CHEMKIDS was born out of Julius' desire to further explore the German East of his youth - and particularly the former industry town of Chemnitz, known in its past as "Manchester of the East". To him, Chemnitz felt stuck between its industrial past and an uncertain future and he set out to explore how this affected the mentality of the city's youth. While on vacation together that summer, we had worked on a short just for the fun of it and had gotten along well. And so Jules invited me to join him on his eastward journey as DOP.
 

Shooting CHEMKIDS was a bit of a fever dream. In the ten shooting days we barely ever sat still but constantly raced through the city - soaking up its atmosphere, opening doors and meeting its people wherever we could. I shot on Arri Alexa Mini LF and Leica Summicrons. I  typically opted for a dynamic Easy Rig handheld style when working with the city's younger people and typically chose locked tableaus when depicting lives of the city's older generations or its industrial past. The result is a light, dreamy portrait of a forgotten city - and a piece of camera work I am proud of to this day.

The film premiered in 2022 at ENERGA Camerimage, where it was nominated for the Golden Frog in the Short Documentary competition. From Torun, the film went on to travel to festivals like Clermont-Ferrand ISFF and the Max-Ophüls Prize. In 2024, we began shooting EASTKIDS - a feature length sequel, co-produced by ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel.