Biography

Hello and Namaste! My work is about combining film and graphic design for a social cause. In the last years I also got more and more into anthropology, regarding film as a wonderful medium to encounter people and to tell stories. Here you can read about my life briefly. It is weird for me to place pictures of myself and to make a "list" of my life ... but I think the photos give a good glimpse into my life ;-))


*21.09. 1979 in Sangerhausen near Halle(Saale), Germany

EDUCATION
1998-2003 study Media Design, University of Applied Sciences Augsburg
2001 Internship at TV broadcast station 3sat »KulturZeit«
2007 - 2008 stuy Anthropologie, Film and Hindi, FU Berlin
from Oct. 2009 forward study M.A. program Visual and Media Anthropology, FU Berlin

VOLUNTEER WORK / SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
since 2001 in the extended board of Govinda Development Aid Association Govinda e.V. - children projects in Nepal
2004-2006 one of the 5 main founders of the first cooperative Art Cinema in Germany ( Programmkino Aalen e.G.)

2002-now working as a freelance graphic designer, programmer, photographer, camera woman, video editor..... and did a lot of traveling! ;-))

DOCUMENTARIES
my main focus: producing my own documentary film projects:
2003: TILT - an international youth musical (30 min)
2004: Der Himmel über mir - Die Kinder des Shangrila Waisenhauses in Nepal (66 min)
2004: SUCHT.gefühle (30 min)
2005: Nie mehr zurück - Einar Schleef und Sangerhausen (30 min)
2006: Aalen jazzt - Dokumentarfilm über die Motownlegende Lamont Dozier (55 min)
2007: Die vergessenen Kinder Westnepals (96 min)
2009: Beneath Everest - Nepal Reborn (edting and cinematography (93 min)
www.beneath-everest.com

AWARDS
2001 // 1. Preis Animationswettbewerb Theaterhaus Stuttgart
2004 // Jugendkulturförderpreis des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt
2005 // Jugendkulturförderpreis des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt

participation at several film festivals, such as Dokfest Kassel, Ethnologisches Filmfest Universität Zürich,Grenzland Filmtage Selb, Jugendmedientage Berlin, Open Eyes Filmfest Marburg.

working together with many great artists, musicians, film makers, photographers...

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Well, actually I am a totally uncool person. hehehe ;-)
Mostly I spend my nights with Jeff Buckley, Lauryn Hill and video-editing. I spend my days with meeting people and making little movies inside my head. I gather little stories and observe. I met that guy in NYC that said that I am a natural perceiver. I don't know what that means. I travel around... I am a hunter of stories. I am on a mission but I don't know why. I love people. I can be radical but I have a loving view on everything.

I love cream on coffee and when the sugar slowly sinks into this coffee sea.
And I love Joni Mitchell. I am a generous but sometimes a demanding person.

The most important thing in life is COMPASSION. It is hard sometimes to be true to oneself and continue one's own way..... sometimes you feel alone and too little supported. But it is always worth to go on even if people don't understand you and turn away from you. I believe in the spiritual path that I am on. And my work and this website is a part of this expression. So thank you for your interest and time. Contact me if you like to know something about me and my work or if you would like to do some networking.

Well, I grew up in East Germany in a little town, Sangerhausen. I always wanted to travel, so my parents gave me a globe when I was 8 years old and I learned all countries and cities by heart. My parents felt uncomfortable because they didn't know how to tell me that people from a communist country are not allowed to travel freely.
My mother taught me to be true to myself. My father taught me about the California Sun that he could hear in his beloved Steely Dan songs and he taught me the difference between a John Coltrane and a Cannonball Adderley Sax solo. For me Jazz has always has been the perfect expression of the longing for freedom and after the wall came down in 1989 at the age of 10 I really felt that there is something for me in this world that it's worth searching for.
I spent my childhood and youth with Joni Mitchells "Hissing of summer lawns" and the jazz records of my dad, so actually I was a pretty uncool teenager in the nineties. ;-) I collected music documentaries and fell in love with Otis Redding jumping on stage - the camera was filming him against the stage light. He became just a shadow. What an amazing picture.

I adore the work of photographer Jacob Holdt. I discovered his work when I was 5 years old and I am still impressed about his work about poverty in the USA. Holdt is a real gypsy and hitchhiked through whole "black america" to meet poor people. In February 2007, after I contacted him via email he invited me to a trip to the States and introduced me to all his friends that I have known from his book since I was 5 years old. Now Jacob is a wonderful crazy friend of mine.

I studied Media Design at university and made my Diploma in 2003. But I turned into a documentary movie maker and lately a photographer. Every part of my work on my Website I do on my own (except most of the music which comes from my beautiful friends. ;-)) I work as a camera woman and edit and write everything on my own.
Documentaries are my innermost expression about how I see the world.

I am still searching for what my task in life will be. I haven't found out yet. How about you?

My biggest love I found in Nepal: our children from the Shangri-la orphanage. I am very interested in development aid and try to support my friends of GOVINDA development aid association as much as I can. This has been a big part of my life in the last 8 years.

Love
Christina

What I love
Mo's Falafel in Kreuzberg
watching the sun come up in the morning
Joni Mitchell records

Whom I would like to meet:
Jeff Buckley
Joni Mitchell, of course
Björk
Donald Fagen
John Coltrane ( in the next life, sigh)
Erykah Badu & Lauryn Hill

Photos: Mathias Tantius, Jacob Holdt, Heinrich Hartmann, Tulsi Bhandari, Michael Ankenbrand, Holger Kirsch

Me filming in Westnepal

In the US, Southern States




Here even more pics from me in Nepal ;-).