Marcel Mettelsiefen

Canon Ambassador Marcel Mettelsiefen is a BAFTA- and Emmy Award-winning director. His 76-minute film, Watani: My Homeland, which follows one family as they escape the Syrian civil war and make a new home in Germany, earned him an Oscar nomination in 2016 for Best Documentary Short Subject.

These glittering accolades are deserved recognition for a career devoted to conflict reporting and documentary filmmaking, but he nearly took a different path entirely. Marcel had intended on becoming a doctor, but in 1999 his best friend asked whether he'd like to start zenith, a magazine about the Middle East.

"I had time and loved to travel the world, so when he asked, I said yes," Marcel remembers. "I had never been into photography until I started zenith and realised that I wanted to get to know this tool a little bit more to help with the magazine."

"We got into a crazy conflict in Haiti where eight photographers were ambushed and only four survived," he says. "After this, I decided to go back to study medicine."

Marcel began his degree in medicine that year in Berlin and supported himself by working as a freelance fashion photographer. After five and a half years on the course, he used his summer break to go back to Afghanistan with an NGO. The trip was supposed to last for two weeks but he ended up staying for 18 months.

Marcel began work as a photojournalist again, selling pictures to global news publications including Stern magazine. In the summer of 2011, he left Afghanistan with a group of photojournalists and headed for Syria to cover the Arab Spring. "I went to Syria undercover," he says. "I had to go in as a doctor because I couldn't get permission as a journalist."

Posing as a doctor meant that Marcel couldn't take his professional photography kit. "I only took my phone and a small €500 camcorder," he says. "During that trip, I made the transition to filmmaking and never returned to photography." Despite only having an entry-level video camera, Marcel remembers that "filmmaking felt like a continuation of what I had been doing, but with a much bigger tool to work with."

Marcel had learned how to focus on emotion while presenting the complexities of war as a photographer, but felt that there were increased opportunities to do that as a filmmaker. After determining his new path, he decided to upgrade his filmmaking kit.

"I bought a Canon EOS C300 (now succeeded by the Canon EOS C300 Mark III) when I started becoming more ambitious and used it with my prime lenses. That opened up a completely new universe. Being able to tell a strong story with a cinematic approach made the experience so much richer," he says. Marcel's reports from Syria were aired by Channel 4, PBS, CNN, Al Jazeera and Canal+.

In order to create the intimacy that defines his documentary work, Marcel operates as a solo shooter. "The power of this gear makes it possible to work in a way that wasn't possible 20 years ago," he says. His many prestigious awards are a testament to the cinematic quality of his work, but at the heart of it all is a deep empathy with, and close connection to, his subjects.

"Sometimes I follow my characters over two or three years. I have to sneak into their lives and give myself in order to receive. It's this human exchange that makes my job very interesting," he concludes.

Below is a showreel of Marcel's work.

Warning: this video includes footage that some viewers may find disturbing.

What distinct memory do you have from your time covering the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war?

"I've been to Syria around 25 times, and the accumulation of horror is so massive. I saw friends die there, and while I tried not to focus on this, it's always there alongside disbelief at how this peaceful uprising deteriorated into a terrible civil war. I decided not to go back in 2014 or 2015. I paid a price for it – I think every photographer who's covered conflict pays a price. It's not the moments on the ground but the moments back home that are challenging."



What kept you motivated throughout your time there?

"I don't go to war zones looking for danger. What I've always been interested in is countries that are turned upside down. I get to see the worst, but also the best of humanity. I feel privileged to have been able to witness history evolving in front of my eyes and as a politically interested person, it's just unbelievable."



In 1999, you co-founded zenith. What were your hopes for the magazine and have your ambitions changed since?

"It started as a completely niche thing because my friend was studying Arabic. We were friends who travelled together so I agreed to help him out, and it evolved into being the most important magazine about the Middle East in Europe. It used to be monthly, then it became every second month and then quarterly. Every medium is struggling, but we're trying to stick to quarterly printed magazines while shifting everything online. It's now published in three different languages: Arabic, English and German."



You've won many awards. Which are you most proud of?

"The only award I directly applied for was the Oscars. That's what I'm most proud of. I was in the edit of Watani: My Homeland when I turned on the TV to watch the Academy Awards. I'd never watched it before, but a friend of mine had been nominated and I wanted to see if he'd win. Until then I didn't realise that Best Documentary Short Subject was a category, but when I saw it I thought, 'Maybe I should do this!' I learned a lot about the industry through the process and it opened up many doors."



What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

"There are a lot of young journalists out there looking to make a name for themselves, and my advice would be to try to understand what role it is you're playing. In a world that's overloaded with information, I think what I'm able to do with speciality documentary filmmaking is create something that people can relate to and understand. Although we might feel very removed from people in war zones, we connect through global themes, and that's what I want to show."

"It's the talent of your craft that gives you opportunity. In scientific careers or medicine, there's a very rigid way to climb the career ladder. But in photography and filmmaking, if you can come up with brilliant work, you're able to open doors and take a shortcut to the top."

Website:https://moondogsfilms.com/