Films by Bernadette Hauke

Germany 2024, 15 min
by Bernadette Hauke

There is a lot of garbage on the bottom of the sea. Freddy has seen this during his dives. He wants to salvage the old nets that fishing boats have lost in the Baltic Sea, because they are a danger to marine animals, which get tangled up in them and die. Freddy trains to salvage these ghost nets so that he can clean up a piece of the sea aboard the special ship SEEKUH with diving professionals.

2022, 45 min
by Tom Claudon, Dana Melaver

How does a tomato change our sense of time?Sleepless Birds tracks the rise of artificially-lit, industrial greenhouses in the French region of Bretagne. The film presents the environmental impact of grow lights on rhythm and perception of time, through wide-ranging interviews, artistic illustration, camera-based research, and footage from the Bretagne ecosystem. In examining the case of agricultural light pollution, the film also raises questions about the unintended consequences of human attempts to overpower nature and control the elements.

Germany 2022, 75 min
by Christian Fussenegger, Bernadette Hauke

"Courage means being able to ignore inner conflicts, maybe not being so cerebral all the time"In February 2021, a group of young people occupied a piece of forest in Southern Germany, to prevent it from being cleared for a gravel pit. They received great support from the local community.  Samuel and Charlie have been living  permanently in the Altdorf Forest, and have since dropped out of school. The young activists organize new forms of climate protest campaigns, in a a region that has never seen protests. For them, there is no turning back, no stopping now – even in the face of severe legal consequences."A country that already has everything, resembles a land of milk and honey, needs a special way of protesting."

Germany 2022, 24 min
by Bernadette Hauke

Who doesn’t dream of being able to touch the clouds one day? Nele wants to go up in the skies in a hot air balloon and to take her walking-impaired mother with her. The 10-year-old has a lot to achieve – and always finds a solution. [38 DOK.fest München, Maya Reichert]On the balcony Nele is really close to the clouds, though it would be much nicer to take a balloon ride and be even closer. The plan isn’t easy to realise, as Nele’s mother has mobility problems. They need help with every activity and their daily life is co-organised by many other people. They are doing fine together, but a trip in a hot air balloon would be something else … [66 DOK Leipzig, Lina Dinkla]

Germany 2021, 25 min
by Bernadette Hauke

Insects are neither cute nor beautiful, but very exciting, thinks eleven-year-old Pepe from Berlin. His favorite animals are dragonflies, which control their four wings individually and can take off faster than a jet. And the bombardier beetle, which sprays hot poison in the face of its enemies so that it is not eaten. But where do these insects still exist and how do they live? Pepe knows that many insects are going extinct in Germany because their habitat is being taken away. He wants to change that!

Germany 2020, 25 min
by Bernadette Hauke

When the ground wobbles under his feet, Laurin knows: only a few roots prevent it from sinking into the swamp. He doesn't find that scary, but rather exciting. Marshes are habitat for many plants and animals and they store more CO2 than all trees combined. That is why Laurin wants to prevent peat from being extracted and the last of the marshes from being destroyed imore and more.

Germany 2018, 25 min
by Bernadette Hauke

To be completely in the moment of here and now, acting spontaneously and impulsively, these are some of Kilian's special characteristics. He was born with Trisomie 21. That means Kilian doesn't only look different, his way of thinking and feeling is diverse to other children. There are many things Kilian can do - he just makes them differently and more intensively. For a long time Kilian dreams of assisting his favourite clowns Gensi and Chistirrin at Circus Roncalli. When he gets the opportunity to do so, he goes on an emotional roller coaster ride between overboarding enthusiasm and the big worry of "will I be able to make it?".

Germany 2017, 25 min
by Bernadette Hauke

Vi lives in a floating house but she cannot swim. All the houses in her village in northern Vietnam are built on water. So if Vi wants to visit her friends or go to school, she has to travel with a boat. These rawboats are wobbly and overturn very easyly if the sea is rough. So Vi is afraid of the water because she has fallen in for several times.The thirteen year old girl decides to learn how to swim. Grandpa Nghe shows her to hold the breath in the fish cages around the house, but these tanks are not big enough to do more than two or three strokes. That is not enough to loose her panic.

2015, 25 min
by Bernadette Hauke

When other kids take one step, Jonas will take two. When he plays football with his friends, he has difficulty keeping up with them. But when it comes to going downstairs, Jonas is unbeatable!  He uses his so-called "penguin method", careering downwards at high speed while leaning on the banister. If fact, his very short legs are of benefit to him in this situation.  Jonas was born with dwarfism. He is now 12 years old, but only 1.20 m tall - unlikely to ever reach more than 1.40 m in height.This little boy can do most of the things other kids can do, just not for as long. His legs and his back soon start to hurt him. He’d love to play in a proper football team, but he knows he’s too slow. "That’s the way it is, it’s something I’ve got used t