Team

TEAM

Hank Levine – Director/Producer

Hank Levine was born in Germany and graduated in Economics and Media at Freie University in Berlin, while directing his first short film, “The flying Dutchmen” and graduating from acting school at Theater Zerbrochene Fenster and film academy Kaskeline.

In 1995, he moved to Los Angeles and then New York and worked his way up through feature film and documentary productions. During this time, he produced his first feature length documentary, “War Zone”, by Maggie H. West.

In Brazil since 2000, he co-produced the feature films “City of God”, directed by Fernando Meirelles (“The Constant Gardener”, “Blindness”), as well as “God Jr.”, directed by Mauro Lima (“Meu nome não é Johnny”), and “Os Xeretas”, by Michael Ruman. “City of God” was nominated in 2004 for four Academy Awards, including Best Director. The movie was a commercial and critical global success.

Hank co-directed and produced, together with Fernando Meirelles, the documentary “Ginga, the Soul of Brazilian Football”. This was a co-production with Nike, and was released worldwide. He also directed several award-winning music videos, such as the “City of God Batucada Remix”, and “Space Funk”, with DJ Mau Mau, nominated for the Brazilian MTV Awards. Hank also executive produced the music projects “City of God remixed”, as well as the “Ginga” and “City of God” soundtrack albums.

Hank produced the award-winning documentary “Waste Land”, a co-production with London-based Almega Projects, directed by Lucy Walker and starring artist Vic Muniz and garbage pickers from Rio de Janeiro’s garbage dump Jardim Gramacho, on a journey that changed their lives and transformed garbage into art. The film had its world premiere in Sundance 2010, winning the competition’s audience award. Its European premiere was held during the Berlinale / Panorama 2010, where it received the Amnesty International Award and once again the Audience Award. In 2012, Waste Land was nominated for the Best Feature Length Documentary Oscar.

Hank also produced the feature film “Rosa Morena”, an international co-production with Denmark’s Fine & Mellow. “Rosa Morena” tells the story of a single gay man and his journey to adopt a child. The film was nominated for the 2012 Robert Award as Best Danish Film. His latest release as a producer is Karim Ainouz’s “Praia do Futuro”, a feature film that had its world premiere in competition at the 2014 Berlinale.

“Exodus – Where I Come From is Disappearing”, Hank’s sole directorial debut in a feature length documentary, is a co-production between Brazil’s O2 Filmes and WDR, RBB, DFFF, Film, Media Stiftung NRW, Hessen Film and Media Fund, as well as RFF Real Fiction Distribution, as German partners. Besides directing, Hank is also a producer on the project.

Hank currently lives in Düsseldorf and Berlin. His upcoming projects as director include a feature length documentary about the Düsseldorf-based Earth Painter, Ulrike Arnold.

Fernando Meirelles – Producer

Trained as an architect, Fernando Meirelles began directing independent TV shows in the 80’s, commercials in the 90’s, and finally movies in 2001. His feature film “City of God” was viewed by over three million spectators in Brazil, making it the greatest Brazilian box office attraction of 2002. The film was distributed by Miramax in the US, and it’s international trajectory reeled in a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film and four Oscar nominations, including Best Director. In 2004, Fernando produced Roberto Moreira’s “Up Against Them All”, which won the Best Film award in the 2004 Rio de Janeiro Film Festival. He also began pre-production of two more films: Paulo Morelli’s “City of Men”, and Philipe Barcinski’s “Not by Chance”. In 2005, Fernando directed “The Constant Gardener”, a British production, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival, and Rachel Weisz won the Academy Award/Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The film was a major international success. In 2008, Meirelles released “Blindness”, a Brazilian/Canadian/Japanese co-production based on the novel of the same title by José Saramago. The film was selected for competition and opened the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. His last released film is “360”, starring Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz.

Up to this day, Fernando Meirelles still produces a number of the feature films among the productions of O2 Filmes. He executive-produced “Waste Land”, “José & Pilar”, “Xingu”, “Father’s Chair”, “Zoom” – and the upcoming feature documentary “Exodus – Where I Come From Has Disappeared”, directed by Hank Levine.

Andrea Barata Ribeiro – Producer

Andrea is one of the founding partners of O2 Filmes. She has produced the feature-length films “City of God” (4 Oscar® nominations), “Maids”, “Speaker-Phone”, “Up Against Them All”, “Not by Chance”, “City of Men”, and co-produced “Blindness” and “Waste Land”, nominated for a Best Feature-Length Documentary Oscar® in 2011. For television, she has produced four seasons of the series “City of Men” and “Antonia” for TV Globo, and “Sons of Carnival” for HBO. In 2005, Andrea was considered by Variety one of the five most influential female producers in the world. In 2009, she released “Adrift”, the first Brazilian film co-produced with Focus Features – premiering in Cannes. Andrea also produced another series for TV Globo called “Sound and Fury”, and the second season of “Sons of Carnival” for HBO. Her latest producing credits include features “Xingu” (2010), which premiered in Berlinale’s Panorama presentation; “Father’s Chair” (2011), premiering in Sundance; ensemble comedy “New Year’s Eve” (2014); Pedro Morelli’s “Zoom” (2015); and upcoming films “Malasartes”, “Marighella”, and “Women on the Edge”. Andrea’s TV producing credits include “Contos do Edgar” (FOX), “Os Experientes”, “Happily Ever After” and “The Mayor’s Wife” (Globo), “Beleza S/A” (GNT), three seasons of “Destinies” (HBO), two seasons of “Lili, the Ex” (GNT), “A Vaga” and “Psi” (HBO) and many more.

Bel Berlinck – Producer

After a long experience in the production of advertising films, Bel helped create and develop the Cinema and TV department at O2 Filmes. Since then, she has acted as executive producer on feature films such as “City of God”, “Speaker-Phone” and “Maids”, TV series “Sexuality” and “Nice To Meet” for channel Futura, and many shows for Fox Kids. She produced the motion pictures “El Baño Del Papa”, by César Charlone; “Not by Chance”, by Phillippe Barcinsky and “City of Men”, by Paulo Morelli, in addition to being co-producer of “Up Against Them All”, by Roberto Moreira and “Antônia”, by Tata Amaral. For TV, Bel has produced the series “Sons of Carnival” (HBO Latin America), 4 seasons of “City of Men”, “Antônia”, “Happily Ever After”, “The Mayor’s Wife” and “Os Experientes” (Globo), “Contos do Edgar” (FOX), “Beleza S/A” (GNT), three seasons of “Destinies” (HBO), two seasons of “Lili, the Ex” (GNT), “A Vaga” and “Psi” (HBO) and many more. She has executive produced the short-feature films “The Open Window Palindrome”, “Imminente Luna” and “Conceição”, winners of several awards in national and international film festivals. Bel also produced feature documentary “José & Pilar”, a co-production with Pedro Almodovar’s El Deseo; and features “Xingu”, “Father’s Chair”, “Trash”, “New year’s Eve”, and upcoming features “The Meaning of Life”, “Malasartes”, “Marighella” and “Women on the Edge”.

Fernando Sapelli – Producer/Unit Production Manager

Fernando Sapelli graduated in both Film and Media Studies and Dramatic Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After moving to Los Angeles, Fernando worked at Leonardo diCaprio’s production company Appian Way and Sony Pictures Television. In 2010, Fernando started the project “People of Change”, focused on the documentation of several non-profit organizations and their invaluable efforts to change societies in positive ways. After moving to São Paulo, in 2012, Fernando started the production company Claraluz Filmes. More recently, he has produced two international German-Brazilian co-productions: “Exodus – Where I Come From Has Disappeared”, and “Something Like That”, directed by Esmir Filho and Mariana Bastos.

Wagner Moura – Narration

Wagner Moura is a Brazilian film, television and stage actor. Besides being a well-established and acclaimed actor in Brazil, he has achieved widespread international fame for his portrayal of Captain (later Colonel) Roberto Nascimento, protagonist of the highly successful 2007 film “Elite Squad” and its sequel, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within”. He also gained recognition globally playing “Spider” in the 2013 sci-fi film “Elysium”. Since 2015, he has been playing the lead role of Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series “Narcos”, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.

Katja Dringenberg – Editor

Katja Dringenberg is one of the most prestigious film editors  in Germany.She mainly works on feature films and documentaries for cinema. She has won several awards for her work. Katja has also written and directed 3 documentaries, including “ENDLICH – Vom Leben mit den Toten”, released in 2011.

Hauschka – Composer

The work of Düsseldorf-based composer and pianist Volker Bertelmann aka HAUSCHKA, one of the most recognizable 21st-century proponents of the prepared piano, has been referred to as „ingenious and exquisite“ (New York Times). HAUSCHKA playfully performs using ping pong balls, gaffer tape, and other bits of junk in search of new colours and textures. His compositions have a spontaneous lyricism and awareness of light, shade, and texture that makes them engrossing sensory experiences. HAUSCHKA’s most recent film scores include the music for Sönke Wortmann’s DEUTSCHLAND. DEIN SELBSTPORTRÄT and for the US-productions LION (directed by Garth Davis) and IN DUBIOUS BATTLE (directed by James Franco).

Taiye Selasi – Narration Text Writer

Taiye Selasi is an author, photographer and filmmaker. She holds a BA in American Studies from Yale and an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford. In 2005 she published the seminal essay “Bye-Bye, Babar (Or: What is an Afropolitan?),” offering an alternative vision of African identity for a transnational generation. In 2011 she made her fiction debut with the short story “The Sex Lives of African Girls,” selected for Best American Short Stories 2012. In 2013 Selasi’s first novel, the New York Times bestseller Ghana Must Go (Penguin Press), was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. She is writing her second.