Films by Stefan Prehn

Germany 2023, 17 min
by Dorothea Carl (doro carl)

The surf tosses sand on the beach, the wind blows it inland. Nothing remains as it is, or where it was. Everything is in motion: the 200-million-year-old sand, the dunes, the sea, and the countless creatures that make their home amongst its grains. Yet human interventions such as dikes, coastal protection measures, and sand filling have made the dynamic line between water and land inelastic and stiff.With: Prof. Dr. Karsten Reise, Dr Annkatrin Weber, Sabine Gettner, Björn Mehrtens, Monika Povel, Patras Scheffler

Germany 2019, 15 min
by Dorothea Carl (doro carl)

On the way to the island Neuwerk you pass the mudflat. A world in between absence and presence, water and land. The essayistic film approaches this transition zone from different angles and time periods.The millennia-old landscape of the Wadden Sea on the North Sea coast has been protected as a natural heritage site for decades and is now facing destruction more than ever.The essayistic short film examines how this uncertain transition in the Hamburg mudflats cannot be seen but can be imagined with images from an intermediate world in overlapping rhythms, flowing absences and presences, tides, seasons, migratory birds, locals and tourists.withAlin Bîrlean, Jürgen Busse, Sabrina Goldbach, Imme Flegel, Johanna Hieronimus, Eric Walter

2015, 83 min
by Dorothea Carl (doro carl)

Große Bergstraße in the Hamburger district of Altona: the first pedestrian zone in Germany and the recurring playground for the ideas and visions of town planners and investors. Once envisioned as a boulevard with exclusive shops, the street went into decline and artists occupied the empty shops. Since its arrival in mid-2014, the inner-city branch of IKEA was designed to modernize and spruce up Große Bergstraße and encourage new ideas. The film accompanies the building of the furniture emporium from the ground-breaking ceremony up to its opening and asks locals, activists, shopkeepers and artists what has now changed with this gigantic project. Kurze Zukunft portrays a street between demolition and reawakening – and looks back at the failed attempts at upgrading of the past.(Hamburger Filmfest)

Germany 2014, 82 min
by Dorothea Carl (doro carl)

Fourteen people share their stories of fleeing from their native countries. By foot, on boats or with the help of escape agents, they were chased away by war, toxic gas, torture, fear and hunger. Some are still kids, strong only through the courage of despair, led by their hopes and wishes. Their personal stories of and experiences with their arrival in Hamburg, in the county of Pinneberg, in container camps, sleepless nights and the struggle with paperwork intertwine with a “banning space”, which subjects them to registration, restrictions and controls which are often a means to send them back either soon or sometimes even after decades. In the film, the individual struggles are narrated in interviews whereas the 'banning space' is visualized by the use of cinematic techniques. with: Abdulla Mehmud, Heide Sanati, Moshen Rezai