Schumann, Dieter
Biography:
Dieter Schumann was born in Ludwigslust in 1953. From 1970 to 1975, he trained as a professional seaman while earning his high-school diploma. He then worked as an assistant director at East German television from 1976 to 1978, before studying directing at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg.
Schumann was a director at the DEFA Studio for Documentary Films from 1983 to 1991, where he mainly directed short films, before working on his major documentary, flüstern & SCHREIEN. In 1994, he produced a follow-up film that focused on bands like Sandow and Feeling B, and documented the launch of Rammstein after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Schumann is the founding director of the FilmKunstFest (FilmArtFestival) in Schwerin. In 2002, he also set up the Basthorster Filmmanufaktur (Basthorst Film Factory). Schumann works as a director, author and producer on television projects and has recently made a full-length documentary, Wadans Welt, about the decline of the Wismar shipyard and the fates of its workers.
Since 2015, Dieter Schumann has directed severals films about the life of refugees in Germany.
Festivals & Awards:
| 2011 | Jury Prize, DOK.fest Munich, for Wadans Welt |
| 2011 | German Camera Award, for Wadans Welt |
Filmography:
| 2020 | Lene and the Spirits of the Forest (Lene und die Geister des Waldes, doc.) |
| 2019 | Status Human, a Matter of Time (Status Mensch, eine Frage der Zeit, doc.) |
| 2019 | Rocky and Smooth: Lifelines of Young Refugees (Steinig oder glatt – Lebenslinien junger Flüchtlinge, short, doc.) |
| 2016 | Next to the Tracks (Neben den Gleisen, doc.) |
| 2015 | Emergency Room: When Strangers Get Closer (Notaufnahme – wenn Fremde näher kommen, short, doc.) |
| 2015 | World Train Station with Kiosk - How Regulars and Refugees Meet in Boizenburg (Weltbahnhof mit Kiosk – Wie sich Stammgäste und Flüchtlinge in Boizenburg begegnen, short, doc.) |
| 2010 | Wadans Welt (Wadan’s World–About the Dignity of Work, doc.) |
| 2008 | Die Frauen Gottes – Die letzten Diakonissen von Mecklenburg (God’s Women–The Last Deaconesses in Mecklenburg, doc.) |
| 2005-2008 | Mecklenburger Profile (Mecklenburg Profiles, doc.) |
| 1994 | flüstern & SCHREIEN II (whisper & SHOUT II, doc., TV) |
| 1990 | Dissidenten (Dissidents, MTV music video) |
| 1989 | Leben auf der Fischerkoppel (Life on the Fish Farm, doc.) |
| 1988 | flüstern & SCHREIEN (whisper & SHOUT, doc.) |
| 1985 | Lieb die Erde wie dein Land (Love the Earth Like Your Country, doc.) |
| 1984 | A… Wie Anfang (B… Like Beginning, doc.) |