Moritz Springer / Documentary films

Ideas

People

Visions

Documentary films

Documentary films

Das Kombinat

2023, 90 min

The documentary film DAS KOMBINAT accompanies the Kartoffelkombinat from Munich over a period of 9 years on its moving journey from an idealistic idea to the largest community-supported agriculture in Germany.

For the two founders Daniel Überall and Simon Scholl, growing vegetables serves as a Trojan horse to promote a much bigger idea. The two want a different economic system, an alternative to the capitalist mode of production. They ask themselves how we produce things, who owns the means of production and who should ultimately benefit from this production? Along the way, both very specific horticultural and personal problems arise and suddenly the project is on the verge of failure.

‘The film is not just about tubers and turnips, but also about convictions that are sometimes stronger than friendship.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘”Das Kombinat” is a documentary film that is in equal parts enlightening, upsetting and encouraging. Enlightening for all those for whom the concept of solidarity agriculture (Solawi for short) was previously a foreign concept. It is upsetting for all supporters of solidarity farming in view of the naivety with which the idealists portrayed in the film throw themselves into their cause. And encouraging, because despite all the difficulties, the film ultimately shows that there are other viable paths in our economic system – as rocky as they may be.’

spielfilm.de

‘What distinguishes ‘The Combine’ is that the film does not stop at a positive portrait, but goes further, that it can also look deeper into the different directions that Simon and Daniel want to take, into the distortions that arise with growth, into the animosities, mistrust and the formation of camps. Springer develops his film further and further along the history of the potato combine, showing how paths can branch off, even if you have the same goal in mind. The film takes a close look at the dynamics and creates a complex image of a community that dares to try something new and different. That sets out into the unknown beyond the market economy. That knows: the risk is worth it.’

Kino-zeit.de

‘It’s good that Springer has taken the time and space to look in more detail at the background – including the material – of the combine. The film should be helpful for many people working on similar projects.’

epd Film

‘Thanks to directors like Moritz Springer, who accompany the projects over a long period of time, you can also see the work and the stress and pain behind it. The film not only unearths potatoes, but also the human stories behind such an operation.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘The result is a personal, yet honest look at the project and its founders.’

cinema.de

‘The film is interesting, entertaining and exciting, especially because of the long period of accompaniment.’

choices

‘‘Das Kombinat’ documents the development of the largest company of its kind in Germany and the idea behind it in an extremely knowledgeable and vivid way.’

Neues Deutschland

‘‘Das Kombinat’ does not offer a bite-sized solution, but involves the audience in the search for a solution. After watching the film, there is room for discussion. What price should food have? Are there alternatives to the capitalist system we have all grown up with? How can other people be convinced of the need for a rethink?’

film-rezensionen.de

‘There are quite a few documentary films about agriculture, but they don’t always offer material for reflection. ‘Das Kombinat’ by Moritz Springer is a wonderful exception.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘Moritz Springer’s film is restrained and factual, but perhaps that is precisely why DAS KOMBINAT is more convincing than many other, more offensively promotional films about eco-social change.’

Indiekino

Das Kombinat

2023, 90 min

The documentary film DAS KOMBINAT accompanies the Kartoffelkombinat from Munich over a period of 9 years on its moving journey from an idealistic idea to the largest community-supported agriculture in Germany.

For the two founders Daniel Überall and Simon Scholl, growing vegetables serves as a Trojan horse to promote a much bigger idea. The two want a different economic system, an alternative to the capitalist mode of production. They ask themselves how we produce things, who owns the means of production and who should ultimately benefit from this production? Along the way, both very specific horticultural and personal problems arise and suddenly the project is on the verge of failure.

‘The film is not just about tubers and turnips, but also about convictions that are sometimes stronger than friendship.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘”Das Kombinat” is a documentary film that is in equal parts enlightening, upsetting and encouraging. Enlightening for all those for whom the concept of solidarity agriculture (Solawi for short) was previously a foreign concept. It is upsetting for all supporters of solidarity farming in view of the naivety with which the idealists portrayed in the film throw themselves into their cause. And encouraging, because despite all the difficulties, the film ultimately shows that there are other viable paths in our economic system – as rocky as they may be.’

spielfilm.de

‘What distinguishes ‘The Combine’ is that the film does not stop at a positive portrait, but goes further, that it can also look deeper into the different directions that Simon and Daniel want to take, into the distortions that arise with growth, into the animosities, mistrust and the formation of camps. Springer develops his film further and further along the history of the potato combine, showing how paths can branch off, even if you have the same goal in mind. The film takes a close look at the dynamics and creates a complex image of a community that dares to try something new and different. That sets out into the unknown beyond the market economy. That knows: the risk is worth it.’

Kino-zeit.de

‘It’s good that Springer has taken the time and space to look in more detail at the background – including the material – of the combine. The film should be helpful for many people working on similar projects.’

epd Film

‘Thanks to directors like Moritz Springer, who accompany the projects over a long period of time, you can also see the work and the stress and pain behind it. The film not only unearths potatoes, but also the human stories behind such an operation.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘The result is a personal, yet honest look at the project and its founders.’

cinema.de

‘The film is interesting, entertaining and exciting, especially because of the long period of accompaniment.’

choices

‘‘Das Kombinat’ documents the development of the largest company of its kind in Germany and the idea behind it in an extremely knowledgeable and vivid way.’

Neues Deutschland

‘‘Das Kombinat’ does not offer a bite-sized solution, but involves the audience in the search for a solution. After watching the film, there is room for discussion. What price should food have? Are there alternatives to the capitalist system we have all grown up with? How can other people be convinced of the need for a rethink?’

film-rezensionen.de

‘There are quite a few documentary films about agriculture, but they don’t always offer material for reflection. ‘Das Kombinat’ by Moritz Springer is a wonderful exception.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘Moritz Springer’s film is restrained and factual, but perhaps that is precisely why DAS KOMBINAT is more convincing than many other, more offensively promotional films about eco-social change.’

Indiekino

Mein Opa, Karin und ich

2020, 90 min

What actually is family? How do the fates of our ancestors shape us? ‘Mein Opa, Karin und ich’ is an intimate insight into the filmmaker’s family life. The grandparents are old and needy, they live in a retirement home. Grandpa expects his daughter Karin to look after him – now that grandma can no longer do so. And Karin visits them regularly, even though her own parents are strangers to her and she is preoccupied with her own life. Unresolved conflicts break out. Father and daughter suffer. The grandson wants to mediate between his grandfather, the former National Socialist, and his mother, who has been searching for new life models and female roles in the wake of the 1968 movement. The film traces the different perspectives of the family members, which are also a piece of West German history, and juxtaposes them. Grandfather and mother struggle to come together and the grandson wonders why it seems to be so difficult. But the longer the argument goes on, the more he realises that he is also involved in this generational conflict. And so, unexpectedly, there is an open exchange between Karin and her son. The roles of interviewer and interviewee become blurred. The camera is part of the action. It allows the audience to get close to the family events without turning them into voyeurs.

‘With an alert eye, Springer feels precisely where things become uncomfortable. Where black and white, good and evil do not suffice as categories. An unagitated and incredibly honest filmic journey through conversations, family albums and letters that were never sent.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘Mein Opa, Karin und ich’ is probably my most personal film. It portrays my family and me.

At the beginning, it wasn’t at all clear whether it would become a film. When I travelled to Munich with my camera three years ago, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into. My grandparents were old and I wanted to spend time with them again. I also wanted to relieve my parents, who were overwhelmed by the care situation and my grandad’s moods. And I wanted to ask my grandad about his SS past. In this sense, the camera was more of a companion and helped me to expose myself to the whole situation.

I didn’t start the film with a thesis or assumption. Rather, one conversation led to the next. Things came up that I hadn’t expected at the beginning. For example, the relationship between my mum and me suddenly became an issue. She is her parents’ child, I am her son. We are all connected. Patterns, experiences and traumas of the others continued in us. Only now did I realise why my mother rebelled so much against her parents’ world and tried to redefine her role as a woman and mother. As the peace movement generation of ‘78, my parents were breaking new ground and trying things out. I grew up in a world that was free, but not without contradictions. At the same time, I feel connected to my grandparents, who spent a lot of time with me as a child. It was only through the film that I became aware of many connections and contradictions in our family.

It was quite a challenge for me to do justice to the different roles. Suddenly a conversation or a memory catapults you back into the past and you’re five years old again, but at the same time you’re holding the camera and have to ask the right question. We tried to take this circumstance into account in the editing and to always make myself perceptible in the scenes. We wanted the viewer to take part in our process of rapprochement, the attempt to understand each other. Questions also remain unanswered. But we also wanted to depict precisely this process. Relationships are never finished, they are always in motion. The film is a snapshot of our discussions at the time.

Mein Opa, Karin und ich

2020, 90 min

What actually is family? How do the fates of our ancestors shape us? ‘Mein Opa, Karin und ich’ is an intimate insight into the filmmaker’s family life. The grandparents are old and needy, they live in a retirement home. Grandpa expects his daughter Karin to look after him – now that grandma can no longer do so. And Karin visits them regularly, even though her own parents are strangers to her and she is preoccupied with her own life. Unresolved conflicts break out. Father and daughter suffer. The grandson wants to mediate between his grandfather, the former National Socialist, and his mother, who has been searching for new life models and female roles in the wake of the 1968 movement. The film traces the different perspectives of the family members, which are also a piece of West German history, and juxtaposes them. Grandfather and mother struggle to come together and the grandson wonders why it seems to be so difficult. But the longer the argument goes on, the more he realises that he is also involved in this generational conflict. And so, unexpectedly, there is an open exchange between Karin and her son. The roles of interviewer and interviewee become blurred. The camera is part of the action. It allows the audience to get close to the family events without turning them into voyeurs.

‘With an alert eye, Springer feels precisely where things become uncomfortable. Where black and white, good and evil do not suffice as categories. An unagitated and incredibly honest filmic journey through conversations, family albums and letters that were never sent.’

Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘Mein Opa, Karin und ich’ is probably my most personal film. It portrays my family and me.

At the beginning, it wasn’t at all clear whether it would become a film. When I travelled to Munich with my camera three years ago, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into. My grandparents were old and I wanted to spend time with them again. I also wanted to relieve my parents, who were overwhelmed by the care situation and my grandad’s moods. And I wanted to ask my grandad about his SS past. In this sense, the camera was more of a companion and helped me to expose myself to the whole situation.

I didn’t start the film with a thesis or assumption. Rather, one conversation led to the next. Things came up that I hadn’t expected at the beginning. For example, the relationship between my mum and me suddenly became an issue. She is her parents’ child, I am her son. We are all connected. Patterns, experiences and traumas of the others continued in us. Only now did I realise why my mother rebelled so much against her parents’ world and tried to redefine her role as a woman and mother. As the peace movement generation of ‘78, my parents were breaking new ground and trying things out. I grew up in a world that was free, but not without contradictions. At the same time, I feel connected to my grandparents, who spent a lot of time with me as a child. It was only through the film that I became aware of many connections and contradictions in our family.

It was quite a challenge for me to do justice to the different roles. Suddenly a conversation or a memory catapults you back into the past and you’re five years old again, but at the same time you’re holding the camera and have to ask the right question. We tried to take this circumstance into account in the editing and to always make myself perceptible in the scenes. We wanted the viewer to take part in our process of rapprochement, the attempt to understand each other. Questions also remain unanswered. But we also wanted to depict precisely this process. Relationships are never finished, they are always in motion. The film is a snapshot of our discussions at the time.

PROJEKT A

A journey to anarchist* projects in Europe

2015, 85 min, Moritz Springer & Marcel Seehuber

A documentary film about the political idea of anarchy and its concrete realisation in very different projects.

Financial crises and refugee flows, social inequalities and ecological disasters, wars and terrorism – our civilisation is hurtling towards a wall like a high-speed train. At the wheel are governments that are seemingly incapable of solving people’s problems. But aren’t governments part of the problem? What would be the alternative?

PROJEKT A is a film that defies the usual clichés about anarchism and shows that another world is possible. It breaks with the usual clichés about stone-throwers and chaotic people. Instead, it opens up a view of a movement that demands the impossible, shakes the foundations of our society and, for this very reason, draws attention to the central unresolved issues of our time. The film is about a political movement, its theory and the people who are committed to its realisation. Whether in the anarchist district of Exarchia in Athens, at anti-nuclear power actions in Germany, at the world’s largest anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Spain, a Catalan cooperative or at the cooperatively organised potato combine in Munich: The activists put their visions into practice, independently of state structures, with equal rights and with the goal of a society based on solidarity in mind. A world in which no one should rule over knowledge, resources, land or other people.

‘’Project A’ stirs up the audience, is grippingly filmed and very close to the indomitable, who can be so important for change in our society.’

Kino Kino

‘Particularly revealing and worth seeing in times of crisis.’

BR24

‘The film shows that anarchism today means not delegating responsibility, but taking it on yourself.’

West Art

‘… a filmic portrait not of anarchy, but of anarchists. A story not of the possibilities, the necessities, even the failures, but a portrayal of the accomplished, of initiative, action, ideas, success.’

Kino-Zeit

‘The filmmakers’ view is radical, but their visor is opened up a bit.’

Artechock

‘Whether a society without a state can be realised globally is perhaps not the decisive question. What is clear, however, is that the big idea has to slim down in reality. First and foremost, ‘Project A’ wants to offer the masses stuck in the system a counter-concept.’

Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten

‘That is the strength of the film: this unconditional closeness. Seehuber and Springer don’t believe in journalistic distance, no, they are right in the middle of the protest. That’s what makes the film so authentic. Instead of just observing from the outside, they integrate themselves into the movement for a time. They probably wouldn’t have found access to the people otherwise.’

Main-Echo

The logic of maximising profit, infinite growth on a finite planet, a world of hierarchical structures. The contradictions in which we live are obvious. But what possibilities are there to do things differently? Anarchy? – A theory that opens up new perspectives precisely because of its radicalism. Bakunin, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Goldman and Mühsam – the anarchist masterminds dreamed of a world without domination and exploitation, organised according to the principle of mutual aid. Their ideas and utopias are more relevant today than ever.

PROJEKT A is our search for traces of anarchist projects in Europe. We wanted to see what anarchists do, what projects and actions they start and how they try to get one step closer to their utopia. Their lives are a struggle with the authorities and their principles make it anything but easy for them. A fight for a great cause that can also get lost in banal discussions. And yet the first steps towards a new society are visible. PROJEKT A is intended to encourage people, initiate discussions and show that it is time to take matters into our own hands again. The need to change our world is obvious, and not just for anarchists.

PROJEKT A

A journey to anarchist* projects in Europe

2015, 85 min, Moritz Springer & Marcel Seehuber

A documentary film about the political idea of anarchy and its concrete realisation in very different projects.

Financial crises and refugee flows, social inequalities and ecological disasters, wars and terrorism – our civilisation is hurtling towards a wall like a high-speed train. At the wheel are governments that are seemingly incapable of solving people’s problems. But aren’t governments part of the problem? What would be the alternative?

PROJEKT A is a film that defies the usual clichés about anarchism and shows that another world is possible. It breaks with the usual clichés about stone-throwers and chaotic people. Instead, it opens up a view of a movement that demands the impossible, shakes the foundations of our society and, for this very reason, draws attention to the central unresolved issues of our time. The film is about a political movement, its theory and the people who are committed to its realisation. Whether in the anarchist district of Exarchia in Athens, at anti-nuclear power actions in Germany, at the world’s largest anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Spain, a Catalan cooperative or at the cooperatively organised potato combine in Munich: The activists put their visions into practice, independently of state structures, with equal rights and with the goal of a society based on solidarity in mind. A world in which no one should rule over knowledge, resources, land or other people.

‘’Project A’ stirs up the audience, is grippingly filmed and very close to the indomitable, who can be so important for change in our society.’

Kino Kino

‘Particularly revealing and worth seeing in times of crisis.’

BR24

‘The film shows that anarchism today means not delegating responsibility, but taking it on yourself.’

West Art

‘… a filmic portrait not of anarchy, but of anarchists. A story not of the possibilities, the necessities, even the failures, but a portrayal of the accomplished, of initiative, action, ideas, success.’

Kino-Zeit

‘The filmmakers’ view is radical, but their visor is opened up a bit.’

Artechock

‘Whether a society without a state can be realised globally is perhaps not the decisive question. What is clear, however, is that the big idea has to slim down in reality. First and foremost, ‘Project A’ wants to offer the masses stuck in the system a counter-concept.’

Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten

‘That is the strength of the film: this unconditional closeness. Seehuber and Springer don’t believe in journalistic distance, no, they are right in the middle of the protest. That’s what makes the film so authentic. Instead of just observing from the outside, they integrate themselves into the movement for a time. They probably wouldn’t have found access to the people otherwise.’

Main-Echo

The logic of maximising profit, infinite growth on a finite planet, a world of hierarchical structures. The contradictions in which we live are obvious. But what possibilities are there to do things differently? Anarchy? – A theory that opens up new perspectives precisely because of its radicalism. Bakunin, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Goldman and Mühsam – the anarchist masterminds dreamed of a world without domination and exploitation, organised according to the principle of mutual aid. Their ideas and utopias are more relevant today than ever.

PROJEKT A is our search for traces of anarchist projects in Europe. We wanted to see what anarchists do, what projects and actions they start and how they try to get one step closer to their utopia. Their lives are a struggle with the authorities and their principles make it anything but easy for them. A fight for a great cause that can also get lost in banal discussions. And yet the first steps towards a new society are visible. PROJEKT A is intended to encourage people, initiate discussions and show that it is time to take matters into our own hands again. The need to change our world is obvious, and not just for anarchists.

Journey to Jah

2013, 95 min, Moritz Springer & Noel Dernesch

The documentary film JOURNEY TO JAH tells the story of searching for and finding a spiritual home in a foreign culture and accompanies people who have one thing in common: Music.

For seven years, the two directors Moritz Springer and Noël Dernesch and cameraman Marcus Winterbauer (including ‘Rhythm is it’) followed the two European reggae musicians GENTLEMAN and ALBOROSIE on their search for authenticity beyond Western consumer societies in the land of Rastafari and reggae: JAMAIKA. Alongside the two Europeans, we get to know the Jamaican musician Terry Lynn and the Rasta Natty. Their lives contrast the dream of the two Europeans and make it clear that Jamaica and Rasta are so much more than one love and unity.

‘‘Journey to Jah’ is probably the first film to examine the spiritual attraction that draws young Europeans to Jamaica. Neither the beautifully photographed images nor the commentaries are spared post-colonial legacies and contradictions. Everyday violence in Jamaica is addressed just as much as the homophobia there – stumbling blocks on a blatant divide that white Europeans have to overcome on their journey to Jah.’

kunst+film

‘It is to Dernesch and Springer’s credit that they are trying to dispel the clichés – they don’t go where the white beach beckons, but where the piles of rubbish in the ghetto stink.’

Tagesspiegel

‘In ‘Journey to Jah’, the two documentary filmmakers Noël Dernesch and Moritz Springer, together with their cameraman Marcus Winterbauer (Rhythm Is It!), set out to accompany Gentleman on a journey to his adopted country. The result is a very convincing film about travelling and arriving, life, music and understanding across borders, languages and cultures.’

Kino-Zeit

When I first encountered Rastafari, I was amazed by the power and depth of the movement. In its beginnings, Rasta was above all a political movement that helped those who had been deported from Africa and stranded in Jamaica to regain their own African identity and pride in their origins. At the same time, the connection to nature and spirituality played an important role. The music became the carrier of the message, initially only on the island, then also in the world. The mixture of a positive basic beat and criticism of the system made reggae so attractive. For the Jamaicans, reggae and rasta became a hit and it was also an important driving force on a socio-political level. The fascination of people from Western contexts is therefore quite understandable. Especially as in our part of the world, churches are increasingly failing to reach young people. But how do Germans and Italians not only come to listen to the music, but also to identify with Rasta and, in the case of Alborosie, to move to Jamaica? And what do the people in Jamaica say about it? I wanted to explore these questions in ‘Journey to Jah’.

Journey to Jah

2013, 95 min, Moritz Springer & Noel Dernesch

The documentary film JOURNEY TO JAH tells the story of searching for and finding a spiritual home in a foreign culture and accompanies people who have one thing in common: Music.

For seven years, the two directors Moritz Springer and Noël Dernesch and cameraman Marcus Winterbauer (including ‘Rhythm is it’) followed the two European reggae musicians GENTLEMAN and ALBOROSIE on their search for authenticity beyond Western consumer societies in the land of Rastafari and reggae: JAMAIKA. Alongside the two Europeans, we get to know the Jamaican musician Terry Lynn and the Rasta Natty. Their lives contrast the dream of the two Europeans and make it clear that Jamaica and Rasta are so much more than one love and unity.

‘‘Journey to Jah’ is probably the first film to examine the spiritual attraction that draws young Europeans to Jamaica. Neither the beautifully photographed images nor the commentaries are spared post-colonial legacies and contradictions. Everyday violence in Jamaica is addressed just as much as the homophobia there – stumbling blocks on a blatant divide that white Europeans have to overcome on their journey to Jah.’

kunst+film

‘It is to Dernesch and Springer’s credit that they are trying to dispel the clichés – they don’t go where the white beach beckons, but where the piles of rubbish in the ghetto stink.’

Tagesspiegel

‘In ‘Journey to Jah’, the two documentary filmmakers Noël Dernesch and Moritz Springer, together with their cameraman Marcus Winterbauer (Rhythm Is It!), set out to accompany Gentleman on a journey to his adopted country. The result is a very convincing film about travelling and arriving, life, music and understanding across borders, languages and cultures.’

Kino-Zeit

When I first encountered Rastafari, I was amazed by the power and depth of the movement. In its beginnings, Rasta was above all a political movement that helped those who had been deported from Africa and stranded in Jamaica to regain their own African identity and pride in their origins. At the same time, the connection to nature and spirituality played an important role. The music became the carrier of the message, initially only on the island, then also in the world. The mixture of a positive basic beat and criticism of the system made reggae so attractive. For the Jamaicans, reggae and rasta became a hit and it was also an important driving force on a socio-political level. The fascination of people from Western contexts is therefore quite understandable. Especially as in our part of the world, churches are increasingly failing to reach young people. But how do Germans and Italians not only come to listen to the music, but also to identify with Rasta and, in the case of Alborosie, to move to Jamaica? And what do the people in Jamaica say about it? I wanted to explore these questions in ‘Journey to Jah’.

About me

About me

Moritz Springer

writer / director / sound recordist

and in search of the good life

Moritz Springer

writer / director / sound recordist
and in search of the good life

Beginnings

Beginnings

I was born in Starnberg in 1979. But I was really only born there. Starnberg had one of the first alternative maternity clinics. Immediately after the birth, I went back to Munich’s Westend, where I grew up, lived until I finished school and started playing football on the football pitch at an early age.

However, my grandad’s dream of a football career never materialised. Instead, from the age of 15, I started thinking about other ways of living together. My parents, who describe themselves as the 78 generation and founded one of Munich’s first children’s shops alongside their studies, may not have been entirely innocent in this debate.

Travelling together to Indonesia, the U.S.A., Costa Rica and Venezuela also had a strong influence on me and awakened an interest in other cultures and perspectives. After leaving school, I travelled to North and West Africa for six months. I travelled from Egypt to South Africa by plane, bus, train and truck. In Ethiopia, I laid the foundations for my first serious film project. However, it took three years before I even got round to the idea.

Documentary films

Documentary films

The fascination for the medium of film emerged early on. After various experiences with feature films in Bavaria and an internship in Hollywood, it was clear that I wanted to make a documentary film. I am interested in working with people and the opportunity to immerse myself in their realities.

Film was and is a medium for me to deal with topics that move me. JOURNEY TO JAH was born out of my encounter with Rastafarians in Ethiopia in Shashamane. It then took a whole 10 years until it became my documentary film debut, which won the Audience Award at the Zurich Film Festival and the DEFA Foundation Award at the Max Ophüls Prize, among others.

At PROJEKT A, it was the anarchist Horst Stowasser who inspired me to explore the question of whether there is an alternative to capitalism and what ideas anarchism can offer. A topic that didn’t go down too well with the sponsors. With crowdfunding, minimal support from small film funds and a lot of commitment from everyone involved, we completed the film in a completely anarchistic, self-organised way and then screened it very successfully in German cinemas with 25,000 viewers. The film even won the audience award at the Munich Film Festival.

My third film MEIN OPA, KARIN UND ICH, celebrated its premiere at the DOK.fest in Munich in 2020 and is a very personal examination of the story of my grandfather, my mother and me.

Life

Life

Film was always just one aspect of my life and I also asked myself specifically how I wanted to live. After the dream of having my own anarchist South Sea island on a school trip to Kiev was revealed as unrealistic by our history teacher, I searched in Germany and Switzerland for a place where we could come closer to our utopia of a different life.

After travelling through the Emmental, Lassaner Winkel and Berlin, we finally ended up as a family with friends in a small village in Brandenburg in 2010. Dealing with the people, plants, animals and the land gives me strength and challenges me.

It was also because we grow vegetables ourselves on a small scale and at the same time I see how farming is done around us that led me to my last film DAS KOMBINAT. I wanted to find out what a different form of agriculture could look like and whether we need a different way of doing business. To do this, I spent nine years following Germany’s largest solidarity farming organisation, the Kartoffelkombinat. The documentary was successfully screened at the Munich Film Festival in 2023, at various festivals and in cinemas with great cooperation with local initiatives. This also gave rise to the idea of initiating a project here in the region to make the idea of community-supported agriculture better known and bigger. To this end, we want to network existing and new farms and establish an umbrella structure that brings consumers and producers together and creates a connection and commitment.

Perspectives

Perspectives

In terms of film, I am currently concerned with the question of what a narrative should look like that helps us to counter the challenges of our time with something positive. After 25 years of dealing with the topic of sustainability and alternatives, I see the need to take another step back and ask ourselves how we really want to live. I’m just getting to know some great people who are dealing with collapse, music, learning, spirituality, trauma and the good life. Let’s see how we can weave a film out of this…

Sound recordist

Sound recordist

And last but not least, I do sound for documentary films. I’ve been doing this for 14 years now and for over 30 cinema and TV documentaries. I have my own equipment and am happy to dive into new worlds with the director and camera. I never went to a film school and so I was able to observe and learn from many great directors how they tell their stories.

Contact

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