Shaolin
In 620 sends the designated Emperor of China, Li Shimin, a cry for help in greatest need in the province of Henan. A renegade warlord threatens him and his troops are already surrounded. Thirteen monks from the Shaolin city rush to the aid of Li Shimin. They are barefoot and unarmed - but they hit tens of thousands of soldiers to flight. The victory is the birth of the myth of Kung Fu and the Chinese martial arts.
With the Chinese martial arts trainer Wu Meiling we go together on a search across China. Cursed In monasteries, remote villages and mountain sanctuaries we discover the essence of an art which includes not only the battle but also a unique knowledge of medicine, spirituality and human nature.
Even today, keep in the Shaolin Monastery at the foot of sacred Mount Song Shan, the monks the secret of their unique skills - an uncanny power that would make the Emperor of China at all times take advantage.
The secret of the Kung-Fu is hidden in the fascinating world of Chinese martial arts - a world in which conquers the mind over matter, are set in the laws of physics cease to apply. For centuries, the secret was passed by the Kung-Fu masters only to a few chosen disciples. Many of the old masters of the craft of war and persecution by Mao's Red Guards survived, are now old to ninety. Time is running out to preserve their knowledge.
Shaolin - Backstage
Written and directed by: | Lorenz Knauer und Thomas Schuhbauer |
Director of photography: | Matthias Haedecke, Marko Karl |
Sound editor: | Mathias Windrath |
Film editor: | Wolfgang Grimmeisen |
Narrator: | Gert Heidenreich |
Location manager: | Sonja Maxeiner |
Production manager: | Jörg Kunkel, Donald Jenichen |
Executive producer: | Andreas Knoblauch |
Program manager: | Uta von Borries, ZDF |
Head of production: | Ulrich Lenze |
To be aired on: | ZDF, August 10, 2003 |
Amazonas
In the rainforest of the Amazon lies a treasure of which promise many pharmacologists and geneticists that it is a day worth more than gold and silver, which once robbed the Spanish and Portuguese. Blood, these "special juice" is desired, especially when it comes to natural peoples. From the gene information of the Amazon Indians are hoping the researchers developing drugs against cancer, HIV and other diseases. A blood-letting that has for the Indian groups often tragic consequences.
On behalf of pharmaceutical companies, researchers and the contact with shamans and medicine men. You want to acquire knowledge about the effects of plants or of insecticides.
"It is not, they often provide the raw materials out of the country illegally," complain the protector of the Indian territories.
The team accompanied Sydney Possuelo, a dedicated fighter for the rights of native peoples in his dangerous mission to the last havens of endangered rainforest.
In the vast wilderness, still live in the nations that have little to get a white face, the game resembles the Biopirates looking for a needle in a haystack. Sidney has taken up the fight, he has watched his small team of the Indian protection agency FUNAI, the reserve boundaries and the only white man in close contact with Indian peoples. The film team embarks on the adventure and provides a rare example impressions of the so-called Zoë, a small group, whose knowledge of the healing power of nature in its rituals is still alive. No one knows the Amazon region such as Sydney Possuelo, the patron saint of the Indians, and as a rare and exclusive trip succeeds in magical worlds of the Amazon region.
A film by Susanne Aernecke
Amazonas - Backstage
Written and directed by: | Susanne Aernecke |
Director of photography: | Florian Pfeifferl |
Sound editor: | Luiz Walter de Souza |
Film editor: | Susanne Strobel |
Composer: | Andreas Linse, Robert Papst |
Narrator: | Gert Heidenreich |
Location manager: | Sonja Maxeiner |
Production manager: | Jörg Kunkel, Donald Jenichen |
Executive producer: | Andreas Knoblauch |
Program manager: | Uta von Borries, ZDF |
Head of Production: | Ulrich Lenze |
To be aired on: | ZDF, August 17, 2003 |
Polynesia
It is like a journey to the end of the world. Far away in the oceanic expanses of the Southwest Pacific is Taumako, a small island in the Solomon Islands with nearly five hundred inhabitants. Taumako has no electricity, no telephone, no safe harbor. Only every few months controls a supply ship to the small South Pacific island. News from the outside world come across an old sea-radio, which is powered by a solar system.
Around the remote island of Polynesia nothing but water as far as the eye can see. On a square kilometer of land are 500 square miles of ocean. How only could the ancestors of today's call at the Polynesian Islands at the edge of the world and stay in touch with each other over hundreds of miles away? The film team goes to extreme life situations on the clues to the nomads of the South Seas. Namely, they keep a secret: Their ancestors were the best sailors of their time and had unique knowledge of boat building and navigation.
The oldest inhabitants Taumakos have preserved the unique knowledge, because they are the only South Sea inhabitants, which would still be able to build ocean-going sailing in the traditional manner and to sail - and are admired for the industrialized countries. In the world of high-tech yachts and the GPS engineers try the riddle of the fast and stable boats to get to the bottom. have 40 years ago, hundreds of such boats crossed the distant islands. Most were built in Taumako. But colonialist and missionary prohibitions against long been the traditional way of traveling, fishing and trade have brought to a standstill. The former "nomads of the Pacific" are banished into isolation.
The 90 year old knows about Koloso Kaveia the secrets of shipbuilding and seafaring. And he has a dream: he wants to revive the boat building again and pass on knowledge to young Taumakoaner. But not only the knowledge of the construction of the boats risk of being lost. This South Sea Islanders kept their course with the help of the observation of the stars, wind, waves, clouds, birds and marine animals - navigation skills, the sextant and GPS do not need. The film tells how to master the difficulties of the inhabitants of the island and boat building, the dream of the ancient seafarer true: After 40 years, stands for the first time a ship from the beach of Taumako the green blue waters of the South Seas.
Polynesien - Backstage
Written and directed by: | Michael Tauchert and Lorenz Knauer |
Director of photography: | Matthias Haedecke, Ciro Cappellari, Marcus Holzner |
Special effects supervisor: | Geoff Mackley |
Sound editor: | Mathias Windrath |
Film editor: | Jochen C. Müller |
Narrator: | Gert Heidenreich |
Location manager: | Sonja Maxeiner |
Production manager: | Jörg Kunkel, Donald Jenichen |
Executive producer: | Andreas Knoblauch |
Program manager: | Uta von Borries, ZDF |
Head of production: | Ulrich Lenze |
To be aired on: | ZDF, August 24, 2003 |
