UFA MAN-The Forgotten Life and Career of Film Pioneer David Oliver

In February 2012, Mark Oliver traveled to Berlin where he hoped to unravel the mystery surrounding the life of his grandfather. Deep within the vaults of various national archives lie the films of David Oliver. Some exist only as fragments. They have survived Nazi censorship, the bombing of Berlin and the neglect of history. Nearly one hundred years old, these fragile and highly explosive nitrate originals are now crumbling to dust.

What we have uncovered is a tale of Faustian bargains and intrigues, a time where the intertwining worlds of art and capitalist self-interest would coalesce into the motion picture industry of today, for better…and worse.

Each day of work brings unimagined discoveries that bring into question everything we had accepted as truth only the day before.