WOMEN COMPOSERS


Directors:          Kyra Steckeweh & Tim van Beveren
Producers:        Kyra Steckeweh & tvbmedia productions
Genre:              documentary
Running time:   95 min

One day the Leipzig pianist Kyra Steckeweh discovered that her repertoire consists only of music by men. Then she began to search for pieces by composers and her research quickly brought to light a variety of fantastic piano works, which are almost never played until today.

She met a selection of four very different composers, all of which left a diverse oeuvre. In addition to the intense Kyra Steckeweh now also wants to look "behind the notes" in an exploration of music: how did these women live? What resistance did they have to fight? How did you master them?

The film »Women Composers« highlights the historical and personal circumstances under which the four women of the 19th and early 20th centuries created their works. The Berlin-based filmmaker Tim van Beveren accompanies Kyra Steckeweh on her search for traces through France, Italy, Poland, and Germany, exploring the life and work of Mel Bonis, Lili Boulanger, Fanny Hensel, and Emilie Mayer. She meets experts who are scientifically concerned with the subject and she also asks questions about the current situation. How is the musical heritage of the composers handled today? Why is their music performed so rarely? At the piano, Kyra Steckeweh brings to life the music of Mel Bonis, Lili Boulanger, Fanny Hensel and Emilie Mayer, including previously unpublished works, and at the end of the cinematic journey, you get almost the feeling of knowing the composers in person. Its world premiere was on May 30, 2018, at the Babylon cinema in Berlin Mitte. Guests were also many of the contributors. For the first time, the Piano Sonata in D minor by Emilie Mayer, which Kyra Steckeweh recorded for her newest CD and this film, was heard in Berlin. The composer died in 1883 in Berlin. In the course of filming, her lost grave at the Berlin Trinity Cemetery was rediscovered. 

Kyra Steckeweh & Tim van Beveren

In October 2018, the film was awarded at »Alive International Documentary Film Festival« in Los Angeles,USA as »the best documentary film about a women's topic«. It received the title of "Best Documentary Film" at the »10th World Music and Independent Film Festival« in Washington DC on January 2019 and the New York Movie Award. In October 2020 the film received the OPUS KLASSIK 2020 award in the category "audio-visual production".

The film is also available in an English narrated version, that was finished in Summer 2019. 







WOMEN COMPOSERS FOR EVERYBODY 

Directors:          Kyra Steckeweh & Tim van Beveren
Producer:          tvbmedia productions
Genre:              documentary
Running time:   7 x 29 min.


Due to the very high popularity, especially from the cinema theaters audience, we have decided to realize more documentary portraits about "forgotten composers". 
The research and the first conception phase is completed. As before, the pianist Kyra Steckeweh will search for clues to threeadditional and outstanding composers and be accompanied by the camera. 

Filming is expected to take place in the second half of 2019 in Germany, England, Austria and Croatia. 
It will also be the first to bring unpublished piano works by the protagonists to the fore. 

The films will be shot in HD format. 
As we see the works of these women as our common cultural heritage we decided to make these episodes available via the internet and free of charge for everybody, in the best sense of »creative commons«.

Planned release: Spring - Winter 2021 (delayed by COVID-19)





UNFILTERED II - FOLLOW UP

Director:            Tim van Beveren
Producer:          tvbmedia productions
Genre:               documentary 
Running time:    52 minutes

pilot with oxygen mask
Almost every day there are new incidents with toxic cabin air. It seems that the manufacturers have quietly and 
publicly unnoticed initiated their departure from the cause of the problem: the bleed air - technology introduced long time ago. But that does not help much to those who are affected. Those responsible for airlines, their reinsurers, authorities and inspection bodies look away and stubbornly ignore the new scientific findings so far. 

But further medical scientific studies point straight to the dangers in the cabin air. In France there is the first criminal case, initiated by a former pilot of a low-cost airline. We will test it: how dangerous is poisoned cabin air for 
passengers? How are those responsible today dealing with the problem while it may no longer be swept under the carpet? 

Scheduled release: Spring 2022


UNFILTERED BREATHED IN – Toxic Air Aboard

The Truth about the Aerotoxic Syndrome

Director:          Tim van Beveren

Producers:       tvbmedia productions & suju-films

Genre:             documentary

Running time:  212 min.

The award-winning documentary on poison in the cabin air of full-length aircraft. Available as DVD on  Amazon.de or as Video on Demand at Vimeo. 

The film is based on the research of aviation journalist Tim van Beveren since 2008. 

First, a 45-minute version should be shown in summer 2014 in the ARD. After almost 30 years, this production broke up between longtime collaborator, journalist and filmmaker Tim van Beveren and the WDR after only a "softener version" was shown there and the broadcaster repeatedly violated agreements and agreements with protagonists. 

The film also shows what the public broadcaster apparently wanted to withhold from its paying viewers.

Released in: Summer 2015


Necropolis-Project 
Director:             Tim van Beveren 
Concept:             Professor Dr. Susanne Junker & Tim van Beveren 
Music:                 Kyra Steckeweh & Sorin Cercuin 
Genre:                multi-media installation - documentary - photography - exhibition


 946e05_97d30c52973e47b59240d295b7d160a1mv2_d_2261_3155_s_2In a cooperation with alumni of master classes of the Berlin University of Applied Sciences Berlin and the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräber-Fürsorge eV a very special multi-media installation and a 30-minute film about the project was produced. It is about the last major offensive of World War II in Europe , the "Battle for Berlin" which lasted from April to early May 1945, and which ended with the unconditional surrender of the capital. The war came back to where he had taken its origin. The battles for the capital did cost thousands of lives of soldiers and civilians. The Berlin district Neukölln bundles in cultural, religious and social diversity all the features of the metropolis Berlin - even historically as a necropolis. Here on 16 cemeteries about 15,000 individual war graves and massgraves are located with an area of ​​approximately 1600 m2, an urban layer in the midst of everyday life. This layer resembles an ancient necropolis - but above the ground. Although most burial sites are open to the public, very few are part of the general perception. The majority of these war victims therefore remain invisible, regardless of origin, age, role, fate. The presentation and the multi-media installation is "timeless" and presents the use of historical as well as current image and video material from war zones of the present, likewise as numerous students, who originally come from these areas. 
So this all builds a current reference for dealing with the themes of "necropolis" and "war". 

Completion: April 2017 / December 2017 

see also: Exhibition in the Red City Hall of Berlin Ausstellung im Roten Rathaus-Berlin