David Bernet
grew up in Switzerland and now lives in Germany where he works as a documentary director, writer and producer. He studied general and comparative literature along with philosophy in Vienna and Berlin. As of 1995, he worked as a print and radio journalist and later as a researcher and writer for documentary films. He then began directing his own projects. David Bernet also works as a dramatist and lecturer – he currently teaches at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam.
The film Raising Resistance garnered Bernet numerous national and international accolades, including the Prix SRG SSR for “Best Swiss Film,” the Deutscher Naturfilmpreis (“German Nature Film Award”), German Sustainability Award, Golden Butterfly, award for Best Director at the Nonfiktionale, and many others. His latest film, DEMOCRACY – Im Rausch der Daten (“Democracy – in the Data Frenzy”), is a documentary shot over two-and-a-half years. It uncovers the inner mechanisms of European lawmaking in the context of the current debate about data protection and privacy in the digital age. DEMOCRACY screened at multiple festivals, including IDFA, and was released theatrically in Germany in November 2015 and then in Austria, Luxemburg, the United Kingdom and France and was awarded (a.o.) with a nomination for the German Film Award LOLA and has been awarded with The German Documentary Award 2017.
Filmography (Selection)
| 2023 | Curiosity (in pre-production) |
| 2022 | Solidarity (in pre-production) |
| 2022 | Capital B (series, in pre-production) |
| 2019 | Beyond Music |
| 2015 | Democracy |
| 2014 | Famine / Hunger |
| 2011 | Raising Resistance |
| 2007 | Jew by Choice |
| 2005 | The Whisperers |
| 2004 | Regard en Arrière |
| 2002 | Nach der Flut (After the Flood) |
Ruth Olshan
was born in Russia and grew up in Israel and Berlin. Today she lives in Germany and works as a director, author and writer. She studied directing and film production in Leeds (UK) and Cologne. Since 2000 she has worked as a freelance director and author for feature films and documentaries.
She has received numerous awards and scholarships such as the “Sir Richard Attenborough Prize”, the “Prize for Women Artists in North Rhine-Westphalia” and the “Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Prize” as well as German TV Award Fernsehpreis, „Producer’s Award of Filmfestival Hamburg and the the Golden Camera. Her films have been shown at international festivals such as Venice, Locarno, Munich, Tbilisi, Berlin and Oberhausen.