Films by Johannes Praus

Germany 2024, 91 min
by Daniel Abma

When parents can no longer fulfil their duty of care, the children’s world often falls apart. Nothing stays as it was. Suddenly it is no longer mum or dad who are in charge but the youth welfare system. Daniel Abma followed a youth housing group in a rural area over several years, showing professional educators who want to give five boys between the ages of seven and fourteen what they need most urgently, day by day: security, orientation, a home.The documentary focus is not on the children but on those who take the parents’ place. They sometimes remind us of Don Quixote tilting at the windmills, for there is a diffusion of responsibility between school, youth welfare services, and absent mothers and fathers. Words fail when adults do not keep appointments, when those in charge capitulate in the face of racist bullying and propose some “time out” – for the bullied boy – in a psychiatric facility. It would be easy to denounce these mechanisms, but that is not the point Daniel Abma wants to make. His observation, both emphatic and reserved, looks questioningly into the gaps in the system – with those who are in danger of falling through and those who try to fill them with affection. He makes us suspect that the answer is not to close all the system’s gaps. It is people who are there for other people and take responsibility. [67 DOK Leipzig, Luc-Carolin Ziemann]

2023, 103 min
by Mark Michel

HERDERS – GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH follows five herders and their families in Peru, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, India and Germany throughout the seasons. For months they trek through changing landscapes with their herds, living only from what nature provides. It is a life far from the romantic picture we have, a life under harsh conditions, in direct contact with nature and its extreme elements – birth, death, storm and sun, rain and drought are fundamental parts of their lives. HERDERS tells the story of their struggles for survival. Their animals are partners, even friends.HERDERS – GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH is a graceful and moving meditation on a disappearing life form. Tender and unsentimental at the same time. In landscapes of remarkable size and beauty, the film portrays the lives of the often invisible and marginalised pastoralist cultures that exist throughout the world. The film captures the beauty and hardship of this dying way of life, explores the deep and ancient union between people and animals, and tells of a way of food production and a way of life that gives more back to the nature and to humanity than what it takes away. There is a wisdom in the ancient practices of nomadic pastoralism that deserves to be preserved and protected. Time for a tribute. And a chance to rethink.

Germany 2022, 90 min
by Christa Pfafferott

Oberdorla. Thuringia. Street corner Sperlingsberg. The swallows are buzzing. A film crew investigates a case.In 1945, shortly before the end of the war, an unknown American soldier was shot here. A photo went around the world. The corner still looks the same today as it did back then. It seems as if there is an invisible connection between the times.On the corner, older and younger residents are still touched by the event. Then a young descendant of the soldier appears. He travels to the corner from the US to understand why he feels so connected to his relative. A forensic technician and his team measure the corner and show the residents the war of yore with his 3D images.The film THE CORNER takes place exclusively on a street corner. Archive material, documentary and virtual reality weave past and present, memories and emotions around the place.The film shows at one corner how complex truth is and how much we are still connected to the events of that time.

Germany 2011
by Olaf Held

Axel, Tino and Jan live their dream of sex, drugs and rock & roll since fifteen years ago, working as stagehands for bands and festivals. Now they approach forty, their bodies do not work as they did once, the tension between the punk rock attitude and the desire to settle down grows. The film asks the question of how to grow old in a business that once proclaimed: ”Live fast, love hard, die young“. ROADCREW is a coming-of-age film, in which the protagonists are no longer teenagers but still have to reshape their future anew. The movie shows their daily life whilst on tour. You get to see in front of and behind the stage, with some very cool events. The guys talk about their life after the GDR, their everyday existence and the lifestyle that’s so closely tied up with it, as well as how they manage a family life with their children, girlfriends and wives.