Jens Schanze, born in 1971 in Bonn, began a program of study in forestry at the Universität München following his civil service; he then transferred, however, to a television production company, working there for two years. After a year-long sojourn in Bolivia (where he produced his first film for an environmental foundation) he began his studies at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich in 1995.

With Börres Weiffenbach as cameraman, Schanze produced his first feature-length documentary "Otzenrather Sprung", about a relocation mission in Rheinischen Braunkohlerevier (a Rheinland coal-mining district). For this film, he received both the Adolf-Grimme Prize and the Bavarian Television Award in 2002. In "Winterkinder – Die schweigende Generation" ("Winter Children – the Silent Generation"), again with Weiffenbach behind the camera, Schanze investigates his grandfather"s involvement with the Nazis.

His documentary "Otzenrath 3° kälter" (2007) chronicles the resettlement of the three Lower Rhine Region villages Otzenrath, Spenrath and Holz, which were relocated between 2000 and 2006 because they were in the way of a vast surface mining project. Focussing on another industry, Schanze"s documentary "Plug & Pray" (2009) explores the status quo of research in the field of "artificial intelligence".