Hans-Werner Maria Levy (born 29 June 1965), better known as Hank Levine, is a German director,

documentary filmmaker A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

and writer based in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

. He is known for producing

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nominated films such as '' City of God'' and ''

Wasteland Wasteland or waste land may refer to: * Desert or barren area * an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not Art, entertainment, and media Comics * ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror ...

''.

Early life

Levine was born in

Bonn, West Germany The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

in 1965 and spent his childhood years in

Hennef (Sieg) Hennef (Sieg) () is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. south-east of Siegburg and east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth-biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (i.e. distri ...

. He graduated from high school in 1985 and studied law at the

university town A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several sma ...

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

for a few semesters. Between 1988 and 1990, he attended

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

where he studied Economics. From 1990 to 1993, Levine attended

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

where he studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

. From 1994, Levine attended

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's Extension Program where he studied advertising and feature film production.

Career

During his time at UCLA, Levine started shooting avant-garde short films and in 1993, he directed his first short film ''The Flying Dutchmen'' which premiered at the

43rd Berlin International Film Festival The 43rd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 February 1993. The Golden Bear was awarded to American-Taiwanese film ''The Wedding Banquet'' directed by Ang Lee and Chinese film '' Xiāng hún nǚ'' directed by Xie Fe ...

. In 1995, he founded the production company ''Hank Levine Film GmbH''. In 1996, Levine collaborated with Maggie Hadleigh-West and produced the documentary, '' War Zone'', under the banner of ''Hank Levine Film GmbH''. ''War Zone'' was filmed over several years and was premiered at the

48th Berlin International Film Festival The 48th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 February 1998. The festival opened with the Irish film ''The Boxer'' by Jim Sheridan. Francis Ford Coppola's '' The Rainmaker'' was selected as the closing night film. Th ...

in 1998. Levine's documentaries and feature films focus on environment, human-rights and socio-political conflicts. In 2000, Levine moved to Brazil where he collaborated with the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian film director,

Fernando Meirelles Fernando Ferreira Meirelles (; born 9 November 1955) is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for co-directing the film '' City of God'', released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films, which ...

and produced '' City of God'' for Meirelles's production company

O2 Filmes O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...

. In 2005, Levine directed and produced a sports documentary, ''Ginga: The Soul of Brasilian Football'', based on

football in Brazil Football is the most popular sport in Brazil and a prominent part of the country’s national identity. The Brazil national football team has won the FIFA World Cup five times, the most of any team, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. Brazil a ...

. The film was nominated at Prêmio Contigo! de Cinema Nacional awards in 2007, in the category ''Best Director'' and ''Best Documentary''. In 2010, Levine produced ''

Rosa Morena Rosa Morena (11 July 1940 – 4 December 2019) was a Spanish flamenco pop star who achieved international fame during the 1970s disco era, with the song, "Échale guindas al pavo". Morena was born in Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. Her career b ...

'', a Danish-Brazilian drama film directed by

Carlos Augusto de Oliveira Carlos Augusto de Oliveira (born 1974 in Brazil) is a Brazilian film director who has lived in Denmark since 2000. De Oliveira had his introduction to the film industry in 1992, but studied architecture in Rio de Janeiro before moving to Denmark ...

. The film premiered at the

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A non-profit event, the festival is organized ...

in 2010. Later that year, he produced '' Waste Land'' directed by Lucy Walker. The film chronicles the life of the artist

Vik Muniz Vik Muniz (; born 1961) is a Brazilian artist and photographer. Initially a sculptor, Muniz grew interested with the photographic representations of his work, eventually focusing completely on photography. Primarily working with unconventional ma ...

. ''City of God'' and ''Waste Land'' were nominated under the several award categories at the 76th and the 83rd Academy Awards respectively. In the year 2014, Levine produced '' Futuro Beach'', a Brazilian-German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Karim Aïnouz Karim Aïnouz (born 17 January 1966) is a Brazilian film director and visual artist. Career Karim Aïnouz was born to a Brazilian mother and an Algerian father. He is a film director, screenwriter and visual artist. Aïnouz's feature debut, ' ...

and starring

Wagner Moura Wagner Maniçoba de Moura (; born 27 June 1976) is a Brazilian actor, director, filmmaker, musician, and journalist. Wagner started his career doing theater in Salvador, where he worked with renowned directors, and soon scored some appearances ...

Clemens Schick Clemens Schick (born 15 February 1972) is a German actor, model, political activist and human rights advocate. He has appeared in more than seventy films since 1998, including leading roles in both German and international productions. He has ap ...

and

Jesuíta Barbosa José Jesuíta Barbosa Neto (born 26 June 1991) is a Brazilian actor. He is considered an important talent of recent Brazilian cinema and has performed in critically acclaimed feature films. Biography Jesuíta was born in Salgueiro and spent ...

. The film premiered at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The winn ...

and

Silver Bear The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

awards. In 2017, Levine produced and directed ''Exodus - Where I Come From is Disappearing''. The film documents the story about people as

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

and

asylum seeker An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and m ...

s at the various part of the world. The film's narration was written by

Taiye Selasi Taiye Selasi (born 2 November 1979) is a British-American writer and photographer. Of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin, she describes herself as a "local" of Accra, Berlin, New York and Rome. Early life and education Taiye Selasi was born in Lond ...

and was narrated by

. The film was part of the

Reykjavík International Film Festival Reykjavík International Film Festival (RIFF; is, Alþjóðleg kvikmyndahátíð í Reykjavík ) is an international film festival held annually in Reykjavík, Iceland. The festival lasts 11 days each year and emphasizes young talents. One way o ...

in the year 2017. Levine produced and directed ''Dialogue Earth'' in 2019, a feature length documentary based on the life of the German artist

Ulrike Arnold Ulrike Arnold (born 1950 in Düsseldorf) is a German artist. Biography Ulrike Arnold studied music and art between 1968 and 1971, afterwards she worked as a teacher. From 1979 until 1986 she studied fine arts at the Düsseldorf academy in Pr ...

Selected filmography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Hank Mass media people from Bonn German film producers German film directors 1965 births Living people