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Broadcasters / ARTE / Arte Popkultur

ARTE

Arte Popkultur

Format

Documentary / Pop Culture Portrait

Length

52 min (occasionally 90 min)

Timeslot

Friday late evening (Slot 613)

Exposé length

3–5 pages

Editorial tone

Emotional, provocative, entertaining. Popular and mass culture since the 1960s. Character-driven — portraits of icons and movements. Celebrates pop culture without being uncritical. Energetic, visually strong, zeitgeisty. The Friday evening vibe: culturally ambitious and entertaining at the same time.

What this format covers

  • ●Popular and mass culture since the 1960s
  • ●Music — rock, pop, hip-hop, electronic, punk, jazz
  • ●Cinema — film history, directors, genres, cult films
  • ●Fashion, design, visual culture
  • ●Comics, graphic novels, animation culture
  • ●Net culture, memes, digital subcultures
  • ●Character-driven portraits of pop culture icons

What this format does NOT want

  • ●High culture without pop-cultural connection (opera, pure classical)
  • ●Historical topics before the 1960s
  • ●Academic cultural analysis without narrative access
  • ●Political documentaries without cultural connection
  • ●Series or strands — single films preferred
  • ●Purely informative formats without emotion and attitude

Visual expectations

Visually energetic and zeitgeisty. Rich archive material from film, music, fashion. Concert footage, film clips, photos. Stylized graphics and animation possible. Editing and music as structural elements. Pop-cultural aesthetic — the film must look like its subject. No conventional TV aesthetic.

Expected exposé structure

  1. Title (catchy, pop-cultural)
  2. Logline (2–3 sentences: who/what, why culturally significant, why now)
  3. Exposé body text as character-driven narrative
  4. Cultural-historical context
  5. Archive access and exclusive material
  6. Interview partners (named specifically)
  7. Visual strategy and sound concept
  8. Production company, author, contact

Example productions

  • Summer of Soul
  • Die Geschichte des Hip-Hop
  • Mythos Concorde — Überschall und Absturz
  • Kate Bush — Running Up That Hill
  • Manga — Die Welt der japanischen Comics

Editorial notes

Friday late evening — the audience is in weekend mode. Single films preferred, no series. Character-driven and portrait-based. Emotional, provocative, entertaining — the film must be fun. From the 1960s onward. Occasionally 90-minute films are possible, but 52 minutes is the standard length. Broad supplier base.

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