I am Raphael Schanz (he/they), a documentary filmmaker and producer based in Berlin. I was born in 1989 in Hildesheim, Germany, and my academic background in social and communication sciences took me from Erfurt to Berlin, and even to Jerusalem. Along the way, I also lived in Lebanon and South Africa, experiences that continue to shape my perspective today.

After a first career in political communication, I decided to follow my passion: documentary film. In 2018, I enrolled in the documentary directing class at the self-organized film school filmArche in Berlin and made several short films. I was a Heinrich Böll Foundation scholar and participated in the dok.art development program as well as in the Pitch_IT@Berlinale program. I am a co-founder of the film production company panther reh and give workshops on filmmaking.

My films are often character-driven, using profound portraits of protagonists to explore contemporary social questions. Influenced by the tradition of Direct Cinema, my work frequently engages with themes of performativity and the negotiation of identity.

Beyond filmmaking, I design and lead participatory workshops and educational formats that use documentary methods as tools for reflection and empowerment. These range from creative storytelling labs with young people to collaborative video projects with NGOs and educational institutions — spaces where participants learn to observe, listen, and tell their own stories through film.