Rick Minnich - Writer/Director/Producer
Rick Minnich is an American independent filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany. At age 12, he began making Super 8 films of his baby brother Ben, and has been making films ever since. He received his B.A. in English from Columbia University and an MFA equivalent in film directing from the Film University "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany. Rick's award-winning films include: HEAVEN ON EARTH (50 min., 2001, IDFA, Fipa d'Or Biarritz), HOMEMADE HILLBILLY JAM (80 min, 2005, Premiere at HotDocs, opening night film Hot Springs 2005, closing night film True/False 2006, distributed by First Run Features), FORGETTING DAD (84 min, 2008, Premiere: IDFA - Special Jury Award, True/False, Full Frame, Hot Docs, It's All True, Grand Jury Prize at GZ DOC in Guangzhou, China, Shortlisted for the German Film Award 'Lola' - German Oscar, released theatrically in Germany), THE BOMB HUNTERS (52 min., 2015). Rick Minnich’s films have screened at film festivals, in theaters and on television on every continent except Antarctica. Rick happily passes on his more than twenty years of filmmaking experience to emerging filmmakers through his part-time job at MET Film School Berlin and at film workshops worldwide. Visit him at www.rickfilms.de.
Robert Staffl - Director of Photography
Born in 1975 in Cuxhaven, Germany. Freelance DoP for feature, documentaries, commercials and music videos. Studied Cinematography at the University of Applied Science in Dortmund from 1998-2004. Freelance work in infrared photography in Cape Town in 2003. CEO of the production company Goldgrund Tonfilm Produktion GbR 2002-2009. Films include: BBI - Construction Airport Berlin Schönefeld (Dir. Holger Trocha, doc.), Unnatural (Dir. Daniel P. Schenk, feature, 2015), Jakob’s Brother (Dir. Daniel Walta, feature, Super16, 2007). (http://www.robert-staffl.com)
César Hernández - Sound Designer
Born in Havanna in 1976. Studied sound engineering and post-production at the International School of Film and Television (EICTV) from 2000-2002 and at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Freelance sound recordist and designer since 2002. Films include: Oregon Pine (Dir. Nicolai Max Hahn, feature, 2014), Vulva 3.0 - Between Tabu and Fine-Tuning (Dir. Claudia Richarz & Ulrike Zimmermann, doc., 2014, Premiere at Berlinale).
Robin Lach - Editor
Born in Gelnhausen, Germany in 1987. Studied applied media sciences at the technical university in Ilmenau from 2008-2012. Since then, he has been working as a freelance assistant editor and editor for various production companies in Berlin, including Storyhouse Productions, UFA, und Kloos & Co. Media. Films as assistant editor include the feature documentaries Who Taught You to Drive (2012) and Away from All Suns(2012). Robin has edited the TV versions of numerous feature-length documentaries.
Michael Mühlhaus - Composer
Born in 1966. Composer, keyboarder and producer for various artists such as Kante, Barbara Morgenstern, Masha Qrella, Die Türen. From 1998-2005, Michael was a member of the popular German band Blumfeld. He has worked extensively in many of the most renowned theatres in Europe including Burgtheater Wien, Schaubühne Berlin, Schauspiel Stuttgart, Kammerspiele München, HAU Berlin, Deutsches Theater Berlin. Currently he is working on the soundtracks for Bomb Hunters and the new feature from German director Maren Ade.
Stefan Kloos (Kloos & Co. Medien GmbH, Berlin) - Producer
Kloos & Co. Medien, founded by Grimme Award-winner Stefan Kloos and his partner Anja Dziersk, produces high-quality documentaries for TV and cinema. Our films have been selected by more than 100 film festivals worldwide and won awards such as the Max Ophüls Preis, First Steps and Grimme Award (German Emmy), and received awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Hot Docs and others. We successfully collaborate with international producers and broadcasters including ZDF, BR, WDR, MDR, RBB, SWR, ARTE, YLE, YES DOCU and others. We focus on creative documentaries and like to combine classic documentary work with modern features such as cross-media concepts or animation. Our production PLANET GALATA– A Bridge In Istanbul was the first ever cross-media project by ZDF/ARTE. Lately, we produced the mobile app ofEVERYDAY REBELLION for Android and ios together with our Austrian partner Golden Girls. We are members of AG DOK and EDN and regularly participate in major industry events. In 2008, Kloos & Dziersk also founded the world sales company RISE AND SHINE, which today ranks among the top global documentary distributors.
Carole Lee Dean - Distribution and Outreach Consultant
Carole Dean created the short end business in 1970. In the 80’s she produced 120 HeathStyles Shows that were sold to Oasis Cable and 30 Filmmaker shows, now in the National Archives. She created the Roy W. Deanfilm grants in 1992 in honor of her father and has given over 2 million dollars in donations since then. She is Executive Producer on Women Behind the Camera, BAM 6.6, American Chain Gang, Step Away From the Stone and now in production, a new documentary titled Achievers.
Carole Dean is President of From the Heart and gives consultations free to all who enter the Dean Film Grants and apply for fiscal sponsorship. She is the author of The Art of Funding: Alternative Financing Concepts and The Art of Manifesting: Creating Your Future written for filmmakers as financing educational tools. She teaches these alternative financing concepts online.
Emily Harris - Outreach Director
Originally from a small town in Devon (UK), Emily has spent the last three months studying documentary filmmaking at the Met Film School in Berlin, where she met director Rick Minnich. Emily is a recent McGill graduate with a background in International Development and African Studies. She decided to pursue documentary filmmaking after working in a student team researching environmental degradation and human rights violations caused by Canadian mining companies in Latin America for the CBC documentary The New Conquistadors. She has also worked as an intern, mainly in a research capacity, for a number of NGOs in the UK, Canada and Sierra Leone. She will be moving to London this year to take a course in factual TV and film production at the NFTS, but will continue to work with Rick on The Bomb Hunters remotely.