DW's TV highlights in February

Glamour, Stars and Bears

Hollywood stars, filmmakers and movie fans are all getting ready for the Berlinale which will take place from February 20 to March 1. Our reporters will provide coverage of the world's largest public film festival with special editions on Arts.21 on February 22 and 29, as well as daily festival bulletins on TV magazine Arts and Culture, DW News and The Day.

Looted Art in the Third Reich

Jewish art collections were systematically confiscated after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Starting February 10, the documentary Looted Art in the Third Reich shows how the art market profited from the predicament of many Jewish collectors after 1933. It focuses on the fate of a collection belonging to Ernst and Agathe Saulmann amassed at the private home of the Jewish textile manufacturer in the Swabian Alps. Before their escape into exile, they asked their long-time art dealer Julius Böhler to sell the collection. But while Böhler lined his own pockets from the sale, Ernst and Agathe received nothing. To this day, only a few pieces from the Saulmann’s collection have been returned.

Insect Art

Starting February 8, Euromaxx presents the amazing insect world of Cedric Laquieze to whom insects are hugely fascinating. The Amsterdam-based artist breathes new life into dead beetles and butterflies in his own very novel way. He turns them into fantastical fairy sculptures, using the butterfly’s brightly-colored wings and the beetle’s iridescent wing-cases to create entirely new beings.

Child Labor

Thousands of children are estimated to be working in illegal mica mines in eastern India. They are expected to help out at the age of five. The shimmering mineral is hard and elastic at the same time, hence the huge interest in the raw material, from the electrical sector to the cosmetics industry. Starting February 3, Global 3000 takes a look at working environments in Asia and Europe. 

Miniature pigs looking through a fence

Soyalism

There are 8 to 10 million pigs in North Carolina packed into row upon row of stalls that look almost like towns from the air. Their emissions are polluting and threatening the environment in the US federal state. Pig farming in North Carolina is just one of many examples of highly-industrialized farming practices. The documentary film Soyalism follows the factory farming trail all over the world – from the U.S. to Brazil, Mozambique to China. It shows how large companies are tightening their grip on the market, how smallholders are feeling the squeeze, and how vast tracts of land are being given over to large scale production. Starting February 20.

Sports in the Thuringian Forest

Oberhof is a popular resort in the Thuringian Forest for sports enthusiasts. Here, you’ll find Olympians rubbing shoulders with the leisure crowd. At an altitude of around 815 meters above sea level, it provides optimal conditions for almost any kind of winter sport. Tune in to Check-in starting February 22 as presenter Lukas Stege takes the opportunity to test his athletic ambitions.

The Sound of Freedom

What does the German folk song “Die Gedanken sind frei” have to do with “A Punk Prayer” by the Russian band Pussy Riot? What traditions are reflected in the Free Nelson Mandela movement or Beyoncé’s pop feminism? Social upheaval and political songs have gone hand in hand since the French Revolution at the very latest. This two-part documentary tells the story of songs that became iconic signature tunes – from the “Marseillaise,” through “Bella Ciao” to “I Will Survive.” Starting February 7. 

A Question of Style

In February, the magazine show Arts.21 will devote a special edition to fashion, showcasing young fashion designers from Africa, sustainable avant-garde designs made from recycled materials and a look at fashion icon Iris Apfel who is still celebrated as a fashion icon as she approaches 100. The culture magazine also looks back at the Golden 20s, a time when women in Europe were entering the workplace, enjoying freedom and independence and casting off the rigid corset of social expectation. Don't miss out, starting February 15.