Dealmakers


KRISTINA HOLLSTEIN Director, co-productions and development, documentaries, ZDF Enterprises


T CAREER


1996 Joins ZDF Enterprises, rising to director of documentary co-production. Also tutors at the Discovery Campus Master School and regularly lectures on economics and TV production at German universities 1988 Begins working in independent fi lm production and distribution in co-production and development


here’s a tendency for TV execu- tives to be looking for their next job while their name is still


being painted on the door of their current offi ce. So ZDF Enterprises must be delighted to have held on to Kristina Hollstein, director, documen- tary co-productions and development, documentaries, for 15 years. She’s played a key role in establish-


ing ZDFE as one of the top documen- tary co-producers in the world, working with the BBC, Channel 4, History Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic TV, NHK, Arte, and many more. Four of the top 30 most-screened programmes at MipDoc 2011 were in the company’s catalogue, more than any other factual distribution company. For MipCom, ZDFE and Hollstein


are hoping for a similar buyer response to Saving The Titanic, a big- budget drama-documentary that began shooting in mid-August in the UK and Ireland and is being launched now in anticipation of the 100th anni- versary of the sinking of the Titanic next April. Of course, one of the risks with


marking such an anniversary is you’re unlikely to be alone. ITV is producing a mini-series, as is De Angelis. ZDFE, meanwhile, is not just producing Saving The Titanic, but also a documentary called Titanic The Myth (working title).


Standing out


Hollstein is confi dent that Saving The Titanic will fi nd its place. “Many of the new documentaries being produced are using archive material that is very well known, while we are shooting very high- end, large-scale, new material using Red cameras,” she says.


Produced jointly by Stephen Rooke of Tile Films and Reinhardt Beetz of Gebruder Beetz Filmproduk- tion, Saving The


Titanic will be offered as 1 x 90 minutes or 2 x 52 minutes and will, for the fi rst time, tell the story based on eyewitness accounts of the


engineers, stokers


and fi reman who kept the ship running.


38 | Broadcast | 30 September 2011


Saving The Titanic Irish director Maurice Sweeney is


staging drama re-enactments with extensive use of CGI, created by Wind- mill Lane Pictures, to bring to life the fi nal hours of the Titanic. In addition to representing the


documentary output of parent broad- caster ZDF (around 300 hours a year) ZDFE represents approximately 60 hours of documentaries produced for National Geographic – titles such as Alaska State Troopers, Hard Times and Repossessed. “We invest in about 400 hours of documentary a year, about half of which is for German-speaking rights,” she says.


Among the more impressive recent co-productions in which ZDFE has invested are


Dawn Of The Ocean and


Planet Egypt (pictured, left). Dawn Of The Ocean tells the


story of the world’s seas from the very beginning to the diverse


eco-systems we see today.


‘We invest in 400 hours of docs a year, about half of which is German-


speaking rights’ Kristina Hollstein


It is available as 3 x 50 minutes or


1 x 90 minutes, both in HD, and is a Gruppe 5 production for ZDF and National Geographic Channel in co- operation with ZDFE. Planet Egypt, meanwhile, is produced by Gruppe 5, and is a co-production with The History Channel US, Arte and ZDF (4 x 50 minutes HD). So what makes Hollstein such a


good co-producer? Partly it’s down to her creative instinct, and partly her diplomacy. But mostly it’s because she has the commercial acumen required to navigate an arena that has become more and more complex as a result of the number of international thematic channels in the market. She’s an expert in economics and


not one IP right escapes the grasp of ZDFE until its true value has been assessed. Not only does this provide her company with some stability, it also means that relationships with partners are conducted on a completely trans- parent basis. Viewed like this, it’s not just ZDFE, but the entire documentary- making community, that benefi ts from Hollstein’s experience.


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