Trailer
Year
2010
Length
5 x 52 min
Directors
Ira Beetz, Achim Scheunert, Christoph Weinert,
Kai Christiansen
Immigrants to Icons
The legendary Levis jeans, Heinz tomato ketchup, Boeing planes, precious Steinway pianos and the legendary Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Synopsis
Immigrants to Icons, is a fivepart limited series that dives deep into the stories of five German entrepreneurs who redefined the American economy and left a major imprint on American culture. Although their homeland is Germany, their stories are uniquely American. Each entrepreneur succeeded because their inventiveness, courage, perseverance and hard work enabled them to prove themselves in a strange new land, and allowed them to grow from immigrants to millionaires.
Immigrants to Icons, presents one of the most fascinating and exciting eras of German and American history. How and why did immigrants like Levis Strauss, Henry C. Steinway,William Boeing, John Jacob Astor and Henry Heinz succeed? And how did they become archetypical success stories that even now epitomize the success story that is America? The series visits the companies of Levi Strauss & Co., Steinway & Sons, Heinz Ketchup and Boeing. We’ll see how each man took a novel and brilliant idea, established a company and gained fame, honor, and wealth. These five biographical hours are the definitive portraits of these entrepreneurial giants; businessmen who have their homeland in common and their place in history secured. They leave for various economic, social, political, and religious reasons – but all to find a better life in America. These are the stories of five immigrants who made it big in America.
Director + Script
Ira Beetz, Achim Scheunert, Christoph Weinert, Kai Christiansen
Camera
Jörg Hammermeister, Hans Jakobi, Reiner Bauer, Jan Kerhart, André Dekker
Editor
Ramin Sabeti, Christoph Senn, Carsten Piefke
Music
Nils Kacirek
Sound Mix
Jörg Hochapfel, Sipho Khumalo
Graphic
Stefan Matlik
Production Assistants
Eva Fouquet, Hanna Meyer zu Hörste, Cordula Stadter
Producer
Ira Beetz
Executive Producer
Reinhardt Beetz
Commissioning Editor
Ulrike Dotzer (NDR/ARTE)
A production by gebrueder beetz filmproduktion Hamburg
On behalft of NDR
In collaboration with ARTE
Funded by Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein GmbH and Normedia GmbH
Sales & distribution
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„Just in diesem Moment überraschen uns die aus dem Theaterbereich stammenden jungen Regisseure Hans Block und Moritz Riesewieck mit einem erstaunlichen Dokumentarfilm, der seit Monaten Publikum und Kritik auf den wichtigsten Festivals der Welt elektrisiert. Völlig zu Recht: Es ist, als würden einem die Scheuklappen weggerissen, als sähe man das, was sich seit Jahren direkt vor unseren Augen abspielt, zum ersten Mal unverschleiert... eine fesselnde ,Doku noir' mit höchstem Anspruch...Dieser Film müsste an allen Schulen gezeigt werden.“
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
17.05.2018
