FINDING AN AUDIENCE

MRH : Has the success of the documentary and its Emmy Award led to any subsequent projects?

Carl Schmitt : No, that's the big problem! Television looks for a format which repeats itself. Number 1: this is a single 90 min. documentary [done in a] very unusual style, so we had a hard fight to do it. Number 2: it didn't get any recognition in Germany. Not at all. It was completely ignored.

MRH : That's rather tragic, because I think it's one of the best documentaries made about he making of a film because it also deals with historical and social aspects.

Carl Schmitt: But it was completely ignored. It wasn't even shown during prime time. [The network] had the rights to it because they funded it, but they showed it as a minor regional program; never on a bigger scale.

MRH : But it did manage to make it to the American Television Academy where they voted on the film and give it an award, so it did have some life afterwards.

Carl Schmitt : Yes. We also won at the Chicago Television Festival, but it's a bit sad for me that the film's recognition came from outside Germany.

MRH : And your current project is to produce a dramatic version of the story?

Carl Schmitt : This was always out intention, but we were too small of a company. We're not documentary filmmakers, but the documentary was the only way to approach these complex themes, but it was always our idea to do it as a dramatic film.

DAS LEBEN GEHT NOCH WEITER

MRH : I take it you're now working on a dramatization of the film's production. I just wondered what stage it's at?

Mark Cairns : It's in an early stage, I would say. It's a difficult project to work on to get the tone right. My problem with the film is finding characters to sympathize with; after all, they're all making Nazi propaganda, so it's rather hard to try and find someone you would actually like to follow. It's been quite interesting, trying to turn it into a drama.

Once you're in a fiction film, it's quite different from documentary. I had Dieter Moor leading you through the film, and Dieter was your anchor and the person you trusted; you knew he was kind of ironic and on your side. Without him, you have a different kind of film and a different kind of story, and you have to tell it in a different kind of way. It's an interesting exercise, and it's still ongoing.

KQEK.com would like to thank Carl Schmitt and Mark Cairns for candidly & exhaustively discussing their film.

Das Leben geht weiter / Life Goes On is available on DVD from Polar Film and Amazon.de

More information is available at the official film site in Deutsch & English, and at StarCrest Media GmbH

All images remain the property of their copyright holders.

This interview © 2006 by Mark R. Hasan