Boys

This is a 7-part documentary series. It was created bytwo female filmmakers who interviewed a diverse groupof about 30 ‘average’ men. Every episode focuses onone gender-related topic, such as masculinity, sexuality,family, body, feminism, love or Football. Those verypersonal and honest conversations reveal genuinethoughts and enlightening perspectives. Along with theseries, an elaborate seeding campaign was set up toreach important influencers and opinion leaders with theaim to create buzz about Boys in relevant communities.With this project, we wanted to ignite a widespreaddiscussion about the status quo of male gender relationsin our society. This is why we made the conciousdecision to publish the series parallel to the start ofthe 2021 UEFA European Football Championship - atime during which masculinity is in the focus of publicdiscourse and during which many young men visit ourvideo platform (ZDFmediathek). The project and itsseeding materials gained a broad audience in socialnetworks and was discussed lively in the commentsections of different communities (politically interestedgroups, activists, LGBTQIA+ communities, etc.). Throughour project and its distribution efforts, we were ableto generate new audiences that came to our platformfor the first time. Also, the average watchtime was on avery high level at 71 percent.