Believe in Miracles

Nichts für die Ewigkeit

Believe in Miracles

Britta Wandaogo

DE
2011
Documentary
81’
Panorama

»My first video camera 1993. Dirk and I are sitting on a bed filming each other. I say to him: ›I’m 27 years old and absolutely whacked but at least I’m going to lift my little brother’s spirits one more time!‹ Whatever my intention was then, there’ve since been numerous situations when I have filmed us together. Capturing our life on camera every so often has been both protection and memory. Dirk died and our family broke up – yet Dirk was my family! We shared a certain closeness, a sense of humour that perhaps can only exist between brother and sister. His heroin addiction was a side phenomenon which we both had to live with, always borne by the belief that one day he might get over it. In the summer of 2010, I began to open some of the boxes with all the cassettes, raw material and short private scenes that I had previously never watched. Everything was brought back to life.«
– Britta Wandaogo

»The material that Britta Wandaogo had at her disposal consists of hours and hours of recordings which she – more or less off the cuff – taped in her brother’s company. Showing him high or asleep, waking up, charming, repeatedly charming, and then really high, incoherent and in despair. Ms Wandaogo sometimes in the picture, being filmed by him, classified as his co-dependent, belittled and loved, exploited and placed on a pedestal. Material that flinches with tension.«
– Michael Sennhauser, Radio DRS2

In this documentary film, as in most of her work, Ms Wandaogo radically turns the private sphere inside out.

Director / Script / Cinematography / Editing / Contact

Britta Wandaogo

Production

wandaogo productions

Portrait of Britta Wandaogo

Britta Wandaogo

Born 1965 in Unna, Germany, the documentary film-maker Britta Wandaogo is a communication designer. She first studied at the Bergisch University of Wuppertal from 1986 to 1992. Her debut documentary film Den Affen töten (approx. »Kill the Cold Turkey«) was made in 1994, her brother its subject too. In 1998, she obtained a further degree in documentary film from the faculty of audio-visual media at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts. The year 2000 saw her start up her own film company: wandaogo productions. In 2003, she was a founder member of the documentary film network known as LaDOC. Her awardwinning film work is complemented by music videos, installations and audio-visual contributions to various exhibitions. Following teaching assignments in the departments of design and documentary film at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, Britta Wandaogo was appointed Professor of Audio-Visual Media there in 2010.


Films by Britta Wandaogo (Selection)
Ohne mein viertes Kind 2009 | Halbschwarz geht nicht 2009 | 1200 brutto 2007 | Die Krokodile der Familie Wandaogo 2003 | Liebe Weiss Schwarz 2003 | Liebe Schwarz Weiss 2001 | Bifou Biga 1998 | Une Image d’Ambition 1997 | Eigentlich geht’s ja um nichts 1996 | With a Big Monster 1995 | Den Affen töten 1994