Kern Filmproduktion GmbH Hamburg, Germany

Kern Filmproduktion is a German Producer specialised on documentaries with a strong background in social and enviromental issues. Kern means core- and our name is our programm. We are always getting to the core of the matter. We understand best to put difficult issues in simple and interesting stories. Our stories touch emotions.

Since 1985 the Kern Filmproduktion has made over 40 films worldwide. Mostly broadcasted in public TV-stations.

For international affairs contact:
Herdolor Lorenz
Producer Kern Filmproduktion GmbH
Brennerstrasse 58 20099 Hamburg Germany
Phone: +4940 24 12 90
Fax: +4940 24 12 96
Diese E-Mail Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen Javascript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können


Recent Films:
Five kids in a big german city
Water, H2O up for sale
Blue Gold in the Garden of Eden

Five kids in a big german city – First Years at School

A co-production of Kern-TV and NDR in co-operation with Arte, funded by Hamburger Film funding and the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film.
Length: 93 min, Format: 16:9
School’s starts in the middle of Hamburg’s central station area, St. Georg. Tamim, Freya, Klara, Mitchel and Nevena are launching into this new stage of their lives in an environment denounced by the media as a drugs hell and where, with an immigrant population of 70%, the most varied social, cultural and national worlds meet. We accompanied them for the 4 years till the puberty… 16 different nations in the new school class are special for the audience. Not for the pupils. For them it’s natural. They don’t know anything else. Also junkies they see on the way to school, but it’s not their world. They lead us in their normal world of kids. There is a being and growing of friendship, jealousy, conflicts and catastrophes. You will be sucked into their lives with real intimate moments, where they open up and tell us about their inner feelings and problems. You go with them through dramas full of tension, ups and downs, but also great moments of joy and easiness. It’s a unique kind of time travel, through the drama and joy of life.

Hoping, fearing and been deeply touched from their feelings, thoughts and joy. “The kids” – not their parents, tell us about there live and dreams. We see them grow up and develop.

Do the parents stay together? What do they wish? Does it happen? How did their live change? Do they still have the same friends? Is there live falling apart?

The documentation won the highest prize „especially valuable“ of the German film office for its sensitive, intimate and longtime portrait of kids growing up in a “difficult neighborhood”.

Film available on DVD: 23 Euro + shipping costs »»» Diese E-Mail Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen Javascript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können

The children of St. Georg -
the youth…

Part 2 of the long-term documentary
HD-Format, 90 minutes long.
There is no shortage of films about children. Long-term close up studies of their development and growth, however, are more rare. What has never been done before though, is a film in which children describe their own world and its development themselves. We are making that film. “The children from St. Georg.”

It’s the fall of 1999, the brink of the new millennium. Tamim, Freya, Klara, Mitchel and Nevena are going to their first day of school in the St. Georg area of Hamburg. Sixteen different nationalities are represented in one class. This fact stuns the viewer but surprisingly not the children. To them it’s normal – it’s the world they know. The children are neither scared nor do they seam bothered by the occasional addict they might see on their way to school. Their world that they invite us into is the problem district of St. Georg. This world, which lies in the midst of a multitude of different cultures, has, contrary to popular belief, produced children full of self-esteem. Here is a world flourishing with growth, the development of friendships as well as jealousies, the setting of new standards and the redefining of oneself. The audience will experience captivating stories full of excitement and all of life’s ups and downs.

After the first cut of the initial four years was presented, this film was awarded the highest prize of the German film-delegation: It is truly fascinating to follow the growth and development of these young personalities. The characters and their real life situations come together like an intricate mosaic. It is without a doubt exciting and worthwhile for the viewer to embark upon the journey through the multi-layered world of these children. This long-term documentation film stands alone and is a refreshing contrast to the ever accelerating and otherwise fast-paced media-world.

The journey through world of the “Children from St. Georg” ends for now, with them entering higher grades in different schools. The second part of the “Children from St. Georg” is to be a continuation into their puberty. Nevena and Freya have grown in to young women, where Klara on the other hand is taking her time. The boys have their voice-break behind them and the first signs of a beard can no longer be overlooked. Tamim, shoe-size 49, is now towering over his mother. Mitchel has grown into an attractive young man well aware of how to “style” himself, however, the clear signs of a little macho are recognizable.

In the second part of “The children from St. Georg” we follow the five children through their adolescent experiences. We will experience their insecurities, their hopes and their discovery of new horizons as well as the pain and hardships of their encounters with adolescent love. At the end of the second part of the long-term documentation in 2011, Tamim, Freya, Klara, Mitchel and Nevena will have their high school years behind them.

We know for certain that what lies before us is an adventure. Who knows where we might be in 2011? But no adventure is more exciting than experiencing how children grow and develop into young adults. To be there step-by-step through out the journey where opinions and values are being established, conflicts and destinies take form, where innocence gets lost and newly found power takes hold. This is a unique documentation, where the viewers are swept along on the children’s ever-changing journey, experiencing with them, again and again, through their eyes, all their hopes and anxieties.

Do the parents stay together? What do they wish? Does it happen? How did their live change? Do they still have the same friends? Is there live falling apart?

It’s going to be a sensitive, intimate and respectful view into a world of growing up in “difficult neighbourhood”.

Water, H2O up for sale –
the privatisation of a human necessity Water – the origin of life.

The human body is built 97% of water. Health and wellbeing is highly dependent on the quality of drinking water. Since communities sink further into depth more and more cities sell the waterworks to private owned companies.

The film shows against the background of English experiences how the privatisation of the blue gold happens in German different towns.

Its feels like a good crime story. The result are everywhere the same:
Job cuts, less investments in maintaining the water pipes in good condition, more water leaking –the quality of water is dependent on risk management - how much does it cost to keep the water at this level? This helps to keep profits for private companies high, but the water quality?

Is it as secure to get good water from a private water companies in the future?

Film available on DVD: 23 Euro + shipping costs »»» Diese E-Mail Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen Javascript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können

Blue Gold in the Garden of Eden

If today a possible reason for war in the Middle- and Near East is oil, tomorrow it could be fresh water and its distribution and long-lasting exploitation. Turkey, Syria and Iraq together share the two biggest water streams of the region: Euphrat and Tigris. In this case “sharing” is not a suitable word, because since more than three decades Turkey has realized one of the most gigantic dam wall projects worldwide at the upper flow of the streams.

Meanwhile it refuses to obey international agreements concerning border crossing rivers. The so-called South-East-Anatolia-Project (GAP) is meant to catapult the “underdeveloped” south-eastern part of Turkey, mostly inhabited by Curds, into the industrial age, with the help of energy production and irrigation of huge dimensions. The film tells about the social and ecological consequences of the GAP-Project using impressive images. Uprooting, impoverishment, spoiled ground, polluted water and diseases, previously unknown to the region, belong to the reality of the promised Garden of Eden.
But even before these problems are recognized, let alone been solved, new dam projects have been planned and are in a phase right before their implementation. Fresh and sufficient water resources of the Euphrat and Tigris are becoming increasingly a question of survival for the neighbouring countries. How to solve this problem? Turkey seems to have a solution: anyone who suffers from shortage of drinking water can buy it from her…

Water – a human right ?!

Film available on DVD: 23 Euro + shipping costs  Diese E-Mail Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen Javascript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können