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Raphael Schanz

Director
Raphael Schanz is a documentary film director and producer in Berlin. After studying communication and social sciences in Erfurt, Berlin and Jerusalem, he studied documentary film directing at filmArche e.V. in Berlin. He is co-founder of the production company panther reh and directed several documentary short films. His film ALLEINGANG screened at numerous festivals worldwide, including the Max Ophüls Film Festival and the German International Ethnographic Film Festival. ALLEINGANG (2022) is a sensitive portrait of Bernd Simon, a funeral director at the Old Cathedral Cemetery of St. Hedwig in Berlin, and an insightful look at how people deal with death and loneliness in the big city. Guido Mingels (Der Spiegel) called it a “small, quiet, magnificent documentary film,” while Katharina Brenner-Meyer (Stern) spoke of a “quiet documentary with strong images.”

Films

Going Alone

Going Alone

By Raphael Schanz

2022 | 28 min | Documentary

A funeral director who aspired to be an entertainer is now the last escort of people in Berlin who have died in solitude.

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This Movie is a Gift

2019 | 72 min | Documentary

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Meuthen's Party

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Dear Beautiful Beloved

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Souls of a River

Souls of a River

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Das Kreative Universum

Das Kreative Universum

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Are we living in a kind of cultural schizophrenia, where people publicly profess the theory of evolution but privately prefer to believe in angels, shamans, gods and spirits? Can the images and values of spiritual traditions be communicated with the astonishing results of modern research or do they remain pure matters of faith? Scientific research continues to yield new insights into our environment, such as the detection of Higgs bosons or gravitational waves. At the same time, interest in esotericism, ...

Allesandersplatz

Allesandersplatz

2021 | 53 min | Documentary

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Eisenberger – Art Must be Beautiful, as the Frog Says to the Fly

Eisenberger – Art Must be Beautiful, as the Frog Says to the Fly

2018 | 94 min | Documentary

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Near and Elsewhere

Near and Elsewhere

2019 | 84 min | Documentary

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The Long Summer Of Theory

The Long Summer Of Theory

2017 | 82 min | Drama

These three live precarious lives. Katja is a struggling actress. She gets by renting out apartments to tourists. Martina is a photographer who has no interest in her curator's flattery and prefers to scream her head off on stage with her punk band. Filmmaker Nola seeks to answer the question whether theory can still be translated into political practice today. In THE LONG SUMMER OF THEORY the women go on a search for meaning in an increasingly divided society. Especially Nola interviews sociologists, ...