Films by Monika Hielscher

2019, 90 min
by Matthias Heeder, Monika Hielscher

Around the globe, rights of use of marine and coastal zones are being reallocated – an investigation into the consequences of ocean grabbing.Around the globe, the rights of use and ownership of marine and coastal zones are being reallocated. In line with global market rules and largely kept hidden from the public, changing national and international legislation is leading to a development that is overruling the traditional rights of use of local commmunities. Fishermen and coastal inhabitants are being deprived of their livelihoods. The beneficiaries of this gradual process of privatisation and commercialisation are international corporations, organisations and states. Known as „ocean grabbing“, the consequences of this development are in evidence on all kinds of levels: from international trade with fishing licences, the privatisation of entire coastal regions for industrial and tourism projects, to the environment protection measures of the United Nations‘ Blue Carbon Initiative. Western democracies, the EU, US and international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation and World Bank are the key promoters and beneficiaries of this reallocation. This investigative documentary examines the consequences of these new global structures based on four examples in India, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica and Kenya.

Germany 2017, 87 min
by Monika Hielscher, Matthias Heeder

To predict a future crime scene and to prevent a murder seems like something from a sci-fi movie. It is, but it’s also real – and happening right now. To make this possible, powerful computers and omnipresent cameras capture data from all sources, which is then evaluated and analyzed with the help of algorithms. At the same time, we, the citizens are transformed into carriers of recorded data – our every move, message and purchase tracked and mapped. Ratings of how likely we are to commit a crime are attached to our personae. Computers spit out lists of tomorrow´s criminals. But what if it´s you who ends up on this list? What if the data is wrong? Or biased?? How can we be guilty of things we haven’t done?PRE-CRIME travels to Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin, Munich and other places to show predictive policing techniques in action, to investigate their opportunities and dangers and to meet people who use them and those who have been victims of them. Who is – and who isn’t – protected by the algorithm?

Germany 2014, 90 min
by Monika Hielscher, Matthias Heeder

MONEY IN MINUTES tells of a lesser-acknowledged aspect of globalization: international work-related migration as the business foundation of financial service providers worldwide. According to World Bank estimates, around 420 billion US dollars will circle the globe in 2013, money that is earned in the affluent North by migrant workers and sent home to their families via companies that are specialized in money transfer, like Western Union and MoneyGram. Their money transactions produce the raw materials that convert into profit. The film describes the incredible logistics and controversial strategies of an industry that shapes the financial infrastructure of migration, and uses it as an economic resource. The migrants will be shown as customers who, without any other alternative open to them, use a service provided.