Regie - Michaela Kirst und Sabine El Chamaa

The first time I met American missionary was in St. Petersburg – in the spring of 1994. They were standing like carnival barkers at every street corner, every metro station with electric guitars in their hands and arrogated every foot passenger to finally convert themselves after living for in „sin“ for 80 years.
I did not know yet that most of these American missionaries were so-called evangelicals. I also did not know what the meaning of that was. But already at that time one question kept me busy: What moves hundreds of Americans to give up their jobs, to leave their homes and to hand out bibles in Russia at -20°C instead? With the film „The Man Fisher“, I finally found an answer to all these questions. Missionary Scott allowed Sabine and me to accompany him at his church formation in New York City, „place of sins“. He made it possible for me to understand an important aspect of the U.S.A in a better way. God´s own country, the deeply religious America.

I have been living as a documentary filmmaker and journalist in New York for the past three years.
I was lead there by a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. I stayed, because “the most incredible city of the universe” did not let me go. In Germany, I worked as a writer for WDR, ZDF and AZ-Media. Right now I am preparing for the editing of the documentary film “Somebody has to do it”, a portrait of the only professional “Crime Scene Cleaner” of New York City.

I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon where I majored in theatre and film then moved to Los Angeles in 1993 for an MFA in film at the University of Southern California where I received a two year assistant teaching scholarship in editing and directing.My graduation film “Day 50” was a 1998 finalist at the student Academy Awards. Of the experiences that have taught me a lot I will list three since I am only allowed a few lines: In 1998, I was a directing supervisor of the video archiving of Zbiegniew Preisner´s Live Concert "Requiem for my Friend" in memory of filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski ,directed for the stage by Edoardo Ponti at wielki theatre in Poland . In 2002, I was an editing supervisor of writer - director Edoardo Ponti´s debut feature film "Between Strangers" starring Sophia Loren, and Malcolm Mac Dowell and premiered in Venice. And my recent self produced short film "How beautiful is the Sea" has taken me to Brazil where it was featured in the 2003 Sao Paolo Mostra and continues to travel in European and American film festivals. The idea for Menshenfisher was a collaboration between Michaela and me born in New York city in the winter of 2003 where we started filming Scott Rourk 's story prior to finding any funding. I am now in Berlin editing. I know nothing of Berlin except the walls of the editing room and the trees lining the street across the window…I am curious.

executive producer– Brigit Mulders

Brigit Mulders was born in the Netherlands and moved to Berlin in September 1989. Since 1991 she has worked in feature film and documentary film among other things at the Gerlinde Böhm film production company, Moana film – Rudolf Thomé, Umbrella films, and Jost Hering films.
With the film company November Film, she produced the feature film “in den Tag hinein” in 2001, directed by Maria Speth (Tiger Award, film festival Rotterdam, 2001).
Award-winning documentary films:
-“Balagan” – German Movie Award 1994, Filmband in silver (directed by Andres Veiel)
-“Kinderland ist abgebrannt” – German Movie Award 1998 ( directed by Sybille Tiedemann & Ute Badura)
-“Nach dem Fall” – Golden Gate Award, San Francisco 2000 (directed by Frauke Sandig & Eric Black)
Award-winning feature films:
-“Mein erstes Wunder” – Max Ophülspreis 2003 (directed by Anne Wild)
-“Sugar Orange” – Oldenburg offspring award 2004 (directed by Andreas Struck)

editor - Lilian Franck

At the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (German Film School) I studied direction of documentaries (diploma 1996). After that I lived for three years in Paris and completed postgraduate studies at the Grande Ecole Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. I was also a participant of the Discovery Campus Masterschool.
From that time on I directed several documentaries for German and French TV and worked as an Editor. Since six years I’m making films together with Robert Cibis, for example for ARD, ZDF, ARTE and France 3 (Filmography).

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Sound studio STIL
Christian Hagitte and Simon Bertling comprise an experienced production team and own their own sound studio in Berlin. They have not only composed film music and mixed and synchronized documentaries and other films, they have also produced numerous radio dramas (for instance, « The Pit and the Pendulum » by Edgar Allen Poe bitte mit Link auf unsere Seite) under their own label STIL for Lübbe , Hörverlag and Universal Music.

Grafic Design/Title/Animationen - Gerhard Wolf

I studied communications design in Wuerzburg and received my diploma (FH) for the animation film „The Magic Miracle Motion Picture Show“ in 2002.

I drew the tweening and outlines for the E-H-M-A-N-N Productions film "Herbert Apache Frog“, which was produced for the children’s channel Siebenstein. I have never lost contact with the world of film as I have freelanced as a graphic designer and illustrator for various advertising agencies, and I therefore jumped at the chance to join the Oval Films team in May of 2004.

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