busse & halberschmidt Filmprod. oHG

Germany, Canada 2019, 101 min
by Mirjam Leuze

A remote island in the Pacific, populated by wolves, ravens and two whale researchers. A small town with the promise of a second industrial boom. A First Nation village, torn between the wish to protect its territory and the pressure to cope with big investors. How are the people in the Canadian Great Bear Rainforest handling the arrival of the LNG industry? And what voice do whales have in the debate, when just the sound of tanker engines might be enough to drive them away? THE WHALE AND THE RAVEN is a story of humans and non-humans, united bya deep sea, seperated by conflicting plans for its future.with: Janie Wray, Hermann Meuter, Helen Clifton, Patricia Lange, Roy Henry Vickers, La'goot Spencer Greening, Nicole Robinson, Archie Dundas, Marven Robinson, Philip Germuth, Katie WelshGitga'at Advisory Committee: Chris Bolton, La'goot Spencer Greening, Kyle Clifton

2016, 83 min
by Hajo Schomerus

It begins quite harmlessly with the filmmaker’s memories of his great uncle Menko, who lived in Madagascar for many years and told enchanting stories of myths, magicians and crocodile spirits. The strangest thing, however, was the elephant bird’s egg he brought home which has disappeared. It’s the occasion of an elaborate research around the globe, into the cellars and storehouses of auctioneers, archives and natural history collections. Hajo Schomerus is almost magically attracted to these unspectacular looking places. They are both memory and mystery, trigger reflections and speculations.The film walks the thin line between crime story and construction, sending out feelers into grey zones like biopiracy or diamond smuggling. The fact remains: Madagascar is a very special island with many plants and animals that are found only there. How naive, negligent or calculated are the actions of the adventurer, businessman and amateurbotanist really? Where is the borderline between ethnography and colonial conduct?And where does the egg of the legendary extinct elephant bird which was of impressive size but couldn’t fly come in? Questions upon questions, raised casually and intelligently by the film from one clue to the next, in an examination of the fundamental relationship between Europe and Africa in the past century. (DOK Leipzig, Cornelia Klauß)

Germany 2009, 90 min
by Hajo Schomerus

Brother Jay recently moved into the world\'s most unusual flat share.Nestled in the center of Jerusalem lies the heart of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Under its roof six Christian denominations live door to door. The young Franciscan`s gentleness is severely challenged by the conflicts in this multi-cultural collective. As Father Samuel, Prior of the Armenian community, defends his brothers`s rank in the pecking order with ploy and passion. Patriarch Theophilos III., on the other hand, is content: his Greek-Orthodox monks rule over the house as if they were in sole reign. Abdilkadr Joudeh and Wajeeh Nusseibeh lock the door in the morning and at night. They keep out of all this - they are Muslim. Nevertheless, they endlessly argue over the question which job is more prestigious: to hold the key or to actually turn it. "Insightful and nevertheless entertaining observation on the fact that faith is a very human matter." (Die Welt)