The funny clown Bratislav Metulskie is found dead in circus "Apollo". The retired commissioner 00 Schneider is asked to assume control of the case. Schneider and his aged sidekick Körschgen investigate to find the murderer.

00 Schneider - Jagd auf Nihil Baxter

A documentary about the 'critical mass', the Film Coop, a group of young filmmakers in Hamburg during the 1960s - a small group far from the Mainstream or the New German Cinema.

The Critical Mass: Underground Film in Hamburg During the Sixties

The film traces the history of the camera obscura, the understanding of perspective and anamorphosis, peepshows and it shows the beauty of historical shadowtheaters and shadow toys.

Beyond the Image

The history of the magic lantern with demonstrations of moving slides, watertank or polarisation slides, followed by images on paper, which are brought to life with mechanical manipulations, with light shining through them or as panorama.

Pictures Come to Life

Picture montage was a central aspect in the early history of visual media. As early as the 16th century, techniques such as the folding picture montage anticipated those used in film today. Other examples of early forms of montage are transparencies, picture puzzles and blow books, which direct the gaze towards hidden information. In the myriorame, the multi-thousand picture-show, it is possible to assemble infinite landscapes.

Multi-Thousand Picture Show

The film looks at ways of creating spezial illusions through amiguous images, perspective theatres, folding peepshows and from the 19th century, the stereoscope, which look forward to today’s holography.

The Ambiguous Image and Space

Other essential predecessors of film were those devices that created the illusion of motion by taking advantage of the persistence of vision and the stroboscopic effect, such as the thaumatrope, phenakistoscope or wheel of life, zoetrope or magic drum and praxinoscope and later on, the more sophisticated flip-books such as the kinora and mutoscope.

The Magic Drum

The painter gazes at his female model, or how voyeurism is transformed into culture. An erotic adventure film where the theme is the viewer himself.

The Day of the Painter

A behind the scenes look at 'Ben Hur: The Stadium Spectacular', featuring Academy Award winner Russell Crowe.