäu to the Baltic Sea, author Kai Christiansen has found contemporary witnesses for the projected film. He meets women who break their silence often kept over many years and speak of the day their husbands fell from the sky. Pilots serving at the time speak of their addiction to flying, but also of those agonizing seconds when they lost control of their plane and just barely managed to save themselves by parachuting. An attorney reveals a secret file from the Federal Ministry of Defence in Bonn, which analyzes the causes of the fighter jet crashes.
Further research in Norway, Italy and the USA will follow. The camera work is projected for 2008.
The development of the project is funded by the Filmstiftung NRW (Film Foundation Northrhine-Westphalia).
Format: 90 minutes.
ARABIC BLOOD
A documentary by Wolfgang Bergmann
German equestrian sport and horse breeding have become a dominant power in the last three centuries. Horses of German breeding and training are „export hits“, and they win the most of the prizes in dressage and horse-jumping contests worldwide.
Yet German virtues are not hereditary, also not for horses. The secret of the success of German horse riding and showmanship is, and what I would like to depict impressively in this film, that on the one hand horse riding is based on a well structured training and on the other hand by refining the heavy warm-blooded horses through the Arabian, and indirectly with the Anglo-Arabian thoroughbreds.
The film will follow the career of outstanding horses who revolutionized the German breeding and the passionate individuals behind them. The film traces the bloodline from the Arabian Bedouins to Hungary and Poland to Germany. Traveling trough the Arabic world, the United Kingdom, Hungary and Poland, the film will always return to Germany in order to unveil the mystery of the enduring success of the German equestrians.
Format: 60/90 min, period of producing 2008/2009