This is a story about my father - a successful television producer and boulevard journalist who chased stories, created headlines and stood shoulder to shoulder with celebrities. He helped shape the world of scripted reality in Germany, a genre of TV which scripts life to feel more entertaining, more dramatic and sometimes more bearable than it actually is.

Behind the public persona and success however, was someone far more complex and fragile, someone who looking back carried immeasurable pain - something I saw but couldn’t quite understand.

What he shared with us in his final days was a small piece of his truth, reshaping the version of him I thought I knew and making me realize that in many ways, I never really knew him at all.

This documentary is my attempt to understand who he really was, 13 years after his death. It’s about retracing and piecing together fragments of his life, speaking with those who knew him - family, friends, colleagues, lovers, competitors - revisiting the places that moulded him and exploring the world of private television, one he both helped shape and was shaped by. It’s about the complexities of love and loss, the weight of unanswered questions, confronting what’s left unspoken and questioning the beliefs we hold.

I know no one can have all the answers, and that it is impossible to ever truly know someone, but maybe understanding isn’t about knowing everything - perhaps it's about being willing to look a little closer. Because how do you truly mourn someone you feel like you never knew?

Together with my friend and co-producer, Paola Scholte, we’ve already made great progress in kicking off this documentary. However, since we are handling this project completely independently, we need help to bring it to completion. Any donations will go directly towards covering travel expenses and production costs - anything from archival footage and licensing fees to basic equipment such as an extra mic and LED panels. These details may seem small, but they make a world of difference for independent filmmakers like us.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about our project and please share this campaign with anyone who might be interested in helping in any way, shape, or form.

Yours,

Jasmin-Celine Stampf & Paola Scholte