Directing

Katja Esson

Place of birth

Hamburg, West Germany [now Germany]

Known for

Directing

Credits

11 titles

Katja Esson is a German-American filmmaker based in Miami, Florida. She was born and raised in Germany. Her documentary Ferry Tales received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2004. She is the only female German filmmaker ever nominated for a documentary at the Academy Awards.

Known for

Without a Whisper - Konnón:kwe poster
NR

"Without a Whisper" is the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality. Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner shake the foundation of the established history of the women’s rights movement in the United States. They join forces on a journey to shed light on the hidden history of the influence of Haudenosaunee Women on the women’s rights movement, possibly changing this historical narrative forever.

Without a Whisper - Konnón:kwe

2020

Skydancer poster
NR

For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.

Skydancer

2011

No artwork available
4.5

No synopsis available yet.

Sur les Gratte-Ciel de New York

2014

Razing Liberty Square poster
NR

Eight miles inland of Miami’s beaches, Liberty City residents fight to save their community from climate gentrification: their land, sitting on a ridge, becomes real estate gold.

Razing Liberty Square

2023

No artwork available
NR

POETRY OF RESILIENCE is a 40-minute documentary about six poets who survived some of the worst political atrocities of the 20th century: Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, the Iranian Revolution. By summoning the creative voice of poetry to tell stories of survival and witness, each reclaims humanity and dignity in the wake of some of history’s most dehumanizing circumstances. With grace and humor, the film explores language as an internal means of survival—for the poet and the readers of poems.

Poetry of Resilience

2011

No artwork available
10.0

A documentary that focuses on the daily meetings between a group of commuters in the women's room of the Staten Island Ferry.

Ferry Tales

2003

Behind the camera

Without a Whisper - Konnón:kwe poster
NR

"Without a Whisper" is the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality. Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner shake the foundation of the established history of the women’s rights movement in the United States. They join forces on a journey to shed light on the hidden history of the influence of Haudenosaunee Women on the women’s rights movement, possibly changing this historical narrative forever.

Without a Whisper - Konnón:kwe

2020

Skydancer poster
NR

For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.

Skydancer

2011

Skydancer poster
NR

For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.

Skydancer

2011

No artwork available
4.5

No synopsis available yet.

Sur les Gratte-Ciel de New York

2014

Razing Liberty Square poster
NR

Eight miles inland of Miami’s beaches, Liberty City residents fight to save their community from climate gentrification: their land, sitting on a ridge, becomes real estate gold.

Razing Liberty Square

2023

Razing Liberty Square poster
NR

Eight miles inland of Miami’s beaches, Liberty City residents fight to save their community from climate gentrification: their land, sitting on a ridge, becomes real estate gold.

Razing Liberty Square

2023

No artwork available
NR

POETRY OF RESILIENCE is a 40-minute documentary about six poets who survived some of the worst political atrocities of the 20th century: Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, the Iranian Revolution. By summoning the creative voice of poetry to tell stories of survival and witness, each reclaims humanity and dignity in the wake of some of history’s most dehumanizing circumstances. With grace and humor, the film explores language as an internal means of survival—for the poet and the readers of poems.

Poetry of Resilience

2011

No artwork available
10.0

A documentary that focuses on the daily meetings between a group of commuters in the women's room of the Staten Island Ferry.

Ferry Tales

2003

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hole in the Sky - The Scars of 9/11

2006

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hole in the Sky - The Scars of 9/11

2006

Hooker, Harlot, Whore, Stories of Prostitution poster
NR

A Docudrama about the history of Prostitution in Europe.

Hooker, Harlot, Whore, Stories of Prostitution

2010