Projects

2019 – 2021 Training in Hawaiian Massage ( Lomi Lomi Nui / Kahuna Bodywork ) at the “Ho’okipa Institute” with Margareta Kappl in Munich. From the summer of 2020 onwards – pandemic permitting – I have been working freelance as a certified “Master Lomi Practitioner”.

2019 „Jane at 85 – Reasons for Hope“
Artistic director of a Gala-Event honoring Jane Goodall at the „Showpalast“ in Munich with 1500 guests; Moderated by renowned TV-host and Jane Goodall Institute Honorary Ambassador Dirk Steffens, together with the musicians Stephanie Lottermoser, Tim Allhoff, Yojo Christen and Ingo Pohlmann, as well as the painter Gerd Bannuscher.

2018 „Book of Hope“ – Tanzania
First segment of a photo-book-project about the effect Jane Goodall’s work has had and continues to have around the globe: Fascinating testimonials from many different individuals from the most diverse cultures and societies whose lives have been touched, influenced or changed by meeting Jane Goodall.

2017 “Groundwater under Pressure”
Residue from biogas plants, more and more manure from industrial livestock farming, increasing use of insecticides, weed-killers and artificial fertilizer have forced waterworks all over Germany to shut down water supply wells in recent years: the maximum legal limits for the safety of drinking water are reached and surpassed more and more often, especially for nitrate which is dangerous for pregnant women as well as for small children and is also suspected to be carcinogenic. The documentary is a sobering search for clues to the question why lawmakers in Germany fail to sustainably and forcefully protect precious soil and groundwater from the pressure of agrarian- and meat industry lobbies. 45’ (Bavarian Television)

2016 „The Aliens – Journey to the Pioneers of Organic Farming”
A road trip through Bavaria and back into time… The film introduces some of the intrepid Bavarian pioneers who dared switch to organic 30 or 40 years ago: potato-, dairy- and chicken-farmers, shop owners, wholesalers, industrialists…all of them have ridiculously similar stories to tell of how difficult it was for them to get started, mostly against all odds and opposition from neighbors and even their own families! “Crazy Greens!”, “Fools!”, “Aliens!” is what people called them…and today they are all successful in the organic mainstream. 45’ (Bavarian Television)

2015/2016 “Best of All Worlds”
Together with two-time Academy-Award-winner Malcolm Clarke and producer Yi Han, development of a seven-part-series (7 x 52 min.) about the impact, challenges and consequences of “The New Silk Road”, probably the largest economic development project ever of the past 100 years, as envisioned and initiated by China’s President, Xi Jinping. (Artefact Entertainment, Shanghai)

2015 “Auschwitz – Beginnings of a Personal Research”
Short film developed after a one-week retreat in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Cornerstone of a multimedia project that will evolve over the coming years, tracing and uncovering the long-concealed involvement of my own family in the Nazi regime.

2010-2015 “JANE GOODALL: Stories and Music from her Life’s Journey”
The “Jane-Goodall-live-on-Stage-Project” in which Jane Goodall comments sequences of the documentary “Jane’s Journey” live, sharing stories and anecdotes from her travels around the globe… Composer and guitarist Wolfgang Netzer accompanies her together with the Italian jazz-clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi – presented in many cities in Germany and Italy.
—-> Gallery

2014 “The Achen Valley – On the Way to a Sustainable Future”
Portrait of an „Eco-Model-Region“ in southern Bavaria working to become energy-autonomous by the year 2020 – the innovative approach of the project is attracting interest from communities around the globe.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

2013 „Energy from the Forest – The Limits of Sustainability“
The documentary investigates the question if it is still possible to harvest and maintain forests in Germany in a sustainable manner. Pressure on the forests is growing steadily thanks to the „green energy revolution“, with more and more wood-burning “clean” power-plants being built as Germany is turning its back on nuclear energy as a consequence of the Fukushima disaster.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

2012 „Energy from the Fields“
A journey that takes the audience to focal points of the bio-energy-boom in Bavaria where close to 3000 biogas-plants have been built in recent years. Winners and losers are numerous: there are farmers who have made fortunes with bio-energy thanks to guaranteed state subsidies and there are those who have had to give up their farms altogether because they cannot compete with the biogas-“barons”… And then there is the problem caused by huge corn-monocultures, fertilizers and pesticides that kill bee-populations.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

2011 „Stories from the Garbage Dump – Turning Trash into Gold“
A kind of essay about garbage, about what things are worth to us, about poverty and wealth, about the enormous transformation that garbage has undergone during the past years. The City of Munich has made very successful efforts to not only reduce the amounts of trash it produces but also to recycle and re-sell as much of that trash as possible, thus not only helping the environment but also providing jobs and income to underprivileged people.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

2007/10 “Jane’s Journey”
Big screen-portrait of ground-breaking primatologist Jane Goodall who in her early fifties abandoned her career as a world-famous scientist to henceforth devote her entire energy to the preservation of the environment as well as to her work as a UN-Messenger of Peace.
105´ (Neos Film / Discovery Communications / cc-medien)
—> Trailer

2006/8 “The Challenge of Change – In the Melting Heart of the Alps”
Portraits of several families who have lived in the Alps for generations, showing how their daily lives and their environment are being changed not only by traffic avalanches and mass tourism but also by melting glaciers and rising snow-lines.
2×52´(Bavarian Television)

2005 “Tales from the Cathedral: Würzburg”
Portrait of St. Killian’s from the point of view of people who know the cathedral intimately, some of them sharing extremely powerful and painful memories from the apocalyptic firestorms during the WW II. bombing by the Royal Airforce.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

2004 “Tales from the Cathedral: Munich”
A very personal portrait of Bavaria’s largest cathedral, proving that arguably, a sacred building in the center of a large city can be a “home” to many people – reaching from shopkeepers in the neighborhood to the local mailman all the way up to the archbishop.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

2003/4 “Portrait of a Bavarian Beauty: The River Isar”
The pristine alpine river which originates in the Tyrolean Alps and flows through the city of Munich… seen through the eyes of all kinds of people who live on its banks, work on it, love it or even fear it. 2×52´ (Bavarian Television)

2002 “Nomads of the Wind – The Last Navigator”
Portrait of one of the last islanders from extremely remote and tiny Taumako in the South Pacific who still commands the 5000-year-old knowledge of building and navigating ocean-going canoes. 45´ (ZDF-Expedition)

2001 “Brazil – from Salvador to Ouro Preto”
Travelogue, 90´ (Komplett Media)

2001 “China – The Dragon Rising”
Travelogue, 90´ (Komplett Media)

2001 “Shaolin – The Secret of Chi”
A journey through China in search of the mysterious energies that enable the disciples of Bodhidharma to perform their phenomenal physical feats. 45´ (ZDF-Expedition)

2001 “The Silence of the Knot”
Image-film for the preservation of the millennia-old tradition of the art of knotting oriental carpets.
8´ (AFP Munich)

2000 “The River Danube, Part VI.: Separating Romania and Bulgaria”
The harsh life of people living on the banks of the River Danube, desperately trying to adapt to capitalism, ten years after the collapse of communism.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1999 “The Golden Thread”
Development and preparation of a seven-part-series about the healing powers of shamans around the globe.
(Axel Springer TV / Deepak Nayar / Kintop Pictures, L. A.)

1999 “The River Danube: Part II. – From Ulm to Passau”
Encounters with people who spent their entire lives working on the Danube and whose livelihoods depend on the river, but also with people fighting for the preservation of the few remaining untouched kilometers threatened by plans to build dams and straighten the course of the river.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1998 “Of Silver and Other Treasures”
Portraits of people from the region of Annaberg, Saxony, who try to bring ancient silver mines back to life as tourist attractions – as well as trying to overcome the consequences of decade-long, relentless uranium-mining in their homeland.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1998 „My Child, the Guru and I“
Documentary about the extremely painful and difficult path of healing that a young woman underwent who had become a member of a cult in which she was forced to make her infant child “meditate” up to 20 hours per day. 30’ (ZDF – German National Television)

1997 „Forbidden Calling – Catholic Women Priests in America”
Profile of three catholic women struggling to follow their calling in spite of the rules decreed by the Vatican forbidding women to be priests.
30‘ (ZDF, German National Television)

1997 „Nymphenburg – The Porcelain Manufactory“
Documentary about the world-famous manufactory of the Bavarian Electors which to this day produces porcelain with the same techniques as 250 years ago.
60‘ (Bavarian Television)

1996 “Nymphenburg – Palace, Park and Pavilions“
Documentary about the historic summer residence of the Bavarian Royalty in Munich. Filmed over the course of an entire year, thus showing the stunning beauty of the 400-year-old Castle and Park.
65‘ (Bavarian Television)

1996 “Deutsches Museum Munich“
Documentary about the largest science and technology museum in the world.
65’ (Bavarian Television)

1995 „Miss Baby or the Drama of the Perfect Child“
Documentary about the lifelong struggle that children of overly ambitious parents are subjected to. The film follows one of the most important beauty-contests for young children in America and intercuts it with the stories of three grown-up survivors of such childhood trauma. Inspired and counseled by world-famous Swiss psychologist Alice Miller.
45’ (ZDF German National Television)

1996 „The Bavarian Forest“
Documentary about the historically poorest and most remote region of Bavaria. The film is an unusual montage of footage gathered over a period of more than thirty years.
60’ (Bavarian Television)

1993/1994 “The Four Elements: Fire & Earth”
Segments of a series filmed around the globe – an attempt to combine a popular-scientific approach with a high level of documentary filmmaking. Scientific supervision by renowned author and journalist Jörg Albrecht (Die Zeit) from Hamburg.
2×45´ ( Bavarian Television)

1993 “Brainwashed in the Name of God”
Global undercover-research about the crimes of an Indian guru and cult leader specialized in brainwashing children to form what he wanted to be an “Army of God”.
45´ (Bavarian Television/ ARD-Exclusiv)

1992 “Atelier Kratz”
Portrait of an unorthodox husband-and-wife-team of gold-smiths from Munich’s artistic Schwabing district.
25‘ (Bavarian Television)

1991 “Way Back When… In Dorfprozelten”
Portrait of a family of river-barge-operators trying to preserve their traditional way of living on the River Main against the competition of modern bulk carriers operated by large and powerful companies.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1991 “The Leeds & Liverpool Canal”
Portrait of the most important canal in early industrial England – from the perspective of an enthusiastic and slightly eccentric local historian.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1983 – 1991 “The Crystal Barn”
Long-term documentary. Portrait of a glass painter from Lower Bavaria who fulfilled his life’s dream by creating a huge barn filled with translucent paintings on glass showing the life and the uncanny prophecies of the legendary figure “Mühlhiasl”.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1989/90 “Guns: A Day in the Death of America”
All the deaths by gun that occurred on a single, randomly chosen summer day in America – condensed into the shocking stories of four victims of this daily war in the streets of America which takes a yearly toll of more than 30.000 lives.
52´ (Home Box Office / Filmworks)

1988/89 “Stephan Micus – World Musician”
Portrait of a Bavarian composer and musician who merges musical traditions from all over the world into a unique, individual style, thus becoming world-famous.
60‘ (Bavarian Television)

1988/89 “Tales from the Bible: Moses. Abraham. Joseph and his Brothers.”
Dramatized documentaries shot on location in Israel and Egypt. Hosted by Jewish actor Peter Zilles playing a scholar in search of his religious roots.
3×30´ (Aradt Film / ARD / ORF)

1987 “Letters from Italy. Ferrara – Pearl on the Delta of the Po River.”
Portrait of the cultural capital of Europe during the Renaissance period. Part of a series where artist Aviva Ronnefeld and journalist Giovanni di Lorenzo send each other their filmed impressions from Italy as “letters”.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1986 “Christmas in a Forest of Pages”
Encounters with creators and readers of Christmas supplements in the daily press, among them renowned literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki as longtime fan of the legendary “Literary Christmas Riddle” by his colleague Joachim Kaiser of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1986 “Thomas Mann always works!”
Reportage about the “bestsellers” of public libraries and their readers.
30‘(Bavarian Television)

1985 “Goethe Digital – Books and New Media”
How the invention of CD and Audio Book (will) revolutionize the book-market.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1985 “Willy Liebl”
Portrait of an extremely eccentric glass-artist and poet whose verses in Bavarian dialect often are at least as pointed as the fragments of broken glass from which he creates beautiful works of art.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1985 “The Wood-Carver Mafia of the Gröden-Valley”
Documentary about the large-scale fraud with overpriced wooden sculptures that were sold as “handmade” and “authentic carvings” in Oberammergau Village – while in fact they came from computer-controlled mass production in South Tyrol.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1984 “FWU – Computer-Studio”
Systems-Control. CAD. Output-Devices.
Pilot films for schools about the use of the new medium computer.
3×30´ (Utopia Films)

1984 “The Potters”
Portrait of a Silesian family of potters that successfully “transplanted” its traditional art to Franconia after having been exiled from their homeland at the end of WW II.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1984 “The Last of their Kind – Splint Basket Makers in Upper Franconia”
Portraits of craftsmen whose livelihoods had been widely destroyed by early 20th century industrialization and mass production but who preserved their skills with pride and dignity up to a high age.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1984 “The Sculptor Christian Mayer”
Portrait of a young Bavarian visionary who made his dream come true of letting granite spheres weighing several tons actually float on water.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)

1984 “Camel Trophy Borneo”
Commercials and documentary about an adventurous automobile rally through the rain forests of Borneo. (Utopia-Film)

1983 “Puppet Theatre Kleines Spiel”
Portrait of Munich’s oldest still active student theatre where even literary big shots like Tankred Dorst made their first steps.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1983 “Hans Schwaighofer. Wood Carver, Sculptor and Director”
Portrait of a multitalented native of Oberammergau who gained a great reputation and many foes with his attempt to reform the centuries old passion-play.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1982 “Reinhard Wolke – a Wanderer in Wonder”
Portrait of a simple house-painter who became a successful artist and sculptor after spending years far away from his native Germany, globe-trotting and earning a living as a travelling photographer.
30‘ (Bavarian Television)

1982 “Nuclear Energy in Italy”
Reportage covering the Italians approach to nuclear energy.
10´ (ZDF)

1981 “The Platzl at the Platzl”
Portrait celebrating the 75th birthday of a traditional Bavarian theatre, artistic home of several courageous anti-Nazi actors during the “III.Reich”.
20‘ (Bavarian Television)

1981 “Hans Thurner, Farmer and Artist”
Portrait of a dairy farmer in the Chiemgau region of Bavaria who founded a successful cooperative although his conservative colleagues and neighbours accused him of being a communist; More or less by chance he discovers his love for discarded everyday objects from previous centuries and eventually becomes a successful object-artist and sculptor.
20’ (Bavarian Television)

1981 “Bruno Jonas, Comedian”
Portrait of the young talent from Passau during his first season with Munich´s legendary political cabaret, “Lach & Schießgesellschaft”.
12‘ (Bavarian Television)

1979/80 “Ariane Mnouchkine and her Théâtre du Soleil”
Long-term documentary following the development of the stage production “Méphisto” in Paris over the course of an entire year.
45‘ (Bavarian Television)