Films by Jörg Johow

Germany 2021, 58 min
by Anja Krug-Metzinger

What do animal emotions tell us about ourselves? Where did the human begin and the animal end? This science documentary takes you on a moving journey through the history of feelings and the intellect - with Jane Goodall, Frans de Waal and Volker Sommer.Chimpanzees wage war, behavioural experiments demonstrate that they also show compassion, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity. They reconcile after fights and comfort each other. Chimpanzee societies have customs and traditions that vary from place to place. Is the emergence of morality and culture not a purely human achievement after all?

2019, 52 min
by Markus Augé

He was a patron of science and a reformer on the one hand, a brutal power-seeker on the other. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, king and Holy Roman Emperor from 1212 to 1250, was a man full of contradictions.He was a patron of science, a reformer, and might even be called the first modern ruler. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1212 to 1250, was an exceptional figure on the Roman-German imperial throne. Born and raised in the multi- ethnic state of Sicily, his reign was influenced by Byzantine and Norman traditions that allowed Jews and Muslims a large degree of freedom. All the royal houses in Europe are said to have looked up to him in awe. He saw himself as successor to the Roman emperors and ruler by the grace of God – a notion that was bound to collide with the Pope’s claim to universal power. Frederick waged a bitter battle to maintain his power with five different popes. The Church excommunicated him several times and branded him a heretic and anti-Christ. Frederick responded with the sword, for the power- hungry emperor was prepared to resort to brutal violence to defend his supremacy. He even arrested his own son and left him to rot in the dungeon. A ruler rife with contradictions and a man who, 800 years after his death, has lost nothing of his fascination.

Germany 2012, 87 min
by Beatrix Schwehm

The Bengalese architect MOHAMMED REZWAN builds library boats that can bring books to people even during the monsoon season. The Mongolian author of children’s books, JAMBYN DASHDONDOG, packs two boxes full of books each summer to provide reading material to children in remote areas. The Kenyan librarian ABDULLAHI OSMAN leads caravans of camels loaded with boxes of books to the nomadic tribes bordering Somalia. Despite the heat, wind, rain or snow, they still manage their long journeys - by foot along the unpaved dusty trails of Kenia, by boat through waterways of Bangladesh or by jeep and yak wagons over the Mongolian Plateau. A film about the love of literature and the respect for knowledge that accepts no boundaries.