PORTFOLIO

Climate change, racism, gender issues, and now Corona. The generation that is currently between 15 and 25 years is growing up with multiple crises, complex problems. The documentary film “Children of Crisis” seeks to probe the causes of this perception. We embark upon a journey through Germany, accompanying the daily lives of young people born between 1995 and 2010, exploring their fears, needs, desires, and goals. They are living through an era when, for the first time, social continuity itself has been called into question. A time of radical uncertainty about who will be governing Germany in the future, with the AfD having entered the Bundestag, and right-wing extremism and racism no longer marginal phenomena. A time when antidemocratic macho types are again in control of major power centers. A time when the popular movement “Fridays for Future” is raising the question: what will happen to our planet if we do nothing about climate change, given that there is no “plan B”? Here is the generation that strives to achieve a balance between work and life, in the awareness that long-term contracts no longer exist, that many academic fields, including many in the humanities, have become more-or-less obsolete. And then along came Corona. The pandemic has put an end to many plans, destroying solid prospects for apprenticeship positions, crippling social life. At this point, it is impossible to predict the long-term impact of the pandemic on this generation. “Children of Crisis” strives to bring together a kaleidoscope of such experiences, a coming-of-age film that explores this new sense of insecurity and the ways people are attempting to cope with it.