Judith Kaufmann

Judith Kaufmann

Birth : 1962-09-20, Stuttgart, Germany

History

Judith Kaufmann is a German cinematographer. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany. But after moving with her family grew up in Berlin. After graduating from the National College of Optics and Photographer in Berlin, she apprenticed as a photographer. Kaufmann worked in film as a camera assistant under Konrad Kotowski, Thomas Mauch, Gernot Roll, and Raoul Coutard. Since 1982 Kaufmann focused on film, and in 1991 became chief cinematographer. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Profile

Judith Kaufmann

Movies

Die Herrlichkeit des Lebens
Director
Film about the last year in the life of Franz Kafka and his relationship with Dora Diamant.
The Teachers’ Lounge
Director of Photography
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
Corsage
Director of Photography
A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.
Stambul Garden
Director of Photography
Janik and Samuel are best friends and enjoy the end of high school. Their worlds are different: Janik has parents who always do everything right, while Samuel comes from a broken home. Samuel wants order, Janik wants chaos. A thoughtless moment puts the close bond between the two friends in jeopardy. As they set off on their long-planned trip to Istanbul, the boys are looking to save their friendship, enjoy their freedom and try out a new life.
My Wonderful Wanda
Director of Photography
The Polish woman Wanda, 35, looks after Joseph, 70, in his family villa by the lake. She is there for him around the clock and also helps his wife Elsa, 75. The youngest son Gregi, 28, likes her very much. The work is poorly paid, but Wanda needs the money for her own family in Poland. Since everyone lives under one roof, Wanda gets an intimate view of their family life. So intimate that Wanda unexpectedly becomes pregnant.
Das Verhör in der Nacht
Director of Photography
The Audition
Director of Photography
Anna teaches violin at a music school, her husband is an instrument-maker. They have a 10-year-old son, Jonas. At school, Anna champions young Alexander, in whom she alone sees great talent. She devotes much energy and attention preparing him for the next stage exam to prove she was right. Soon Anna devotes more time to him than to Jonas, bringing the two boys into rivalry. At the same time her marriage is collapsing, she withdraws increasingly from her own family and starts an affair with her colleague Christian, who is encouraging her to join a quartet. When she fails during their joint concert, the pressure mounts. With Alexander now her vehicle, she drives him ever onwards and upwards. Come the day of the exam, events take a tragic turn...
A Regular Woman
Director of Photography
Hatun "Aynur" Sürücü, a vibrant young Turkish woman and mother is murdered at 23 by her youngest brother in an honor killing. Forced into an abusive arranged marriage with a cousin in Istanbul at 16 by her devout Muslim family, Aynur escapes to Berlin and gives birth to a son. She is considered a disgraceful burden by her parents and siblings, so Aynur soon leaves her family and attempts to start a new life.
All About Me
Director of Photography
Dramatised origin story of one of Germany's most beloved contemporary comedians.
Draussen in Meinem Kopf
Director of Photography
Christoph begins his year of civil service at a nursing home as the personal caretaker for 28-year-old Sven. The seriously ill young man is suffering from muscular dystrophy and his nursing room has become his own little microcosm which he has been sovereignly controlling for years.
Dinner in Abruzzo: A Journey Home With My Culinary Godfather
Director of Photography
Take a culinary journey through the Abruzzo region of Italy, known as the “greenest region of Europe,” with two of Detroit’s finest chefs. When Luciano DelSignore of Southfield’s Bacco Ristorante returns home for his cousin’s wedding and to cook for his family, he recalls what made him fall in love with the farm-to-table simplicity of Abruzzo culture. Along for the ride is James Rigato, DelSignore’s mentee and chef at renowned eateries The Root and Mabel Gray.
The Divine Order
Director of Photography
Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.
Sanctuary
Director of Photography
Summer 1968. 14-year-old Wolfgang is deported from his family in the secluded Church Welfare Institution sanctuary. One thing is clear for Wolfgang: His yearning for freedom, he will not soon buried in the bog.
13 Minutes
Director of Photography
The breathtaking story of a man who nearly would have changed the world. In 1939, when Hitler tricked millions of people at the height of his power, radical Georg Elser — disparaged as an assassin — is one of the greatest resistance fighters.
Das Zeugenhaus
Director of Photography
Witnesses about to testify at the Nuremberg War Trials needed a safe place to wait. All under one roof, each with their own secrets. And the countess assigned to take care of them. What was her secret?
Zwischen Welten
Screenplay
Jesper is a soldier in the German army, who reports for a new tour of duty in Afghanistan. His unit is to protect a village from the Taliban.
Two Lives
Co-Director
Europe 1990, the Berlin wall has just crumbled: Katrine, raised in East Germany, but now living in Norway for the last 20 years, is a “war child”; the result of a love relationship between a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier during World War II. She enjoys a happy family life with her mother, her husband, daughter and granddaughter. But when a lawyer asks her and her mother to witness in a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of the war children, she resists. Gradually, a web of concealments and secrets is unveiled, until Katrine is finally stripped of everything, and her loved ones are forced to take a stand: What carries more weight, the life they have lived together, or the lie it is based on?
Two Lives
Director of Photography
Europe 1990, the Berlin wall has just crumbled: Katrine, raised in East Germany, but now living in Norway for the last 20 years, is a “war child”; the result of a love relationship between a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier during World War II. She enjoys a happy family life with her mother, her husband, daughter and granddaughter. But when a lawyer asks her and her mother to witness in a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of the war children, she resists. Gradually, a web of concealments and secrets is unveiled, until Katrine is finally stripped of everything, and her loved ones are forced to take a stand: What carries more weight, the life they have lived together, or the lie it is based on?
Two Lives
Screenplay
Europe 1990, the Berlin wall has just crumbled: Katrine, raised in East Germany, but now living in Norway for the last 20 years, is a “war child”; the result of a love relationship between a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier during World War II. She enjoys a happy family life with her mother, her husband, daughter and granddaughter. But when a lawyer asks her and her mother to witness in a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of the war children, she resists. Gradually, a web of concealments and secrets is unveiled, until Katrine is finally stripped of everything, and her loved ones are forced to take a stand: What carries more weight, the life they have lived together, or the lie it is based on?
Charlotte Rampling: The Look
Director of Photography
A biographical study of legendary actress Charlotte Rampling, told through her own conversations with artist friends and collaborators, including Peter Lindbergh, Paul Auster, and Juergen Teller. Intercut with footage from some of Rampling's most famous films, this "self-portrait through others" is a revealing look at one of our most iconic screen stars.
If Not Us, Who?
Director of Photography
In the early 60s, Bernward Vesper and fellow university student Gudrun Ensslin begin a passionate love in the stifling atmosphere of provincial West Germany. Dedicated to the power of the written word, Bernward and Gudrun found a publishing house whose first publication is, paradoxically to many, a controversial past work of Bernward's ostracized father, an infamous Nazi author. Bernward defends his father's writing ability, even if he is haunted by his father's suspicious past.
The End Is My Beginning
Director of Photography
When an extraordinary man who has lived through all is approaching his end, he decides to call his son to join him for the last time at his home in Tuscany. His intention is to share some valuable conversations about his life as a press correspondent in Southeast Asia, about the political and social changes which he has seen, and about the spiritual transformation he has experienced in recent years. But for him the most important is to show his son how he is preparing for the last great adventure of a lifetime.
When We Leave
Director of Photography
Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against the resistance of her family. Her struggle initiates a dynamic, which results in a life-threatening situation.
Das letzte Stück Himmel
Director of Photography
Vivere
Director of Photography
On Christmas Eve, Francesca sets out for Rotterdam in order to find her little sister, who has run off with her musician boyfriend. On the way, she picks up Gerlinde, a heartbroken older woman at the end of her rope.
Ich wollte nicht töten
Director of Photography
Four Minutes
Director of Photography
Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.
Unveiled
Director of Photography
Survival is not enough. Fariba Tabrizi has made it. Under peril of death she has fled from Iran. In Germany she has no alternative way of avoiding the threat of deportation other than to assume the identity of a deceased co-detainee. So what happens after a few month in which she has tried to come to terms with a situation which is actually an insufferable one for her? How does Fariba live not only in this external state of exile but also in an inner state of exile? The term "in orbit" is officially used by the UN to refer to asylum-seekers who find themselves orbiting around planet Earth because they can actually find legal domicile nowhere at all.
Unveiled
Writer
Survival is not enough. Fariba Tabrizi has made it. Under peril of death she has fled from Iran. In Germany she has no alternative way of avoiding the threat of deportation other than to assume the identity of a deceased co-detainee. So what happens after a few month in which she has tried to come to terms with a situation which is actually an insufferable one for her? How does Fariba live not only in this external state of exile but also in an inner state of exile? The term "in orbit" is officially used by the UN to refer to asylum-seekers who find themselves orbiting around planet Earth because they can actually find legal domicile nowhere at all.
Peas at 5:30
Director of Photography
It all starts with a bang. The car breaks through the crash barrier and falls off the bridge. The lights go out. After that, he is not able to see anymore. His optic nerve is severed, from now on the young stage-director Jakob is blind. His life will change and nothing will ever be the same. Jakob cannot handle the idea of never being able to see again and screams at the only woman who is able and willing to help him, Lily. A rehabilitation teacher, she helps the blind deal with the darkness. Lily has been living with it since birth, she too is blind.
Shattered Glass
Director of Photography
Engel & Joe
Director of Photography
A love story of a 17 year old punk-rocker and a 15 year old runaway girl.
Now or Never
Director of Photography
Three elderly ladies, Carla, Lilli and Meta, who, after their hard earned holiday money is stolen by bank robbers, decide to steal from their local bank. Along the way their are romances, arguments and a few other unexpected surprises.
Vergiss Amerika
Director of Photography
Ein Engel schlägt zurück
Director of Photography
Everything Will Be Fine
Director of Photography
Nabou, an Afro-German slacker, desperatly wants to win back her club kid ex-girlfriend Katja. Nabou becomes a housekeeper for Katja's neighbor, Kim, who is a workaholic that is striving to become a partner in an advertising agency. A refreshing romantic comedy with the ingredients of a classic lesbian feature: whimsical sexiness, mistaken identity, and general madness and mayhem.
Nico Icon
Camera Operator
A look into the many lives of Christa Päffgen, otherwise known as Nico; from cutie German mädchen to the first of the supermodels, to glamorous diva of the Velvet Underground, to cult item, junkie and hag. Many faces for the same woman, whom, you realize, just couldn't bring herself to care enough to live.
Never Sleep Again - Never go back
Director of Photography
Never Sleep Again is a drama that follows three girlfriends who wander through post-wall Berlin. As they discover the eastern part of town they meet new people and learn about the places' history.