Doris Dorrie
Director of the documentary series “Farm Rebellion”
Doris Dörrie thinks green.
© imago/Photopress Müller
Cult director Doris Dörrie wants to draw attention to regenerative agriculture. The documentary series “Farm Rebellion” was born from their idea.
How can a modern, sustainable agriculture that reacts to the changes caused by climate change succeed? This is the question asked by the German director Doris Dörrie (68, “Men”) – and thus provided the idea for the new documentary series “Farm Rebellion”, which starts on June 14, 2023 on Disney +.
Doris Dörrie was inspired by a conversation with an investment banker who told her about regenerative agriculture. The focus is on treating the soil gently so that it can store water better, among other things.
Dörrie learned from a model farm in Brandenburg that is dedicated to regenerative agriculture: “Good and bad”. Here Benedikt Bösel (39) is at work, who was named farmer of the year 2022 by the trade journal “agrarheute”. The documentary “Farm Rebellion” followed Bösel and his team for over a year.
Intern Paula as representative of the spectators
The big challenge is climate change, which is causing unpredictable conditions and dry soil not only in Brandenburg. Doris Dörrie recalled a train journey through Germany, where she saw cows on withered grass in almost the entire north of the country: “I found that so frightening that I thought: This series is important.”
Through the eyes of the cast intern Paula, who is new to “Gut und Bösel”, the audience sees the efforts for modern agriculture. This is the “little trick” of staging “Farm Rebellion”, as Doris Dörrie says in a press release.
Kenya as a counterpoint to “privileged” Brandenburg
However, the documentary series is not limited to Brandenburg. Bösel and his team travel all over the world to be inspired by pioneers of regenerative agriculture and multifunctional land use. It goes to Brazil, New York City (keyword “Urban Gardening”) and Kenya. In the African country, the team meets Auma Obama (63). The sister of former US President Barack Obama (61) is also involved in agriculture in Kenya with her Sauti Kuu Foundation.
Doris Dörrie wanted to show a poor country like Kenya as the antithesis to the “privileged” business of “good and evil”. And demonstrate that regenerative agriculture can also develop here. “With these different perspectives, we wanted to counteract our privileged situation on the one hand,” says the filmmaker. “On the other hand, it was important to me to show other worlds in which the vast majority no longer have access to healthy food.”
Incidentally, Benedikt Bösel did not want to meet Doris Dörrie during the preparation. She wanted to keep a cool look at the material. Nevertheless, she is also pursuing a mission with the format. “We have to change our lives!” she says, referring to climate change. “And we must change our agriculture!”.
Doris Dörrie: Food is not celebrated enough in Germany
Dörrie has been dealing with the topics of food and nutrition for a long time. The author and director was a columnist for the magazine “Essen & Drink” for a long time. In 2007 she made the documentary “How to Cook Your Life” about the Zen teacher and cook Edward Espe Brown (78). Working on this film has made her think more deeply about food and cooking.
For Dörrie, what is missing in Germany is that food and the people who produce it are not “celebrated” enough. “We are way too careless and disrespectful with our food,” she says. “The quality is not important to us, the main thing is cheap”. In neighboring countries like Austria, Switzerland, Italy or France, things are completely different.
Dörrie is best known for her feature films, from “Men” (1985) to “Cherry Blossoms – Hanami” (2008) and most recently “Freibad”. But even before that, after studying acting and film in New York, the Hanoverian shot small documentaries for German television.