Andreas Dresen

Andreas Dresen (born 16 August 1963) is a German film director. His directing credits include Cloud 9, Summer in Berlin, Grill Point and Night Shapes. His film Stopped on Track premiered at the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prize of Un Certain Regard. Dresen is known for his realistic style, which gives his films a semi-documentary feel. He works very team-oriented and heavily uses improvisation. In 2013 he was a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Early life and education
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Dresen was born in Gera. From 1984-85 Dresen worked as a sound engineer for the Schwerin Theatre. From 1984-1986 he was a trainee at East Germany's DEFA Studio for Feature Films as an assistant director to Günter Reisch. Between 1989-91 he studied directing at the Konrad Wolf College of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg and was a Master student in Günter Reisch's class at the Berlin Art Academy.

Starting in 1985, Dresen directed several short films, documentaries, and films for television, and wrote screenplays. His most successful film to date is Gundermann, a bio pic about the East German singer-songwriter Gerhard Gundermann, who died prematurely in 1998. It had taken Dresen twelve years to get funding for the film, which ended up focussing on Gundermann as a spy for the East German secret service instead of his spokesmanship for East German grievances both before and after 1989, his innovative concepts of theater and performance, or his staunchly leftist political ideas that included alternative visions of globalization and democracy.