CALIFORNIA DREAMIN‘
(2) THE GOLD RUSH
A few ghost towns still remind tourists of the first, the real Californian goldrush. Like Bodie, on the – not only in winter – uncomfortable elevation of 2.000 meters above sea level. In the late 19th century Bodie had it hayday, and for ashort while was California‘s city with the third biggest population.
With hotels, saloons, gambling halls, whore houses and a reputation for lawlessness. When the gold supplyran dry, the fortune hunters and their entourage moved on, except for the poor souls still being buried on Bodie‘s cemetary. The last about 30 inhabitants of Bodie had to be evacuated by the government. Now the government is protecting Bodie as America‘s most authentic ghost town from the goldrush craze.
But the goldrush never really stopped in California. It just moved on: from railway-companies to vineyards in Napa Valley, from Hollywood-tycoons to the porn-industry and the IT- and internet- moguls, from gold nuggets to the golden records of rock’n’roll, from cattle barons to software-kings, from Bodie to Silicon Valley. „Goldrush“ traces down the Californian mentality that happiness can be made to order, of wanting everything and wanting everything fast, of people leaving their home countries to search for gold nuggets at the West Coast – bringing their hopes and dreams along.
„Goldrush“ introduces you to young Jamie Zawinski, co-inventor of the very first internet browser Netscape, to young julia butterfly hill, who lived two years on a 70 metre high Giant-Sequoia tree to protect the forest against the timber industry. We get to Mono Lake, a dream-like, unique and remote mountain lake, 300 kilometers from L.A., yet close enough to have its waters pumped all the way to support the watering of millionaire‘s lawns in Beverly Hills.
But we also meet the tallest tree on earth, General Sherman, in Sequoia National Park, and the world‘s most important marine sea life aquarium in Monterey, where John Steinbeck wrote his famous novels, and now the heir of the Hewlett Packard computer billions is working as a marine biologist.
With hotels, saloons, gambling halls, whore houses and a reputation for lawlessness. When the gold supplyran dry, the fortune hunters and their entourage moved on, except for the poor souls still being buried on Bodie‘s cemetary. The last about 30 inhabitants of Bodie had to be evacuated by the government. Now the government is protecting Bodie as America‘s most authentic ghost town from the goldrush craze.
But the goldrush never really stopped in California. It just moved on: from railway-companies to vineyards in Napa Valley, from Hollywood-tycoons to the porn-industry and the IT- and internet- moguls, from gold nuggets to the golden records of rock’n’roll, from cattle barons to software-kings, from Bodie to Silicon Valley. „Goldrush“ traces down the Californian mentality that happiness can be made to order, of wanting everything and wanting everything fast, of people leaving their home countries to search for gold nuggets at the West Coast – bringing their hopes and dreams along.
„Goldrush“ introduces you to young Jamie Zawinski, co-inventor of the very first internet browser Netscape, to young julia butterfly hill, who lived two years on a 70 metre high Giant-Sequoia tree to protect the forest against the timber industry. We get to Mono Lake, a dream-like, unique and remote mountain lake, 300 kilometers from L.A., yet close enough to have its waters pumped all the way to support the watering of millionaire‘s lawns in Beverly Hills.
But we also meet the tallest tree on earth, General Sherman, in Sequoia National Park, and the world‘s most important marine sea life aquarium in Monterey, where John Steinbeck wrote his famous novels, and now the heir of the Hewlett Packard computer billions is working as a marine biologist.
Facts
The California Dreamin’ series first aired in May and June 2001 on ZDF, in the regular prime-time slot of 7:30pm. Since then California Dreamin‘ has been the German documentary series with the most ever re-runs. Between 2001 and 2025, the series was broadcast 85 times! The extensive aerial photography — by helicopter camera operator Peter Thompson — served as the blueprint for Germany’s most successful documentary film and series, Germany From Above.”
Credits
Written, directed and produced: Petra Höfer,
Freddie Röckenhaus
DOP: Thomas Schäfer
Additional Camera: Patrick Brandt, Udo Lachnit
Editing: Jörg Wegner
Editor at ZDF: Peter Arens
