Films by Michael Busch

Germany 2022, 85 min
by Carolin Schmitz

The basis for the project is documentary in nature. Eight women between 30 and 75 talk about their lives and motherhood. What all the women have in common is the realization that motherhood is a highly ambivalent experience. In the film, their documentary statements are visually brought together in a fictional character - portrayed by Anke Engelke. The actress integrates the women's reports into the laconic narrative about the everyday life of a woman and mother.

Germany 2004
by Bertram Verhaag

In the mid-eighties, science, with the help of genetic technology, finds the key to mastering the Earth and its creatures. Suddenly, everything seems possible! Twenty years later, we embark on a global journey to explore the progressive genetic manipulation of plants, animals and human beings: In India, a disastrous crop of genetically modified cotton leaves many farmers facing ruin. They resort to selling a kidney - or committing suicide. In Canada, genetically modified canola seeds blow onto the fields of neighbouring organic farms, making ecological farming impossible. The Icelandic parliament sells information on the entire population's genes to a private company that, in turn, plans to turn over the data at a profit to the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies. A research project, described as a “vampire project”, involves taking blood, hair and saliva samples from 700 so-called threatened ethnic groups on the pretext of preventive health. The gene samples wander into the laboratories of industry where they provide the basis for developing treatments for valuable patents. Worldwide, only a handful of scientists are defying industry, carrying out independent research into the effects of transgenic animals and plants on the environment and our health. This film meets them and hears their stories.