Kim Münster

Biography

Kim Münster was born in Düsseldorf in 1982 and grew up in Wuppertal. As a teenager, she made her first attempts at filmmaking with her own camera and gained further experience through internships at Medienprojekt Wuppertal e.V. and braodcaster Pro Sieben, among others. In 2005, she began studying cinematography at the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund and graduated in 2012. During her studies, she directed and worked as a camerawoman on several documentary films, mostly through Medienprojekt Wuppertal. Some of her works during this time include the 15-minute "Verlobt ist noch nicht verheiratet" (2009), which explores the romantic relationships of people with disabilities, the 60-minute "Das war dann einfach so" (2009), in which 14- and 15-year-old children share their perspectives on their parents' separation, and the 45-minute "Bin ich schön" (2012), which examines the beauty ideals of today's youth.

In her graduation film "Nur das Beste" (2013), which screened at several festivals, she portrayed individuals who shared a quest for optimization and the "best" in their respective fields: two dog breeders, two tomato growers, a ballerina, and a quality manager.

In 2013, together with Luiza Maria Budner, she founded the film production company Treibsand Film. With this company, she started her own projects and produced films for other directors, including Tianlin Xu's "Coming and Going" (2015), which won awards at several international festivals. In 2015, Münster received a one-year scholarship for her company from the Mediengründerzentrum NRW. The following year, she received the Frauen mit Profil award from the Kompetenzzentrum Bergisches Städtedreieck for her entrepreneurial efforts. In 2017, she participated in a mentoring program for women organized by the same competence center.

Kim Münster's own films, often made in collaboration with Medienprojekt Wuppertal, include "Nicht Mutter" (2017), in which several women and a man share their experiences of abortion and its impact on their lives, "Unberührt" (2018), which explores how young Muslim women deal with the restrictive expectations of their families, and "Hinter Türen" (2019), which addresses the issue of domestic violence.

Together with her long-time colleague Sebastian Bergfeld, Kim Münster co-directed the documentary "Spielen oder nicht spielen" (2023), which focuses on two actresses with disabilities who face various challenges despite their talent. The film premiered at the Munich DOK.fest and was released in October 2023.