Here is the biography of Dave Lojek:
Born in 1975 in East-Berlin to German parents, producer-director Dave Lojek loves filmmaking very much. He was socialized in front of the television and in cinemas. At international short film festivals, he remains one of the most often selected and awarded cinema directors of his generation worldwide with more than 1620 screenings of his distributions in over 65 countries.
Growing up in a repressive socialist regime but shielded from its darker implications by a loving family, Dave was lucky to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall as a teenager first hand. With the collapse of the dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the reunification of Germany, the whole continent of Europe suddenly became available for exploration and travels. Dave's family visited many countries of Northern and Western Europe in the 1990s, after having exhausted the possibilities to see Eastern Europe in the 1980s.
Dave Lojek attended public schools in Berlin with considerable prowess until he was ready to go to university in 1995. He graduated with his Master's degree in English / American Studies and Cultural Studies from Humboldt University in his hometown Berlin with excellent grades in 2004. Several of his academic papers, including his thesis, dealt with film, literature, post-modernity, and the rise of the cybernetic age.
Before his film career, Dave wrote around 400 poems, attended creative writing courses as participant and teacher. He immersed himself in every kind of sea and fictional world, devouring literature and all kinds of games. His artistic gifts were discovered by German poetry tutor Eva Schönewerk in 1994 in a youth recreation facility in Berlin.
Dave Lojek creates films in the genres of comedy, fantasy, science fiction, romance, satire, poetry, and experiment. He also produces dramas, portraits, art films, reports, as well as documentaries, parodies, and music videos, depending on his mood, available talent, and resources. In addition to cinemas, Dave constantly broadcasts his art on television and the Internet for millions of eyes.
As an independent producer and director at Apeiron Films in Berlin, Dave Lojek created 171 films in the world's largest cinema movement (the Kino Community) in 26 cities in 12 European countries by 2020. A few of these films, such as Das sprichwörtliche Glück (2016),Arachne (2017),Rêve General (2016) and Kabaret Freeze (2013) had gifted co-directors. Most of the time Dave edits his creations himself and occasionally operates the camera.
Dave's poetic films deal with magic, love, death, friendship, loneliness, artists, oddities, escapism, mythology, and ordinary life. Based on the Homo-Ludens-principle, Dave clearly focuses his often-cheerful work on the universal and timeless. He calls his motivation for filming intrinsic.
Master Lojek has been organizing, moderating, and curating monthly open short film evenings in Germany's oldest cinema (Moviemento Kreuzberg) since 2007. Directors and their crews keep attending these often sold-out screenings, celebrating over 3000 premieres and audience tests, to gain feedback for artistic growth. Exposure to countless more short films of all sizes and shapes at festivals and online gave rise to a specific philosophy of non-commercial artistic visual and auditory expression, which is best personified in the biography of Dave Lojek.
The ten-day international KinoKabaret (practical film workshop) of his initiative KinoBerlino forms the climax and creative nexus of every year in Berlin for the short film community. In autumn, between 70 and 200 creative minds from 25 nations with a plethora of talents, ambitions, and experiences come together in spontaneous film teams to evolve their works from idea to cinema premiere under extreme time pressure with minimal gear.
Dave Lojek learned his craft in 101 of these film workshops in Europe as autodidact, directing and writing scripts, as well as filming, editing, advising, acting, planning, or recording sound for colleagues. Dave counseled many infected "Kinoïtes" on setting up their own KinoKabarets. He often traveled to those cities and shot something new, incessantly enriching his portfolio with fresh stories.
As president of the Video- and Film Association Berlin / Brandenburg e.V., Dave Lojek coordinates film festivals and film clubs across generations gaps. He networks with gifted talents across Europe, and inspires members of his teams to study film.
