Norbert Busè


Norbert Busè is a German documentary filmmaker, film producer, and director.

Biography

Norbert Busè grew up in Erbach in the Odenwald forest. He studied philosophy, education, German literature and theology and graduated with a diploma in religious education. He has been working on film projects since 1991.
In 1993, he moved to Berlin, where he made documentaries and a number of experimental short films. His work to date has focused on topics related to culture, especially music.
He produced the Arte Lounge in over thirty episodes, which was the first television show in Europe to feature classical musicians in a Berlin club. In 2010, he organized a choir festival in South Africa for the ARTE television channel. The highlight was the first-ever performance of the freedom song Ukuthula by all choirs together. Busè also produced films about musicians such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Elvis Presley, Sergiu Celibidache and Richard Strauss, which attracted international attention. In addition, he was one of the few artist to visualize traditional stage dances from Russia, Bolivia, India, Malaysia and Cuba in their living context for film, in order to awaken a new understanding of dance.
Since 2017, he has been working increasingly on film biographies of famous personalities again. In his works, he often succeeds in particularly bringing out the essence of a personality and empathically bringing it closer to the viewer.
Busè lives in Berlin, is married and has three children.

Work

In 2003 Busè began, in co-operation with UNESCO, ZDF and 3sat, the production of the 12-piece film project Meisterwerke der Menschheit . The films showed the humanity's intangible cultural heritage and the threat under which even music finds itself.
AVA - Die Stimme meiner Mutter, a 90-minute music documentary film, was Busè’s first feature-length film about the legacy and potential loss of Russian folk songs.

Recognition

Norbert Busè has been officially recognised for his work, including internationally. In 1999 he won the audience-choice award in the youth category from the Film Council of Bremen with his first short film, Incubus. In 2004 he was awarded the Media Prize of the German Diabetes Foundation for his documentary on the epidemic of prosperity. In 2011, his production of Arte Lounge was nominated for the Grimme Prize in the entertainment category. In 2011 the four-part series Auf den Spuren von Easy Rider was awarded the gold medal for best production in the cultural category at the world's biggest television trade-show, NAB in Las Vegas. In 2014 he was nominated at the International Classical Music Awards for his directing of the film Sergiu Celibidache - Feuerkopf und Philosophy . In 2015 his production Richard Strauss and his Heroines won the ECHO Classical award for best DVD-production of the year, and at the International Classical Music Awards.
Vogue magazine wrote about the film he produced 2024 about the history of the female punk movement in England in the seventies: ‘Punk Girls - The Female History of British Punk, a rousing documentary film’.

Filmography

1990: Vor was habt Ihr eigentlich Angst?
1992: Auf Teufel komm raus
1993: Dünne Haut
1993: Asche im Wind
1994: Ich habe die Hölle gesehen
1995: Zwischen Knast und Kindergarten
1996: Der Zauberer
1998: Schmerz muss sein
1998: Das Lied der Stille
1999: Shivas Töchter
2000: Der Auftrag
2000: Der Spieler
2001: Der Choreograph Mats Ek
2002: Nullen + Einsen
2002: Diamanten in Kinderhand
2003: Tänze aus der verbotenen Stadt,
2003: Heinrich der König
2004: Wohin gehen wir, wenn wir sterben?
2005: Salsa!
2005 and 2009: Meisterwerke der Menschheit, 12 episodes
2005: Waisenkinder – Wenn Eltern zu früh sterben
2005: Diabetes – Die Wohlstandsepidemie
2006: AVA - Die Stimme meiner Mutter
2008: Mary Wigman – Die Seele des Tanzes
2008: Ich kann Dich nicht riechen
2009: Karlheinz Stockhausen - Musik für eine bessere Welt
2009: I am not alone
2009: Die ideale Schule, wie Migration gelingt
2009: Ingo Metzmacher – Ein deutscher Dirigent
2010: Elvis in Las Vegas,
2010: Südafrika singt – Cape Festival der Stimmen
2011: Auf den Spuren von Easy Rider, 4 episodes,
2011: Comedy Mission, 4 episodes
2012: Sergiu Celibidache – Feuerkopf und Philosoph
2012: Im Bett mit Paula,,
2012: John Cage – Alles ist möglich,
2013: Der Chinesische Staatszirkus: Mei Li, Dokumentation
2014: Richard Strauss und seine Heldinnen, Produzent
2014: Der Spielmacher – George Tabori
2014: Bewegte Republik Deutschland Siebzig Jahre Kulturgeschichte,, producer
2015: Von Dada bis Gaga, 100 Jahre Performance Kunst,
2017: Heinrich Böll, Ansichten eines Anarchisten, Dokumentation
2018: Kubas langer Schatten der Erinnerung, Dokumentation
2019: upcoming places, Dokumentation, Israel
2019: Effi Briest oder die Elastizität des Herzens, Deutschland, Dokumentation
2020: Berlin baut ein Schloss, Deutschland, Dokumentation
2021: theater.macher.innen, Deutschland, Dokumentation, Produzent
2021: Heinrich Mann der unbekannte Rebell, Dokumentation
2021: Enrico Caruso – Die ewige Stimme, Dokumentation, Deutschland
2022: Mienenräumerinnen – Wettlauf gegen die Zeit, Dokumentation, Produzent
2022: Lakota – Lakota Leben in Nordamerika
2024: Punk Girls – Die weibliche Geschichte des britischen Punk, Dokumentation, Produzent
2024: Jesus goes to Hollywood
2025: Terrence Malick - Suche nach dem Unbekannten Dokumentation, Buch, Regie, Produzent
2025: Rudi Rabissimo, Musikdokureihe 6 Folgen, Regie

Short films

1998:
2003: Sibirien, freely adapted from the theatre piece Sibirien by Felix Mitterer
2004: Das ist die Sehnsucht, based on the poem of the same name by Rainer Maria Rilke
2006: Dichter unbekannt – Heinrich Heine
2007: ''Welcome home''

Television programs

2010: NeoMusic by night, film series,
2010-2013: On Tape,,
2011: ',,
2011–2013: '
2009–2015: ', classical music, 30 episodes
2012–2018: ',

Publications

2008 Matthias Film DVD Wohin gehen wir, wenn wir sterben?
2010 naxos video library Great voices of South Africa
2012 Arthaus DVD Sergiu Celibidache Firebrand and Philosopher
2014 Arthaus DVD Richard Strauss and his Heroines
2014 Arthaus DVD Mary Wigman: The soul of dance
2015 Filmsortiement ''Die ideale Schule - Wie Integration gelingt''