Frauke Sandig Pro

DIRECTORS’ FILMOGRAPHY: FRAUKE SANDIG & ERIC BLACK

AWARE – GLIMPSES OF CONSCIOUSNESS is the fourth collaboration between Eric Black and Frauke Sandig (102 min., co-production with ZDF/3sat, with funding by ITVS, Evolve Foundation, BKM, FFA, DFFF, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg). 

Previous work together includes the feature length documentaries: 

HEART OF SKY, HEART OF EARTH (98 min, 2011), Coproduction with ZDF/3SAT, ITVS, Theatrical release in Germany and Japan. Screened at 112 international film festivals (including IDFA Masters Section, DokLeipzig, Vancouver IFF, Thessaloniki Int.  Doc FF, Margaret Mead FF, winning 15 awards including: •First Prize at the largest environmental festival in the Americas, Toronto’s Planet in Focus. Won awards or opened every human rights festival in both Central and South America.• First Prize in every Indigenous film festival in Canada and given the three top awards in Montréal’s “Terres en Vues” • Opening Film at the Muestra de Cine International, Guatemala. • First Prize, Pukañawi award, in Bolivia, the other country in Latin America with the highest percentage of indigenous peoples.

www.heart-of-sky.com, www.herzdeshimmels-herzdererde.de

FROZEN ANGELS (93min., 2005), premiered at the Sundance IFF in 2005, “a mesmerizing work that is not so much a science film as a startling conduit into the future of the American Dream, where "perfect children" can be added to the shopping list. In their visually enthralling documentary, Eric Black and Frauke Sandig brilliantly evoke an atmosphere of familiar otherworldliness as they survey the field of assisted human-reproductive technologies." (Shari Frilot, SIFF). Other festivals and awards include Winner of the Prix du Public at Visions de Réel, Nyon, Winner of the Prix de Cinephage Creteil, Paris, Special Jury Mention at FICCO, Mexico City, German Competition at DokLeipzig, International Competition at HotDocs Toronto, Mill Valley International Film Festival, Sheffield International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Guang Zhou International. Film Festival, China. Opening film at the Documentary Film Festival Kassel, Pre-selection for the German Film Award, nominated for the World TV Award Banff, and chosen as one of twelve of the best documentaries worldwide by the International Documentary Association for Academy Award qualification. It was broadcast on public television worldwide including PBS in the United States. The film was released theatrically in Germany.

AFTER THE FALL (86min., 2000), their first film together, documented the mysterious, disturbing and almost complete disappearance of the Berlin Wall after its fall. The film was awarded the German Camera Prize and a Golden Spire at the San Francisco IFF; “We award this film for its stunning cinematography in conjunction with its combination of profound and absurdist meditations on the meaning of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. Through its careful structuring of personal interviews, it provides a stunning example of the documentary film as intellectual history.” Translated into thirteen languages, it was broadcast on public television worldwide including PBS. It was selected for more than 40 international film festivals, including the Berlinale IFF, IDFA Amsterdam, Karlovy, DOCAVIV and shown at the MOMA in New York. Repurchased for rebroadcast by PBS in 2008. 

Additional Work: After studying Drama and German Literature, Frauke Sandig worked as a producer and director of more than thirty shorter documentaries and was nominated for the Adolf Grimme Award 2008 in Germany. Her first feature length film OSKAR & JACK (1996) was screened on numerous international film festivals, shown on public television worldwide and awarded a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco IFF. Her film Transit Camp Friedland (2015) premiered at the FIPA Festival in Biarritz and showed at Festivas of German Cinema in Toronto, Hong Kong, Nancy, Ghana, Spain, Portugal a.o. She is a member of the German Film Academy.

Eric Black was born in Ohio. He graduated with triple majors, the Chancellor’s Award, the Art Support Award and with honors from the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz. While attending the San Francisco State University in Cinema, the first film he shot won the Student Academy Award for Western States. He has twice worked as A.D. with Director Jon Jost in Rome and was awarded a stipendium at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Aside from directing, he was the cinematography award winner at RIMD/Terres en Vue IFF in Montreal in 2013 and the runner up for the cinematography award at Sundance in 2005 and is currently working on a book of his B&W photographs.

Websites:

www.umbrellafilms.org, https://aware-film.com, www.heart-of-sky.com