Biography
Reinhild Dettmer-Finke, born in 1959, studied German, political science and education in Hanover. After her second state examination, she gained her first editorial experience as a trainee and assistant in Hamburg. Since 1988 she has worked as a freelance author and filmmaker, primarily for public television. From the beginning, her numerous documentaries and reportages focused on political and social issues. For "Der Krieg, der Hass, der Friede - Reise ins ehemalige Jugoslawien" ("The Impact of Violence – Hatred – Peace", 1994) she spoke with women who had lost children, family members and their homes in the Balkan war; "Der tiefe Schnitt" ("Cutting Deep – When women hurt themselves intentionally", 1996) was about women who had injured themselves. Together with Jochen Loebbert she produced the ten-part long-term documentary "Existenzgründer" ("START-UPS From concept to opening day and first struggles", 1998), with Sigrid Faltin the long-term documentary "Traumziel Fussballstar" ("My dream of being a soccer star", 2001), with Claudia Déja "Wie unfruchtbare Männer Väter werden" ("How sterile men become fathers", 2002).
In 2002, Dettmer-Finke filmed in Georgia and Azerbaijan for the SWR series "Schätze der Welt" about UNESCO cultural and natural heritage sites. In the highly acclaimed documentary "Taxi nach Afrika" ("Taxi to Africa", 2002), she accompanied a young professional soccer player from Africa who works in Germany and regularly supports his large family in Mali. The award-winning film "Wie Handschuhe voll Sand" ("Like Gloves Full of Sand", 2006) portrays people living with the neurological disease ALS.
"Shoah und Pin-Ups" ("Shoah and Pin-Ups", 2007), a portrait of the 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and artist Boris Lurie, who lives in New York and deals with the Shoah and his personal experiences in his provocative works, was also highly praised by critics. Reinhild Dettmer-Finke's thematic spectrum also includes films such as "Der Bauch von Tokyo" ("Tokyo's Belly", 2013), about the megacity's markets and the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, which was screened at numerous festivals around the world and won several awards.
Reinhild Dettmer-Finke, who also produces her own films with her company defi-filmproduktion, took a critical look at social trends in the reportages "Du sollst Dich optimieren" ("Optimise Yourself!", 2017) and "Fit für die Firma - Die optimierten Angestellten" (2017); in "Design ist niemals unschuldig" ("Design is never innocent", 2021) she explored how contemporary design practice responds to problems such as environmental destruction and climate change.
For the documentary feature "IRRE oder Der Hahn ist tot" ("CRAZY – THe Rooster Is Dead", 2022), she observed the work of the Freiburger Hilfsgemeinschaft, a drop-in center for people with mental disabilities, in which Dettmer-Finke primarily lets the people affected speak for themselves. In August 2002, Reinhild Dettmer-Finke was awarded the Reinhold Schneider Prize, the cultural prize of the city of Freiburg, for her work. The theatrical release of "IRRE oder Der Hahn ist tot" was in July 2023.