- Marcel Mettelsiefen is a multi award-winning director, camera operator, photographer and producer. In 2017, Mettelsiefen was nominated for an Academy Award® in the Best Documentary Short Subject category for Watani: My Homeland at the 89th Academy Awards. He also won three EMMY Awards and two BAFTA, among other recognition.
His films on the Syrian civil war such as Syria: Children on the Frontline (2014), Children on the Frontline: The Escape(2016) and Watani: My Homeland (2016) have earned him critical appraisal and recognition.
Mettelsiefen studied political science and medicine at Humboldt University in Berlin. In his twenties, he worked as a photo-journalist, and has reported from throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan. He is the co-founder of the magazine, Zenith, one of the leading publications on the Middle East and the Arab world in Germany.
Since 2011, Mettelsiefen has been covering the Arab Spring and began reporting from within Syria in April 2011. Since then he has filmed and photographed within Syria more than twenty-five times. It was in Syria that he began documentary film-making. His documentaries from Syria have been aired on ARD, ZDF, Channel4, CNN, Al Jazeera and Canal+, ARTE and others.
Together with Mayte Carrasco (co-director) and Stephen Ellis (editor) he recently finished Afghanistan, the Wounded Land, a 4x52 Documentary Series, In co production with ARTE, NDR and Al Jazeera.
Mettelsiefen is co-owner and chairman of production company Unscrypt.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mayte Carrasco - Marcel Mettelsiefen has evolved from a war zone photojournalist to become one of the preeminent contemporary documentary filmmakers working today.
The Academy Award-nominated, three-time EMMY and BAFTA winner has mastered the art of documenting the most dangerous and hostile corners of our planet with his uncanny ability to capture on film the raw, intimate, and heartening stories of extraordinary people living in extraordinary conditions.
One of Mettelsiefen's best-known films is the short documentary Watani - my homeland, which tells the story of children in war-torn Syria. Over a period of three years, Marcel documented the life of a Syrian mother and her four small children in the besieged city of Aleppo. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2015 and won a Peabody Award, a Grierson Award, and an Emmy Award, among others.
In his four-part documentary series "Afghanistan - the Wounded land," Marcel Mettelsiefen masterfully weaves together unseen archival footage with first-hand testimonials from those who have endured the tragic events of the last 50 years in Afghanistan. In a 360-degree approach, he lets various actors have their say. CIA agents, Soviet generals, Afghan warlords, but above all many strong Afghan women.
His latest feature documentary, "In Her Hands" premiered to great acclaim on the opening weekend of the Toronto Film Festival 2022 and was sold to Netflix. "In Her Hands" is a full-bodied, cinematic portrait of remarkable immediacy, insight and humanity about the events that transpired in the months leading up to the fall of Kabul. This purely observational documentary follows 26-year-old Zarifa Ghafari, one of Afghanistan's youngest female politicians. At the same time, it takes us into mountains to meet her opponents, the Taliban. With unbelievable access to both sides, the film manages to show the complete reality of a deeply divided country.
Marcel's work is characterized by an outstanding cinematic look and great emotional intimacy alongside rigorous journalism. Marcel has shot all his documentaries himself with little to no crew on the ground. He has won numerous awards for cinematography and is an ambassador for Canon.
Marcel Mettelsiefen is by WME- IMDb Mini Biography By: Marcel Mettelsiefen
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