Synopsis
What’s the connection between talk show host Joachim Fuchsberger and American psychiatry? To what extent do television shows mirror our instincts and behavioural patterns? What do games reveal about the mechanisms of capitalism? Lutz Dammbeck, artist and filmmaker, already proved his affinity with unusual logical combinations and conspiracy theories in earlier works - while at the same time displaying a dogged willingness to follow Ariadne’s thread to the end in order to make the real interests, motives and structures visible.Dammbeck learns while channel-hopping that the early 1960s German show 'Now Don’t Be Nervous' was an adaptation of the American show 'Beat the Clock' – which in turn was based on games used in psychiatric therapy. This is the starting point for an intellectual journey of exploration into Germany’s condition after the Second World War. The director highlights little-known aspects of the re-education programme, post-traumatic disorders and psychological warfare, meets veterans of U.S. game shows and eloquent media theorists. Dammbeck’s method consists of meandering while he unreservedly and curiously absorbs apparent footnotes and theses from a variety of scientific fields – casually reviving a genre that has fallen into unjustified neglect: the encyclopaedic film. (DOKLeipzig, Cornelia Klauß)