Biography & filmography

In 1967 Beate Kunath was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). Being a gardener she discovered in 1985 the Fritz-Heckert-Filmclub, which was renamed after the political changes into Chemnitzer Film Club e.V. At first she helps with the organization and curator of a weekly film series, before she initiated a lesbian & gay film festival in Chemnitz from 1994 to 2002. At the same time, she was hired as a media education assistant at the Youth Welfare Office in Chemnitz and helped young people to realize their own ideas on film. She herself started making her first short films. Her colleague Ralf Glaser had great influence on her artistic development. From 1996 until 2004 she works at the Chemnitzer Filmwerkstatt (www.filmwerkstatt.de) and since 2004 on is she a member of the board.

With a focus on documentary content, her previous work includes short films and documentary films, music clips, video installations and photo series. For the semi-documentary debut film “Forbidden Fruit” (2000), which was created in collaboration with Yvonne Zückmantel and Sue Maluwa Bruce in Zimbabwe, she received several awards, including the TEDDY Jury AWARD of the 51. Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale 2001).

The protagonists of her films, whether fictional or documentary, are often women and their experiences. So also in the documentary films „…geradezu heraus. Irmtraud Morgner in Chemnitz“ (77min, 2008), „Dieser eine gemeinsame Tag“ (92min, 2013) and RAW CHICKS.BERLIN (105 min, 2017) or „Hurra! Es ist ein Mädchen!” (145min, 2018).

Together with Lars Neuenfeld, Beate Kunath initiated the first edition of the cultural festival Begehungen in Chemnitz in 2003. In 2012 she was with Eléonore Roedel initiator of the RAW CHICKS editions – a series of events at the RAW Tempel Club in Berlin-Friedrichshain. For these parties she creates conceptional video works, with which she accompanies live acts as VJ. Beate Kunath also shows these as installations in galleries, most recently in the “Galerie Weltecho” in Chemnitz.

Beate Kunath works under the label [bi: kei] productions as a freelance filmmaker since 2008 residing in Berlin an Chemnitz.

She was a jury member at the Internationalen Filmfestivals für Kinder und junges Publikum SCHLINGEL in Chemnitz, a member of the TEDDY jury at the Berlinale and the Deutschen Film- und Medienbewertung in Wiesbaden, as well as in the Fachbeirat Film bei der Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen.