Background

The “Docuverse” collection brings together raw documentary footage from international productions—compiled over more than three decades and continuously expanded. It includes B-roll, observational footage, research footage, and interviews on contemporary history and politics, everyday life and society, cities and infrastructure, industry and energy, agriculture, as well as nature and the environment.

The holdings already made available trace journeys across continents and through different political and social landscapes. They include a journey across the United States, with interviews on the civil rights movement in Selma when Barack Obama was running for President of the United States; the coasts of South Africa, from Cape Town to Gansbaai, with fishing harbours, shark fishing and underwater footage; and views of cities and memorials in Berlin, Brest, Moscow and Volgograd. Another filming trip follows Lenin’s route from Geneva to St. Petersburg. Footage from Kabul captures street life, markets, sports and military checkpoints before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, while material from Ukraine documents pipelines and energy infrastructure, housing estates, memorials and landscapes. Further holdings lead to Sierra Leone, where agriculture, village life and sugar-cane processing meet biomass power and ethanol production; to Cambodia, with the effects of land grabbing and deforestation; and to Shanghai, with traffic, architecture, everyday life and night views of the Huangpu River.

Alongside material used in completed films, Docuverse preserves previously unreleased observations, conversations and locations – footage that did not appear in the final productions but holds historical and visual value in its own right. New material from current productions is added continuously, while older holdings are digitised and catalogued step by step.