Kallawaya - Traditional Medicine in the Andes (2009)

Walter Alvarez is a medical practitioner and a Kallawaya. With him, we discover how complementary medicine is practiced in contemporary Bolivia. Walter combines conventional western medicine and alternative natural medication. Healing plants and a healthy, varied and balanced diet constitute the foundation of traditional Kallawaya medicine which focuses on preventing illness, not just curing it. In Parliament, Walter has fought for recognition of traditional medicine. For he believes that only the combination of both types of medicine can help us lead a healthy life.



More information about the film Kallawaya you can find here ->

Bittersweet (2002)

The 43-minute reportage "Bittersweet" looks at how the world market for sugar functions. It investigates how the lives of European and third world farmers are linked through global trade in sugar and alternative sweeteners. It looks at how bio and gene technology could affect farmers around the world through the development of new sugar substitutes in the near future.

The film has been shot on locations in Germany, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Mexico and France.


More information about the film Bittersweet you can find here ->

American Dream (2002)

1955. Wulf, son of a farmer in the mountains of Southern Germany, emigrates to the United States because the family's tiny 20 acre farm can't support him. With nothing more than a few pennies in his pockets, he begins his life in the New World herding sheep on a remote desert farm in Idaho.

Time goes by. Wulf buys his first land. 300 acres of sage brush in the 'big old desert'. Wulf, his wife Carol and the 6 kids clear the land of sage and rocks. The farm grows, the kids grow. The American Dream seems to come true for Wulf.

1997. Wulf is the proud owner of a 3000 acre farm in Idaho which he farms with his sons Chris and Brian. But dark clouds begin to grow over the farm's future. The prices for all their major crops fall to such low levels, that not even 3000 acres seem sufficient to make a living any longer.

This film accompanies Wulf in his fight to save the farm through the years 1997-2001. Behind the personal struggle we see the economic background of the agricultural markets that are increasingly monopolised by huge multinational corporations.

Will Wulf be able to save his dream?

More information about the film American Dream you can find here ->

Habanera in Black and White (1999)

Habanera in Black and White“ is a brief homage to memory, a tribute to passing love and distant nostalgias. A stroll through Havana to the rhythms of the Habanera (songs).








More information about the film Habanera in Black and White you can find here ->

Big Spuds, Little Spuds (1999)

Summer 1997. The World lives through the worst El Niño event recorded in history. An unknown pest attacks the American potato crop. Chemicals won't stop the epidemic. Potatoes resistant to the pest do not exist in the US. Intensive farming has wiped out genetic diversity. Scientists warn that monoculture and climate change put global food security at risk.
What causes monoculture and who makes money from it? The solution to the American farmers' problem is hidden in the tiny fields of Andean campesinos. A journey on the traces of the potato from the Peruvian highlands to the potato plains of Idaho.

More information about the film Big Spuds, Little Spuds you can find here ->