ZDF Studios renews partnership with Doclights

ZDF Studios is pleased to announce that it has concluded a new contract with Doclights, the renowned producer of high quality unscripted content for NDR, ARD, ZDF, ARTE, ORF, Terra Mater, BBC, National Geographic, Curiosity Stream, WWF, NHK amongst others. “Doclights are one of the most skilled and widely-travelled producers of factual content with years of experience in storytelling. It is a company with an excellent worldwide reputation for nature and wildlife film production at the highest level," Ralf Rückauer, Vice President Unscripted, ZDF Studios said. "We are pleased to be able to continue our long-standing partnership with Jörn Röver and his team.”

The continuation of this long-standing partnership will see ZDF Studios distributing 24 hours of brand new documentaries being produced by Doclights over the next two years. Doclights, an affiliate of ZDF Studios, have confirmed the first three titles on their production slate: Poland’s Wild East (1 x 50, or German version Polens Osten 1 x 50‘), "Iriomote – The Fabric of Life" and "A Rhino’s Life."

Poland’s Wild East is a Doclights GmbH / NDR Naturfilm production in association with ARTE and ORF. Animals that have long since disappeared can be found in in one of Europe’s last truly wild regions, eastern Poland. Around 1,500 bison, huge and tenacious wild cattle, along with wolves, moose and others live in the primaeval forest of Białowieża, on the border between Poland and Belarus. Poland’s Wild East explores the country’s biggest national park, a haven for beavers, otters and countless aquatic birds. But, here too, nature is in danger as motorways and intensive agriculture encroach. 

"A Rhino’s Life" is produced by Doclights GmbH / NDR Naturfilm in association with ARTE, ORF and NHK.  The title takes place in the African savannah, which houses rhinoceros. The film follows the life of a white rhinoceros family in a reserve in Uganda, as nine year-old-Malaika wanders through the bushland with her 2-year-old son Elias. They are inseparable but now Malaika is pregnant again and 16 months later her son Pipo is born. The project also covers the first rhino birth in the wild ever captured on film, and highlights the inevitable separation of Elias from his ever-present protective mother. 

"Iriomote – The Fabric of Life," produced by Doclights GmbH / NDR Naturfilm and NHK in association with ARTE and ORF. Iriomote Island, blanketed by dense tropical forests, is home to some of the rarest animals on the planet. Lying between the South China Sea and the Pacific, the island’s most famous inhabitant is a small feline,  the Iriomote cat. But there is also a local subspecies of the crested serpent eagle, the Ryukyu Flying-fox and the spectacular ruddy kingfisher that all live in the national park, a UNESCO world heritage site. "Iriomote – The Fabric of Life" captures the nature of this valuable biodiversity hotspot which boasts Japan’s most extensive mangrove forests. As the habitat lives and breathes with the tides, a whole army of bizarre creatures emerge from the mud once the sea ebbs away.