Paul Falkenberg

Bernhard Frankfurter, a young Austrian filmmaker, follows the trails and roots of several German-speaking filmmakers who had been forced into exil by Hitler faschism. He interviewed prominent and less well-known artists who were forced to leave their (artistic) heimat because they were politically or racially no longer "acceptable"... A documentary film in which the personal commitment of the filmmaker is purposely brought to the attention of the viewer.

Based on extensive interviews, shot on 16mm in a series of static long takes, Filmemigration aus Nazideutschland, is one of the most fascinating examples of "Film history on film" ever produced. Straschek devoted years to researching the topic and accumulating both film and non-film materials. Apart from some radio features and articles, however, this 290-minute TV programme remains the only published trace of Straschek's lifelong work on the emigration of film personnel. He had intended to publish a three-volume book, encompassing all available data about 3,000 emigrants originating from the centre and peripheries of film production, but the book never materialised.