Participants & Projects
Masterschool 2012
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Name:Luigi BerardiCompany:Soul Rebel FilmsPlace:London, United KingdomNationality:ItalianProject:Love Me or Fear MeGenre:Text:
Stanly and Parashu run a women’s refuge in Mysore, India. Here, women’s rights abuses and sexual violence are common but not spoken about. These men open their door to women with any problem, big or small in a country where patriarchy is still the norm. We follow them as they rehabilite rescued prostitutes, counsel spouses in abusive marriages and help women to fight their fathers. This is a story of tradition being challenged. Should men fight chauvinism and empower women? And ultimately how far do Stanly and Parashu practice what they preach?
Team member:Meghna Gupta -
Name:Michael BogárCompany:Perfect Shot Films GmbHPlace:Berlin, GermanyNationality:Project:Beauty in the BeastGenre:Text:
As never before in history, animals are truly members of the society. But the notion of companion species – knotted from human beings, animals and other organisms, landscapes and mega cities – includes much more then companion animals. In Beauty in the Beast we dig into this larger phenomenon to contemplate the interactions of humans with many kinds of critters. From animals as tourist attraction to animals in conflict zones our series explores the idea of companion species, those who meet and manage to live together. In this well observed animal – human encounters we find curiosity and respect, fear and love and sometimes hate and disgust.
Team member:Patricia Fürst -
Name:Giuseppe BucciarelliCompany:Bars MediaPlace:Fiesole, ItalyNationality:ItalianProject:Bush WarsGenre:Text:
K enyan wildlife is beautiful, iconic, majestic... But it has also big stomachs, massive horns and sharp fangs. In this six episode series based in Kenya, we follow Giuseppe, an Italian self-shooting biologist, in his daily adventures to prevent the fight for food and living space between people and Africa’s most dangerous animals. But the beasts he wants to help have other plans. They usually try to kill him. In the deadly conflict between local people and African beasts Giuseppe will act as a peacemaker and troubleshooter. He will help Masai herders and local farmers to protect their properties and lives from hungry creatures with the use of innovative and unconventional approaches, like building chilli pepper fences and elephant dung bombs. If it wasn‘t enough he will take part in lions and elephants radio-collaring operations to follow their movements and prevent their night incursions into human settlements. And if nothing else helps, he will capture and pack these oversized dangerous beasts to ship them off to a new home. Through state-of-the-art cinematography and his hand-held camera, this series will draw you into the heart of the action for a breathtaking and visceral experience. Join Giuseppe for unique access to the front line of the war between people and untamed Africa and learn the secrets of these untold fights.
Team member:Vardan Hovhannisyan, Inna Sahakyan -
Name:Steven DhoedtCompany:VISUALANTICSPlace:Brussels, BelgiumNationality:Project:Reach for the SkyGenre:Text:
‘Reach for the SKY’ tells the story of several South-Korean high school seniors, their families and teachers preparing for the annual National Exam. Getting into a university with a good reputation is one of the most competitive experiences Korean students will ever experience in their life. The most prestigious universities are the Seoul National University, the Korea University and the Yonsei University. In Korean society, they are commonly referred to as the SKY universities.
Team member:Sinae Ha & Wooyoung Choi -
Name:Philipp EndersCompany:Doberenz & Enders GbRPlace:Cologne, GermanyNationality:Project:MoneyGenre:Text:
“Money” begins with an unpleasant discovery – €3,000 have disappeared from my savings. My bank manager tells me in complicated terms that the financial system has swallowed them up. But how? I realised then that I haven’t got the slightest clue how that system actually works. So I am the perfect person to embark on a journey of discovery through space and time, meeting with central bankers, alchemists, social economists and Neanderthals. As a companion and advisor I am using my know-it-all app, which uses funny animations to explain the most complex connections so that everyone understands. “Money” is a creative documentary, which will explain our monetary system in an entertaining and accessible way.
Team member:Maximilian Leo -
Name:German KralCompany:German Kral FilmproduktionPlace:Munich, GermanyNationality:Project:Our Last TangoGenre:Text:
María and Juan were once the world’s most famous couple in the history of tango. They danced together for over half a century. Through all these years they loved and hated each other - passionately. They broke up many times but always came back to each other in the end. No other man could dance like Juan. No other woman could dance like María. Today, at the end of their lives, they tell us their story of love and hate, each from their very own point of view. Between their interviews and documentary scenes, dance representations in 3D done by the best choreographers and tango dancers from Buenos Aires will recreate the stories María and Juan tell us about their lives and the history of tango.
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Name:Irja MartensCompany:fechnerMEDIAPlace:Immendingen, GermanyNationality:Project:The OptimistGenre:Text:
Bhutan, a small country with 800.000 inhabitants has recently opened its borders to foreign investment, and is facing an explosive drive towards unfettered Western modernisation. Yet the young king is determined to preserve his country’s cultural and natural inheritance. Representatives of established development aid bodies are set against the protagonists of sustainable and unorthodox solutions. The decision rests in the Kings hands - where will he take his country? A conflict of science, investments and beliefs starts. The film follows a unique experience at the forefront of what it really means to develop a country, and ultimately the world, sustainably.
Team member:Carl-A. Fechner -
Name:Mark MichelCompany:Place:Leipzig, GermanyNationality:Project:A Dog is a Pink CloudGenre:Social DocumentaryText:
“Writing is my only form of communication, I can express my feelings and my thoughts in writing. Writing is my connection to the world around me, without it I would languish at the bottom of a forgotten well.” Twenty year old Veronika reaches out to the world with writing. Suffering from autism and multiple disabilites, her body seems to be nothing more than an empty shell. But inside there is her spririt – wide awake and highly sensitive, with extraordinary powers of perception. Once she was given an intelligence quotient of zero. Today she studies Literature and Theology and writes stories about her life and the way she sees the world. Art and writing as a universal language became Veronikas way of communication and a means to overcome barriers. In collaboration with the film-maker Mark Michel, film will become the next medium she uses to express her thoughts and feelings, drawing on animation, dance and contemporary puppetry. The film is a searching portrait of an extraordinary human being and an insight into a world usually sealed off from view.
Team member:Peter Zorn -
Name:Stéphane NicolopoulosCompany:Place:Paris, FranceNationality:Project:Flooding the SaharaGenre:Text:
The Sahara is the largest desert in the world. In the 1880s a French topographer promoted the idea of building a navigable canal to the nearby Mediterranean Sea to allow the desert to be flooded, not only creating an economic boom along its banks but also completely changing the climate, bringing rain clouds, thus altering the course of agriculture in this drought-stricken place. The enthusiasm of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, was enlisted but the project was scuppered when the latter went bankrupt in the Panama Canal fiasco. Today the project is again being envisaged. But this type of geo-engineering can be dangerous. When we play God, we don’t always foresee the consequences. This film will investigate the scientific and historical aspects, not to mention the ethical questions posed.
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Name:Christian PählerCompany:Place:Munich, GermanyNationality:GermanProject:The Head of No State - Tibets Next IncarnationGenre:Text:
Lobsang Sangay has taken on one of the most difficult jobs in the world. He is the first democratically elected leader of Tibet. But Tibet does not exist as an autonomous nation on the map. So, how could somebody be the head of no state? For decades His Holiness the Dalai Lama was the one and only representative of Tibetans, leading their struggle against the Superpower China. In 2011, he announced, that he would be handing over his political responsibilities. The worldwide community of exiled Tibetans elected the 42 year old Lobsang Sangay as their Prime-Minister.The professional, political and personal challenges he has to face are huge: How will politicians all over the globe take him politically serious in spite of being the head of a government without a country? How will he follow in the footsteps of the world famous Dalai Lama? Whats does his family say, that they have to give up their safety and financial comfort of a life?
Team member:Maren Ruhstorfer -
Name:Alba Mora RocaCompany:Place:Mexico City, MexicoNationality:SpanishProject:Child’s PlayGenre:Text:
In December 2006, President Calderon launched a nationwide crackdown against narco-traffickers in Mexico. Since then, over 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence, causing a humanitarian crisis that is jeopardizing the lives of millions of families. For children, the challenge is to stay innocent. Devani (9) witnessed her uncle‘s brutal murder and now she feels numb. Leslie (5) is afraid of everything. At night, beheaded men hunt her. Antonio instead, wants revenge. On his seventh birthday his parents are missing. Yet another unsolved disappearance case in Monterrey. War around them is so real that childhood is eluding them. But there’s a safe place where they can play. Funny games, silly games, children’s games after all. Rodrigo and a small team of young psychologists are there to listen and help them heal.
Team member:Susana Casares -
Name:Žiga VircCompany:Studio Virc d.o.o.Place:Novo Mesto, SloveniaNationality:Project:Houston, we have a problem!Genre:Text:
In January 2012 the film makers visualised this urban myth in a short video that was published on Youtube. A week later, almost a million people had watched it and an enormous media buzz was generated. Most of the viewers actually believed that Yugoslav president Tito had saved the USA's reputation in the space race. This myth is explored in the film through the fictional character of Ivan Pavić, a senior engineer in the alleged Yugoslav space programme. The story of the film is based and inspired by numerous real events and facts. The space programme and the documentary discourse are the narrative tools that tell a symbolic story about the Cold War. In that way, it is a real story of a manipulation, lies, dirty political games and media construction. But the greatest message is how similar events still happen today in a modern society and how terribly easy it is to manipulate an audience.
Team member:Boštjan Virc -
Name:Gunnar WaltherCompany:Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbHPlace:Essenheim, GermanyNationality:Project:The Journey of the ZidsGenre:Text:
Vienna 1928. The worldwide economic crisis has just begun – and Ludwig Zid's haulier business is steadily getting worse. The need to feed his wife and small child leads him to consider an absurd and hilarious odyssey. The plan is for the family to travel the world in their Ford car and then sell the photos and films they shoot at shows. But no one in the family can imagine the adventures they are now about to face. The Atlantic crossing to South America in a small sailboat powered by the engine from their car already ends in catastrophe, leaving the Zids stranded on a Brazilian prison island. Not one to give up, Mr. Zid transports his family across stormy seas and high Andean passes, along the Bolivian Road of Death and through rain forests – until their triumphal arrival in Henry Ford's Motor City Detroit in 1931. The film follows the traces of the Zid family today and confronts the people in the various localities with the family's photos and diary entries. We meet the descendants of those whom the Zids once met in the middle of nowhere as they drove past. An odyssey full of excitement far beyond the all-inclusive packages for today's tourists.
Team member:Markus Glaser -
Name:Radek WegrzynCompany:Place:Nationality:GermanProject:The School on Magic MountainGenre:Text:
They are the élite of tomorrow. Born privileged, raised in wealth and now safely nested in the best private school in the world, in Switzerland no less, to prepare for a lifetime as leaders. An iconoclastic American teacher starts a whole new subject - the future. But how do you motivate students who don‘t have to worry about it? Hugh sets them on a journey of unorthodox teaching ideas, field trips to the rest of the world far from their pampered school dorms. His mission: making them experience firsthand the three major problems of their generation: energy decline, economy and overpopulation. Will Hugh succeed in shifting their focus from the wealthy life to the reponsibilities they will have to deal with as future leaders? Four personal stories about growing up in a world of global challenges. In the war for what’s left, who will they choose to be, when the World calls?
Team member:Gasmia, Fabian -
Name:Jakob D. WeydemannCompany:Weydemann Bros.Place:Berlin, GermanyNationality:Project:Europe’s BorderlandsGenre:Text:
German Filmmaker Jakob Preuss sets out to explore the periphery of the European Union – the geographical borders as well as borders of identity and integration. As a child growing up in West-Berlin, he lived with the physical presence of the Berlin Wall every day. Now, after the reunification of Germany, the Schengen agreement and the enlargement of the European Union, the nearest land border lies about 1000 km away from his home. “At Our Borders” follows Jakob as he sets out on a personal journey to discover what Europe’s borders look like today. Through his travels his ideal concept of Europe is challenged – has Europe really overcome its borders or just built new Berlin Walls as its frontiers?
Team member:Jakob Preuss -
Name:Benjamin WigleyCompany:ArtdocsPlace:Nottingham, EnglandNationality:Project:Paa Joe: Dead not BuriedGenre:Text:
From a dusty road-side shack in Ghana comes the sound of sawing, hammering and local radio. Inside lay giant chilli peppers, Coca Cola bottles and lobsters. This is Paa Joe’s workshop, the Grandfather of the Fantasy Coffin trade. Whilst Paa Joe’s coffins are shipped to museums around the world as anonymous examples of Ga culture, his grassroots business is failing. At the age of 68 and after a career spanning over fourty years, he is worried that his name will disappear. In a last ditch attempt to save his legacy and livelihood, Paa Joe is heading to the United Kingdom to undertake the commission of a lifetime. Can the Grandfather of the Fantasy Coffin trade finally retire with his name emblazoned in western art galleries and Ga culture alike, or will his name and legacy be buried alongside his coffins in the ground?
Team member:Anna Griffin
