Er nannte sie Bolex

For a long time, Jacques Bogopolsky/Boolsky/Bolsey's films and cameras, his inventions, devices, designs and diary lay buried in the anonymity of dusty, stained boxes. The whole legacy of an extraordinarily fruitful life locked away and forgotten. Each piece is a puzzle piece to the story of a pioneer of early photography and the moving image - a story that lay hidden for 42 years.

One day in the USA, young filmmaker Alyssa Bolsey discovers, while spreading the contents of the boxes on a floor littered with splotches of paint, that 80 years earlier her great-grandfather had invented one of the most influential and popular film cameras of all time: the Bolex!

But who was this man, and why has his life become a mystery? Our story begins in an antique camera workshop. Alyssa has Jacques Bolsey's original Bolex from 1929 repaired. With the Bolex as her eye and Jacques' diary as her guide, Alyssa embarks on a journey to discover her own roots in Bolsey's footsteps. So Alyssa leaves Hollywood and travels to Russia and across the USA. The path leads her to the birthplace of many of her great-grandfather's renowned inventions: Switzerland. It was here that Bolsey was able to live out his technical gifts and creative talents in the study of art and medicine; it was here that the adolescent inventor set his first course. What follows is an insight into Jacques' life as an inventor in the midst of great political upheavals.

In addition to inventing the Bolex, Bolsey was also concerned with the problems of his time and came up with a whole range of ingenious solutions. Innovative cameras, aeroplanes, electric cars, utopian social structures - Bolsey always felt obliged to help shape the future and worked feverishly until his last breath.

Along the way, Alyssa meets family members as well as American and European historians. Encounters that all fit together as puzzle pieces in the life story of the ingenious inventor. Furthermore, users of his various photographic inventions are invited to share their experiences and recordings; amateur, professional, spy, military, miniature, budget and high-end recordings are collected. These filming devices and their accompanying footage form a unique snapshot of the 20th century. Renowned filmmakers from around the world talk about the influence of the Bolex on their own careers and its significance in film history. Fifty years after Bolsey's death, the Bolex is still an extremely popular camera for filmmakers today.