Against the backdrop of the oft-evoked “golden age” of US pay TV, the need to reinvigorate German serials has been on the agenda for years. Seven years after Dominik Graf’s milestone IM ANGESICHT DES VERBRECHENS / IN THE FACE OF CRIME (2010), a new generation of German serial-makers is now at work, largely, albeit with a few exceptions, taking American role models and standards as their point of reference.
In SERIAL GERMANY, the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb), in conjunction with its post-graduate programme Serial Eyes and the Filmnetzwerk Berlin, seeks to enter into dialogue with key players in more current productions. The issues to be explored include production conditions, the role of the “American model” but also the aesthetic and societal significance of serial-format storytelling. Some of the highlights on our guest list: Uli Hanisch (BABYLON Berlin, 2017), Hans-Christian Schmid and Julia Jentsch (DAS VERSCHWINDEN /THE VANISHING, 2017), Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf and Bob Konrad (4 BLOCKS, 2016), Christian Schwochow, Oliver Kienle, Jana Burbach, Jan Galli (BAD BANKS, 2017), as well as Jan Bonny and Alex Wissel (ÜBER BARBAROSSAPLATZ /ABOVE BARBAROSSAPLATZ, 2016).