Films by Catrin Vogt

Germany 2022, 86 min
by Frank Marten Pfeiffer, Klaus Stern

The A 49 through the Dannenrod Forest has divided the local population for over 40 years. Through their protests, three generations have been able to delay its extension until now. But for how much longer? The verdict has been passed, the forest is now occupied by activists and the police are already preparing for their eviction, to make way for the machines. [37 DOK.fest Munich, Ludwig Sporrer]

Germany 2021, 97 min
by Lena Leonhardt

A celebrated Palestinian influencer from Israel who quit his lucrative job at PayPal in order to maximize life experience; a young top manager who sacrifices both her job and marriage for the adventure of sailing around the world; an Argentinean couple who apply their computer science skills to distribute their self-produced porn online: ROAMERS accompanies a wide variety of characters on their journeys all over the world and in different social media feeds and follows their search for meaning and support in the new digital world of countless possibilities.With Jonna Kilian-Vostell, Kim & Paolo, Nuseir Yassin, Alyne Tamir, Matthew Bowles, Agnes Nyamwange

Germany 2019, 52 min
by David Bernet

The inauguration of the Barenboim-Said academy in Berlin marked a new phase within the political and educational engagement of musician and pedagogue Daniel Barenboim. BEYOND THE MUSIC portrays this innovative academy whose mission it is to unite humanistic ideals, music and philosophy. Almost 20 years after the founding of the West-Eastern-Divan orchestra, another project of intercultural understanding is derived from the friendship between Barenboim and the Palestinian humanist Edward Said.

Germany 2017, 90 min
by Martin Farkas

“After all, these are not good memories, fun memories. And really, that time is buried.” Between 30 April and 4 May 1945, several hundred civilians commited mass suicide in the Pomeranian town of Demmin. There was desperation between the ideological void and the fear of the Red Army. Whole families drowned, hanged or poisoned themselves. The nervousness of the old citizens of Demmin whom Martin Farkas visits is still noticeable: not a hand that stays motionless during the interview – they are rubbed against skirts or twitch all over the place. One inhabitant describes the perfection of the city before the war and the “tinkering” that began after it was over and is still going on today. “Tinkering” is not a bad term for what is going on in Demmin and what Farkas is looking to illustrate in his film. There are the right wing extremists who abuse the consequences of that mass hysteria as an occasion for an annual funeral march on 8 May, the anniversary of the German surrender. There are the citizens of Demmin who turn away, part disgusted, part indifferent. There are counter-rallies and a few mostly contemporary witnesses, who open up about their memories for the first time after 70 years. (Carolin Weidner, DOK Leipzig)

Germany 2015, 105 min
by David Bernet

Democracy offers an insight into a hidden world of political struggle for new data protection legislation in the European Union. Euro-MP Jan Philipp Albrecht and EU-Commissioner Viviane Reding attempt the supposedly impossible. They take on a hard-edged apparatus of political power, in which intrigue, success and failure are frequent bedfellows. After two and a half years following the legislative process, the documentary brings complex power structures to life and offers a snapshot of democracy today.

Germany 2014, 90 min
by Marcel Wehn

Lutz Schelhorn has always been a rebel. In the 70s he protested against the Swabian bourgeois, then he became a rocker, and later, a Hells Angel. For Lutz, riding motorcycles, brotherliness and the “search for freedom” was what it was all about. 30 years later, the image of the Hells Angels has changed: the myth of the rebels has been replaced by a fatal public image. The media usually associates the Angels with guns, drugs, and human trafficking. Lutz, who earns his money as a photographer, wants to counteract this image. He starts working on a book of photography, one which is intended to give the people of the Hells Angels a new face. The film accompanies Lutz on a photo journey and opens doors to the otherwise very secret world of this legendary motorcycle club. The film also ponders where this negative image came from and who is responsible for it.

Germany 2013, 91 min
by Antje Schneider, Carsten Waldbauer

Krista is Germany’s top model: She is Miss Germany. Discovered by a young farmer in East Frisia, she is about to be built the trademark of the European agri-food industry. But her down-to-earth nature keeps balking at its recovery operations. With loving care and empathy, the documentary expolores the folly of Krista’s career – the story of a German high-yield cow.

2013, 88 min
by David Sieveking, Catrin Vogt

In FORGET ME NOT, David Sieveking portrays the domestic care of his mother Gretel, who, like millions of others, is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.David’s parents were active in the student movement of the 1960s and led an „open relationship“, which is now being tested in a dramatic way through the mother’s illness.The changes taking place within the mother forces the family to deal with its own conflicts and even teaches them new ways to express their feelings and experience intimacy, bringing them all closer together.With humor and candor, David Sieveking’s family chronicle is characterized by unaffected participation and loving affection, where it is the human being at the center of the story, not the illness.