Zentralfilm Filmproduktion

The music label MPS (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald) from Villingen is known worldwide to fans, musicians and lovers of jazz. Legends such as Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Friedrich Gulda, Monty Alexander, George Duke, Freddie Hubbard, Jean-Luc Ponty or the Singers Unlimited traveled to the small Black Forest town from the mid-1960s onwards to take in the entrepreneur's son Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer. Around 500 albums were released on MPS, many of which are long-established classics. Thus, for two decades Villingen became a jazz mecca, which stars Jean Luc Ponty, Jasper van't Hof, Monty Alexander, Rolf and Joachim Kühn or Gunter Hampel, as well as Charly Antolini, Daniel Humair, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Eberhard Weber still rave about today. The documentary takes viewers on a fascinating journey into the 60s and 70s and tells one of the most incredible chapters in jazz history, which originated in southwestern Germany.

In the mid-1970s, disco emerged in the underground clubs of New York. Seduced by this phenomenon about to conquer the world, French producers Henri Belolo and Jacques Morali created the Village People from scratch, a group inspired by iconic figures of American popular culture. Success was meteoric with hits like Macho Man, In the Navy, Go West, and above all Y.M.C.A., which sold millions of copies and became one of the biggest hits in pop history. Behind these festive choruses, however, lies a complex story: that of a group alternately celebrated as an icon of gay liberation or viewed as a pure marketing product. Through the accounts of former group members and disco specialists, Sascha Schmidt's documentary traces the rise of the Village People, from their beginnings in underground clubs to their global consecration.