Director - Leeches: Michaela Kirst

Michaela works as documentary filmmaker, producer and journalist in New York City and Berlin. A scholarship of the "German National Academic Foundation" (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) got me to New York. She stayed, because the city itself, its stories and the American documentary film industry fascinates her. In Germany she was employed as a full-time director for documentaries and docu-soaps at the production company AZ-Media. Furthermore, she worked as a freelance TV- and radio-author for the "WDR" and the "ZDF".

Director - Maggots: Robert Cibis

Last year he made three documentaries for an ARTE/ZDF theme night, two of them were about the missionary attempts of the Christian fundamentalists. In 2003 his ZDF-documentary film "Half a Chance?" won the best up-and-coming prize of the German-French journalist prizes.
He had a privileged view of European film production from attending the master classes at both the German-French Film Academy Fémis in Paris and the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Germany. Before that, he had studied film in Paris and Rome, completing his master's degree at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in 1997.

Editor - Leeches: Klaus Eichler

Klaus came to OVAL Films during the editing of a two-part documentary "Disgustingly Healthy" for the television company arte. Having intensively studied Dramatics, Communications Science and Media Studies and earned a Master's Degree in Leipzig, along with his experience in television, he wanted to progress. Thus he has chosen to begin format and project development.

Editor - Maggots: Anna Vanessa Cussen

Anna grew up in NYC and moved to Berlin, Germany, after receiving degree in Liberal Arts and Film studies in 1991 from New York University (NYU). In Berlin she worked first as assistant to continuity on the TV Movie "The Showmaster" then as Productionassistent for the show "Feuerreiter" (ORB, German public television). Here she gained extensive insight on the organization and logistics of the television business. Subsequent to her internship at the post production company Cineplus, where she learned her skills on the Avid and Final Cut Pro, her focus turned to editing. Anna has been working as a freelance editor for almost ten years in different genres
(drama, documentary film and reportage).

camera: Jakub Bejnarowicz

Jakub received his degree as a cameraman from the Film and Televisionakademie and has commenced his studies at the HFF in Potsdam. He has worked as the director of photography for successful Documentary & Drama films. The documentary film "...he is still laughing" recieved the Audience Award prize for Sehnsüchte 06. The popular short film "Trial and Error" for the Sat.1 talent class was as well rewarded with the Audience Prize.