In Tao of Pics, Johannes Schaff reflects on photography’s evolution from art form to everyday language. While browsing through his phone’s countless images, like snapshots of food, visual notes, and selfies an unexpected story of technological and behavioural transformation emerges. From black-and-white slides to digital files, our cameras have not only changed how we capture, but why. Through a Zen-inspired lens, Schaff asks: in an age where everyone documents life at lightning speed, what does photography reveal about the way we see, connect, and exist? Or, as he puts it:

“If Buddha were alive today, would he send selfies?”

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I back the idea of experiencing films at home in the best way possible. Sound elevates moving images to a movie. I even believe that sound influences your experience more than picture. Watching a film on a lap top with great sound cancelling headphones is a better experience than watching the film projected in 4k listening to it over tinny laptop speakers. Especially when popcorn is involved. But Reinhold Heil the composer of this advert put it best:

'What we see determines how we feel. But often it is precisely the things we cannot see that move us the most. Without sound, a film cannot reach its full potential. Sound delivers the complete, immersive experience and allows us to feel more.’

A producer I was working with gave me the EP and mentioned that the band was looking for a video, but had no budget. I listened to it and was immediately drawn to this particular track. I told him I had an idea, and would make something. Its instrumental nature lent itself to open interpretation. Without vocals to anchor the meaning, a song becomes more subjective. I had been experimenting with a mirroring effect for another video that was scrapped mid-production. The concept for that project was to have reality split open as a banshee flew out of the cracks toward the camera. What remained was this haunting background plate of a kaleidoscopically fractured, image. I liked the idea of repurposing that footage into a point-of-view experience of someone on a powerful hallucinogenic trip. After I had delivered the video the producer called me to say the band loved it. I’m still not entirely sure they ever actually got to see it.

Das Wassup follows the explosive rise and unraveling of Yo Majesty, a fearless all-female rap group from Tampa, Florida. Born from struggle and defiance, these outspoken queer artists channel their pain into empowerment through music. The film captures their rise from backstreet beginnings to international stages, with unfiltered intimacy as success, ego, and survival collide. Filmed over seven years and across nine countries, this gripping documentary captures Yo Majesty’s turbulent fight for self-expression, sisterhood, and survival in an industry that both celebrates and tests them.

Fractal Summer Night transforms Werdenberg Castle into a living fairy-tale forest, reimagining Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream through a fusion of opera, theatre, sound art, and digital media art. Under the artistic direction of Dr. Martin Steinhoff, more than sixty international artists collaborate on an immersive total artwork that guides visitors on a dreamlike journey through the castle’s five levels. Balancing classical and contemporary forms, guests experience a multisensory adventure in which the historic walls themselves become both stage and performer.

During the interval, the segment I wrote and directed, the audience ascended the stairs into a loft transformed into a magical forest bar. Fairies descended from the rafters offering drinks, while snacks hung from the branches. Puck, who had guided the audience through earlier scenes tended the bar. Behind him, a projection screen displayed a live camera feed mimicking a bar mirror. Across it, pre-recorded elves danced and interacted with Puck’s reflection. Guests enjoyed champagne and pretzels as Bottom invited volunteers into a second room. Here he filmed a music video dancing the story of the magic love potion with the guests. At the close of the break, Puck revealed the finished video on the “magic mirror,” drawing the audience directly into the unfolding narrative. The scene ended with Lysander performing an ode to Helena, merging Opera, film, and audience participation into a single immersive experience.

In Symphony of Now, a range of urban panoramas, personal ciphers and nighttime stories unfold under the guidance of director Johannes Schaff. Revisiting the avantgarde approach of Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, the 1927 film that describes a typical day in Berlin Symphony of Now offers a kaleidoscopic sequence of scenes and images from nighttime Berlin. Using the camerawork of filmmaker Lil’ Internet and Alexandra Weltz, in addition to his own cinematography, director Johannes Schaff leads the viewer past urban panoramas, along recognisable junctures, to private moments and secret places. The films aural backbone is provided by a score curated by Innervisions’ Frank Wiedemann, with kindred Berlin musicians spanning several eras.

Scott free approached me tho film a promotional trailer for their film Life in a Day. The brief was to follow a person on one day. When I got a message from Bob, I knew had to bring my camera.

We flew to Tampa to shoot a music video and promotional material for the release of her Ep. Instead of a two day shoot we got her for a couple of hours before sunset after tracking her down at her local nail studio. Sometimes "The obstacle is the path"

These teasers were created for the release of Ed Scissor’s Theremin EP. Ed mentioned wanting an apocalyptic vibe. We had one afternoon to shoot — and no budget for an apocalypse. We started talking about realistic apocalyptic scenarios and asked ourselves: what would people actually do? Foraging for supplies, fighting militias, scanning our retinas at council checkpoints, those ideas felt distant and cinematic. But we realized that even in the apocalypse, people would probably still do the same mundane things like going for a run and brushing their teeth, just with an apocalyptic twist. Given our time and budget constraints, it made sense that the end of the world would happen, in the background of everyday chores.

Gene Talk is a company that sequences DNA for medical purposes. Their main challenge was communicating a process that’s incredibly complex in a way that feels clear and accessible. Their technology makes something once considered impossibly difficult, sequencing DNA, surprisingly simple. We decided to express that idea visually by using technology to find a simple solution to a common proverb. Everyone knows: “like finding a needle in a haystack.” We decided to find a technological way to `overpower´ that metaphor. From a storytelling perspective, a giant magnet felt like the most compelling and cinematic solution. So, we met in Berlin, gathered a needle, some hay, and an industrial magnet and went to work.Surprisingly, it all came together on the very first try.

Set in the rugged beauty of the Bavarian Alps in the 1870s, Hund tells the haunting story of three poachers defying the laws of land and class. When an ambush by a relentless gamekeeper turns deadly, an uncle and his nephew must flee through unforgiving wilderness to protect their secret—and their lives. As the net tightens The Hunt becomes a gripping tale of survival, loyalty, and the thin line between justice and revenge.