THE LONG DISTANCE Press kit

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A farmer woman from Kenya and a shepherd boy want to
run their way out of poverty. Their hope is to be able to join
highly paid marathons in Europe with the help of a German
athletics manager. Running as a key to money, connecting
human fates spanning two continents. A journey into presumed luck unexpectedly leads to the limits of human capacity. How much can hope make you endure pain in the
fight against your own body? A thickly woven network of
dependencies emerges, in which there is no decision free
of consequences for another.
D A N I E L
A N D R E A S
S A G E R
was born in Berlin in 1985 and grew up in Moscow. After his A-Level he
studied social anthropology and philosophy in Leipzig. In the cinema “Prager Frühling” he headed the Short Film Festival “Young Cinema” for young filmmakers, until he began studying directing at the
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. With the grant from the State
of Baden-Württemberg, for students with special talent, he studied
one year at the film school UCINE in Buenos Aires. 2013 he has participated with a scholarship from the Filmakademie BW at the Script
Development Masterclass Docu-Village at Haifa Filmfestival, Israel.
He will graduate in March 2015. He works as a free writer, director,
journalist and cinematographer, living in Berlin.
www.danielsager.com
F I L M O G R A P H Y
2015 THE LONG DISTANCE, Documentary Film, 90 Min, Filmakademie BW
* ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel (German Television)
* Caligari Advancement Award 2013
* Script Development Masterclass Docu-Village at Haifa Filmfestival, Israel
2015 RUNNER’S HIGH, Documentary, 44 min, ZDF Info
2014 LIGHT AND SHADE, Documentary Film, 45 Min, Filmakademie BW
* Grand OFF 2014 Nomination for best Doc, Poland
* Docudays International Human Rights Documentary FF 2015, Ukraine
2013 FINISTÉRE, Documentary Film, 26 Min, Filmakademie BW
* Prize for best film at Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival 2014, Quatar
* 2. Prize for Documentary at FIFE - Festival International de l’Etudiant Casablanca, Marokko
* Prize best Directing of a DocFilm , CineMAiubit 2014, Romania
* Prize for best Documentary at Open Eyes Filmfest, Germany
* American Documentary Festival 2014, USA
* Dok Leipzig – 56. International Filmfestival, Germany
* Sehsüchte 2014 – 43. Intern. Student Filmfest, Germany
* DokumentART Europeen Dokumentary Festival, Germany
* Doc East Silver Market 2013, Czechia
* Grand OFF 2013 Nomination for best Doc, Poland
* EuroEkoFest, Bulgaria
* Rencontres Henri Langlois Festival de Cinema, France
* International Student Film Festival Tbilisi, Georgia
* Open Cinema Intern. Film Festival St. Petersburg, Russia
TV: Kino Polska TV Channel (Poland)
2011 DEIN WILLE GESCHEHE Documentary Film,24 Min, Filmakademie
* Prize for best Film at Kurzsüchtig Filmfestival 2012, Germany
* Landshuter Kurzfilmfestival 2012, Germany
* International Filmfestival Bunter Hund Munich 2012, Germany
* Open Eyes Film Festival Marburg 2012, Germany
* Kurzfilmtage Bamberg 2012, Germany
* Filmzeit Kaufbeuren 2012
2011 STEPPENWÖLFE Documentary Film, 20 Min, HD, Filmakademie
* 2. Prize for best Film at Localize Film Festival Potsdam, Germany
* Jasedower Filmtage D
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Over the course of the past years I traveled
through many impoverished countries in different parts of the world. Every time I arrived
back in Europe, a strange feeling overcame
me. This inner confrontation was the starting
point for a movie, which was supposed to deal
with a non European view on our way of living.
Inside the runners trade I found this problematic, while more issues emerged.
The principle of racing is as old as humanity. The question of who’s the fastest runner
seems to be deeply embedded in human nature. A Greek legend was the foundation that
made the marathon its supreme discipline with
a distance of 42,195km. The only factor deciding who’s to win and who’s to lose is human
capacity. Strength, endurance and the fight
against pain allow the fastest to win the race
and earn a lot of money.
The fastest endurance runners in the world
come principally from the East-African Highlands of countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia
and Zimbabwe. The stable climate offers perfect training conditions all year round. Another factor which trains stamina, is the partially
undeveloped infrastructure which forces the
means of transport of ‘foot’ to be integrated in
the lives of people from a young age onwards.
Kenya and Ethiopia brought us the world-wide
stars of competitive running. Now a whole
generation of young East-Africans is dreaming
of escaping poverty by running marathons in
Europe, America and Asia. For them, running
marathons are what the refugee boats are to
North Africans.
The young talent in running are training together in the Highlands, such as the Kenyan
Rift-Valley in the region around Eldoret, where
we shot THE LONG DISTANCE. Every morning, the athletes run 21km, where the effect of
the training is intensified by high altitude. The
best athletes are invited by European Athletics
managers for a brief visit to different training
camps. In Africa they train and live together,
only to compete against each other in Europe.
The progress of Globalisation increasingly connects human fates across continents.
The most varied perspectives meet in a tight
space; collide, harmonise, shift power relations. In the marathon system and running
business, I found this to occur in its most extreme form. This I wanted to investigate.
Runners and managers of different origins may
have the same goal - they want to earn money
– but their perspectives are fundamentally different. What is a way out of poverty for many
East-Africans, seems to be the striving for status and wealth for some European managers.
In THE LONG DISTANCE I therefore consciously dedicate myself to both perspectives,
in order to make the interconnections and dependencies of two worlds visible. The film is
an investigation of the Globalisation of human
encounter. But as dissimilar the perspectives
may be, there is one thing all humans have in
common when it comes to dealing with hardships big or small: hope.
C
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A u t h o r / Di r e c t o r
D A N IE L A N D REAS SAGER
P ro d u c e r
S I M O N R IE D L
L in e-P r o d u c e r K e n ya
O N E B O Y PR O DUCT I O N
DOP
J U L IA H Ö N E MAN N
D A N IE L A N D R EAS SAGER
C A R IN A N E U BO H N
S o u nd
F RA N K S C H U BERT
TO BIA S S C H ER ER
O S C A R S T IE B I T Z
EMRE TÜRKER
Ed ito r
N A D IN E M Ü L L ER
Music
H A N N A H V O N HÜBBENET
M A R C E L WA LT ER
Line Pr o ducer ZD F
B URKHA RD ALTHOFF
On behalf o f
ZDF/DA S KLEINE FERNSEHSPIE L
D evelo ped and suppo r t ed by
DOCUVILLAGE MENTORSHIP ISR AE L
F unded by
CA LIGA RI FÖRDERPREIS 2013
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