Touching people with stories about people

On behalf of the ELM, two filmmakers from Berlin have documented how people in three African countries deal with the issue of displacement.

One topic, three films: On behalf of the ELM, Raphael Schanz and Philipp Seifert have portrayed people who are trying to build a new life far from their homeland because they have been displaced or no longer see any prospects for the future in their region of origin. They travelled across the Limpopo River border and over barbed wire fences to South Africa, where they struggled along as "illegals". A third film, which was shot in Malawi, is about people who remain in their home country despite difficult conditions. What all the protagonists have in common is that ELM projects are trying to improve their living conditions.

Dirk Freudenthal, ELM: I would like to start by asking you: How did you get into filmmaking in the first place?

Philipp Seifert: I had intended to work in journalism for a long time and ended up relatively young in local television, where at first you do every sort of job. At some point, I realised that I was particularly interested in image design and that I would go in the direction of the camera. I then worked a lot as an assistant and tried to shoot my own stuff on the side and then studied media and political communication - where I also met Raphael. And then at some point I had the idea of starting my own company.

Dirk Freudenthal: Was it a "kitchen table project"?

Raphael Schanz: A little bit. I didn't follow the classic path of studying at a film school, but first studied communication science and social science - and then did this master's degree in media and political communication in Berlin. We both realised that we didn't want to end up in corporate PR departments like many others, but that we wanted to make documentary films. Filming was already a hobby for me as a child, but I never thought it could be a career.

Dirk Freudenthal: And what was the first major project that you started together?

Raphael Schanz: That was "In My Eyes", a documentary film about how refugees in Germany see themselves and how others see them.

Dirk Freudenthal: That seems to be a topic that concerns you. The films that you have now made for the ELM also revolve around flight and migration.

Philipp Seifert: Of course, it's a topic that is incredibly pertinent and is also becoming more and more relevant. But it's not like it's our absolute focus.

Raphael Schanz: When I look at the documentaries I've made, they've often been about marginalised groups, such as refugees. In Lebanon, I once made a film about young people who didn't feature at all in the political discourse. Or our film "Alleingang" - it was about people who were buried by the authorities because no relatives could be found.

Dirk Freudenthal: How did you come up with the name of your company, "panther reh"?

Philipp Seifert: Panta rhei is an expression from Heraclitus in ancient Greek and means "everything flows". We found it very fitting for the work of filmmaking. We also thought it was a nice idea to include these animals in the film and the initial letters fit Phillip and Raphael quite well.

Dirk Freudenthal: Let's talk about the films you made for ELM. When you got the commission, how did you go about it? How did the ideas come about?

Raphael Schanz: The ELM has been supporting projects for refugees in Ethiopia and South Africa for ten years. Three short films about the project work were to be made to mark this anniversary. We then asked ourselves: Does this reach people? We didn't want a project presentation with facts and information that a few administrative people would watch and then say, "sure, the ELM did this and that." We wanted to tell empathetic stories about people, make their life situations tangible and, thus, touch people.

Dirk Freudenthal: And how did the actual preparations for the trip go?

Philipp Seifert: There was an incredible amount of preparation beforehand, just in terms of formalities such as customs regulations and visas. We spoke to the people from the partner churches in advance about the situation in the countries, but it's always different when you're there. We had prepared ourselves thematically, but didn't know the specific stories. We then had to find them on site - and also the people involved.

Dirk Freudenthal: What kind of gut feeling do you have when travelling to a country like Ethiopia? Did you often think about what could happen?

Philipp Seifert: We were quite tense, especially just before the trip. The situation was constantly changing. We were supposed to go to the border with South Sudan, to Gambella. That didn't work out. Then we were also told in Adama that the militias were advancing every day and that we couldn't go where we could have gone yesterday. We simply had to trust that the people on the ground knew best what was possible and what was not.

Raphael Schanz: It was really our big bonus that we were on the road on behalf of the church and with the local organisations. They had contacts with the local authorities and made a lot of things possible. In Malawi, we got ourselves a wooden cross before entering Ethiopia and put it in the camera bag. The churches are very well recognised in every country we visited, also for the work they do there.

Dirk Freudenthal: I find the films very atmospheric. You work without your own commentary, you let the people speak. Is that a stylistic device that you generally use?

Raphael Schanz: That's the kind of film we like: an observational documentary that invites you to immerse yourself in new worlds and in which not everything is explained through language. I find films stronger where you have to figure out the connections yourself, where there are perhaps also questions, gaps and contradictions.

Dirk Freudenthal: How do you approach encounters with people who don't know you? Is it difficult to create images where people are with themselves?

Philipp Seifert: That was quite different from country to country. It was a great challenge to develop trust in such a short space of time and to witness situations that were not just presented for the camera. Our approach was to first get to know the people without a camera, to really understand where we were. And then to see who might be interesting as a character for a film. That was irritating for some people. They thought a film crew was coming here and they didn't have a camera with them. What do they want?

In South Africa, we quickly found a great protagonist in Nyasha. Our plan to tell the story through a single protagonist worked. But that didn't work out in Malawi.

Raphael Schanz: In Malawi, we were in this very remote area, in Beni, where people don't often come to visit. We were given such a great reception with singing, the whole village gathered and we were supposed to give a speech; we were supposed to give a speech all the time anyway. At first we were really worried about how we would be able to get close to the people if it was going to be so formal all the time.

We really needed a few days to get closer to individual people, partly because we didn't have a common language and had to rely on translators. We then spent a lot of time with a youth group that wanted to change their village together. We decided to accompany three people there.

In Ethiopia, we also decided on several protagonists. It was a lot about the past, i.e., the retelling of displacement and arrival. That's why this film focuses on conversational situations. Many people were also able to tell very powerful and touching stories. We naturally wanted to use this for the film. So each film has found its own style through the circumstances.

Dirk Freudenthal: And what language did you use to communicate?

Philipp Seifert: In South Africa, we were able to communicate in English. In the other countries, translations were provided for us. Of course, that also increased the distance. And it was often the case that the person translating was not always at our side. Then we let the people do what they normally do and only found out afterwards what was actually said. It was more a matter of luck that there was something relevant there.

Dirk Freudenthal: What other challenges did you face on site, apart from the language barriers?

Raphael Schanz: It was often not so easy to find a common denominator. Because the partner organisations often had a completely different idea of the film. They often had the idea that we had to show how great the project was. They usually suggested people as protagonists who were particularly good at talking or had a certain role in the village hierarchy. But we were interested in something else.

Dirk Freudenthal: Then you came home with all the material and sifted through it. How did you go about it?

Raphael Schanz: With an observational film, you have to sift through a lot of material. You switch on the camera and either it becomes a scene or not. We had about 20 hours of raw material for each film. Of course, we thought about the direction the film should take and what we wanted to tell during the shoot. After each day of filming, we looked through the material and thought about whether we were still missing something for our story. When we realised in Malawi that fertiliser was an important topic, we went along when it was brought from the market. But the stories in their current form only emerged in the editing room.

Dirk Freudenthal: I can imagine that it's sometimes a difficult decision when scenes that would have been worth showing are dropped in the end.

Philipp Seifert: It's a basic rule that the things that were visually the most beautiful always get thrown out (laughs).

Dirk Freudenthal: But that's frustrating.

Philipp Seifert: Yes, you build up a relationship with the material and of course you want everything to appear somehow. But in the end it's a dramaturgical decision and the film gets better if you leave things out.

Dirk Freudenthal: What do you hope to achieve when the films are shown?

Raphael Schanz: We wanted to make these complex topics of flight and migration tangible and approachable and tell human stories so that it's not always just about numbers. And not about how it is always perceived here in Germany, where some think that half of Africa is setting off for Europe. But in fact most people who are displaced stay in their own country or flee to a neighbouring country.

Philipp Seifert: It is always important for us that films are seen, and we want them to contribute to a debate. It was mentioned that they should also be used as educational material. Personally, I would be really pleased if they could also reach young people. The topic is incredibly relevant and will be with us for decades to come.