Birth and death, origin and future, happiness and suffering, right and wrong actions, war and peace – whether 30,000 years ago or in our time, people are always looking for answers to the same questions, whether at the equator or in the Arctic. Spirituality seems to be inherent in people. And time and again, it is religions that determine the course of the world and the lives of individuals. Faith forms communities, unites and divides people and determines the fate of entire continents. There is no more important element in world history than faith.
In the three-part Terra X series ‘Power of the Gods’, together with historian Christopher Clark, we wanted to show how surprisingly strongly faith has shaped the course of world history from the very beginning and what a decisive role it still plays in the 21st century for the great movements of time and their thought patterns. In the third episode, ‘God and the Powerful’, current aspects such as Islamism and the evangelical movement in the USA are also analysed in an understandable way. But we also wanted to show how crucial spirituality is for people in general – beyond the boundaries of denominations.
In this series, Christopher Clark goes to emblematic places and shows key dramatic moments in opulent productions in which world history was written with the means of faith. The dynamic alternation between these elements creates exciting, often unexpected connections.
Director Biography – Gero von Boehm
Gero von Boehm was born in 1954 in Hannover, Germany. He has lived in Heidelberg, Hamburg, Berlin, Paris and New York City. He studied law, Social Sciences and History of Art at the University of Heidelberg.
In 1975 he started his career as a radio host and journalist for the major German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. He has worked as a reporter at large for several newspapers and magazines. In 1978 he founded his own production company, interscience films, with his wife Christiane and started producing and directing documentaries for the nationwide Public Television Channels ARD and ZDF and for the European Culture Channel ARTE. He has made more than 80 documentaries since.
In 2011, he founded, with his wife Christiane and his son Felix the production company “Lupa Film” in Berlin. The company will focus on fictional productions for cinema and television a well as on documentaries related to cinema and theatrical arts.
Gero von Boehm has written and directed several award-winning portraits of artists and writers such as Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Pierre Matisse, Henry Moore, David Hockney, Balthus, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, Zao Wou-ki, Kurt Masur, Ernst Jünger, Umberto Eco, Gregor von Rezzori, Karl Lagerfeld, Helmut Newton, Pater Lindbergh, I.M. Pei , Paul Auster, Hedi Slimane, Norman Mailer , Isabella Rossellini and Harry Belafonte.
His book about the chinese-american architect I.M.Pei („Light is the key“) came out in the United States and Europe in September 2000 and was published in China.
In a series for German Television ARD he portrayed more than 30 eminent researchers from all fields of science. He directed various hourlong documentaries, an acclaimed program about homeless children in Manhattan and an award-winning documentary about the French Jesuit Pierre Ceyrac who takes care of thousands of children in India suffering from leprosy as well as a two-part series about the history of the Mafia and a four-part series with the acclaimed writer Joachim Fest about the South of Italy.
His television series „Odyssee 3000“ for ZDF about the history of civilisation and the future of mankind was shown in many countries, the book „Odyssee 3000 – journeys into the future“ was published in Europe and Korea.
His series “The Great Dynasties” in which he portrayed families like the Windsors, the Kennedys, Agnellis and Rothschilds, was a worldwide success.
In his own talkshow „Wortwechsel“ which he hosted since 1980, he did over
100 hourlong interviews with people like Kurt Masur, Federico Fellini, Peter Ustinov, Gregor von Rezzori, Eugene Ionesco, Martin Walser, Günter Grass, Ernst Jünger, Joachim Fest, and many others.
Between 2002 and 2010 Boehm was hosting the TV interview program “Gero von Boehm meets…” which was on the air prime time in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by 3Sat and via satellite all over Europe with guests such as former chancellor Helmut Kohl, Michail Gorbatschow, Madeleine Albright, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Sir Peter Ustinov, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Isabella Rossellini, John Malkovich, Charlotte Rampling, and Karl Lagerfeld, the Aga Khan, Farah Diba Pahlawi, Queen Rania and King Abdullah of Jordan.
His 90 minutes documentary about Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis had the highest ratings ever achieved so far on ARTE, the European Culture Channel.
For his achievements Gero von Boehm has won the Culture Award of the Eduard Rhein Foundation, twice the Bavarian Film- and Television Award, three nominations for the „Telestar“, the Wilhelmine Lübke Award, twice the Film- and Television Award of the German Medical Association, the Grand Prix Leonardo in Parma, the Silver and Gold Award at the New York Television Festival, and the Bavarian Television Award.
Gero von Boehm is now a Special Correspondent world wide for Europe’s biggest Public Television station ZDF German Television and concentrates on making prime time documentaries.
He invented and now produces ARTE’s biographical documentary series Ma Vie / Mein Leben („My life“) where eminent international personalities from all fields tell the story of their lives.
He produces the ZDF issues of the acclaimed cultural magazine program METROPOLIS for ARTE and ARTE’s new Talkshow “Paris-Berlin”.
In 2004 he produced and directed the acclaimed five-part prime time series “Palaces of Power” – portraits of the White House, the Kremlin, Buckingham Palace, the Elysée and the Vatican, in 2005 / 2006 the series “Giants – German Geniuses” , a series of docudramas about Albert Einstein (starring Maximilian Schell), Ludwig van Beethoven (Uwe Ochsenknecht) and Alexander von Humboldt (Matthias Habich) and a docudrama about Pope John Paul II.
In 2007, Gero von Boehm hosted, directed and produced another three-part prime time program “Palaces of Power” – this time about the palaces of the orient and their inhabitants , featuring stunning footage on location and interviews with King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan, the Emir of Kuwait, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, Prince Karim Aga Khan, King Bumiphol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, and The Sultan of Brunei. The episodes achieved ratings of about 4 million viewers each.
With the eminent journalist and bestseller writer Peter Scholl-Latour, Gero von Boehm travelled the United States, Latin America, Russia, China, and Europe to investigate the shifting of powers on the planet for the two-part prime time series “Between the Frontlines” which aired in January 2008 .
A two-part prime time series about the fall of the Berlin Wall for ZDF : “A Night in November”, was aired in November 2008, and another highly acclaimed two-part prime time series about the system of Russian oligarchy followed in March 2009.
In 2010, Gero von Boehm directed the documentary “My Wild Life” starring Isabella Rossellini and Roberto Benigni – for Arte and Sundance Channel.
In 2011, Gero von Boehm produced and directed the six part documentary series “A Brief History of the World” with Hape Kerkeling, the most successful documentary program of the last years on German Television with 6 million viewers for each of the six episodes.
The series was followed by the six-part series “Deutschland-Saga” (ZDF) which was equally successful. It was hosted by the eminent Australian- british historian Sir Christopher Clark of the University of Cambridge who also hosted the six part series “Europa-Saga” (ZDF). Each episode reached an average of 4,5 million viewers, and was distributed worldwide. The series was followed by another prime time six part series in 2019, “Treasures of the Planet”, introducing UNESCO world heritage sites to a worldwide audience. The series is being continued in 2022. In 2023 another production with Sir Christopher Clark will follow: A three part prime time series about the influence of religions on world history: “Power of the Gods”.
In 2018 Gero von Boehm wrote, directed, and produced the two-part prime time documentary “Exodus? – A History of the European Jews” for ZDF.
In 2020, Boehm’s acclaimed cinema documentary “Helmut Newton – The Bad and the Beautiful”, starring Charlotte Rampling, Isabella Rossellini, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithfull, Anna Wintour, Claudia Schiffer, and Nadja Auermann, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Currently the director is working on a feature-length documentary about the late Karl Lagerfeld, for release at the end of 2024.
A retrospective of Gero von Boehm’s films has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt, Germany in January and February, 2000.
Gero von Boehm was awarded the French state order of “Chevaliers des Arts et des lettres”.
He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York, and lives in Berlin and France.
| Gero von Boehm Director, Writer Christiane von Boehm Producer Christopher Munro Clark Key Cast |
