Jan-Holger Hennies is a filmmaker, cinematographer and editor working across non-fiction film, transmedia projects and artistic research. Recurring themes in his work are landscape, violence and practices of resistance. Over the past years, he has mainly focused on the current crisis of violence in Mexico, particularly on forced disappearance, clandestine mass graves and forensics. Besides, he enjoys to branch out from these topics in his work with and for individual artists and cultural institutions.

Jan is a graduate from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology at the University of Manchester (UK) and lives between Berlin and Mexico City.

awards

2021
Best Mexican short documentary, Guanajuato International Film Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico (Dato sensible)

2020
Winner category “Made in Mexico”, DocsMX, Mexico City, Mexico (Persistencia)
Winner category “Webdoc”, FINNOF | International Festival of New Nonfiction Narratives, Rosario, Argentina (Forensic Landscapes)

2017
Special Award, Art competition “Was nützen Ihnen die Tatsachen? Wenn sie nicht wissen, was sie damit anfangen sollen!”, Willi Muenzenberg Forum, Berlin, Germany („Volksverräter“)

festivals and selected screenings

2021
Shorts México, Mexico City, Mexico
Guanajuato International Film Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico
RAI FILM Festival, Bristol, UK
Romero-Filmtage, Hamburg, Germany
“EL CINE SUMA PAZ” International Film Festival, Bogotá, Colombia
Ciclo Desaparición Forzada, Cineteca Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
el aleph, Festival de Arte y Ciencia, Mexico City, Mexico
SIEF2021, Helsinki, Finland
Foro de Cine Etnográfico, VI COMASE, Mexico

2020
IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling (official selection), Amsterdam, Netherlands
DocsMX, Mexico City, Mexico
Ambulante (Sección Coordenadas), Mexico
dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg, Germany
ethnocineca, Vienna, Austria
Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris, France
Festival Internacional de Cine de los Derechos Humanos de Sucre, Bolivia
FINNOF | International Festival of New Nonfiction Narratives, Rosario, Argentina
Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, Greece
Festival de Cine Etnográfico de Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
EASA Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
LASA2020, Guadalajara, Mexico
Le Cinéma IFAL, Mexico City, Mexico

2019
Cineforo Universidad, Guadalajara, Mexico
Cineteca Chihuahua, Chihuahua City, Mexico
Brot für die Welt, Berlin, Germany
Indigenous Film Screenings for International Mother Language Day, London, UK

2018
Museo de Memoria y Tolerancia, Mexico City, Mexico
Native Spirit Film Festival, London, UK
Centro Cultural José Martí, Mexico City, Mexico
Goethe Institute Bogotá, Colombia
Goethe Institute Mexico City, Mexico
FIFEQ, Montreal, Canada
SEF Festival, Zadar, Croatia
Language and Identity Explorations through Film, OWRI Film Screening, Manchester, UK

2017
OneWithAMovieCamera, Marburg, Germany
Viscult, Joensuu, Finland
SEF Festival, Zadar, Croatia
FIFEQ, Quebec and Montreal, Canada

2016
Filmed Up, HOME Manchester, UK

exhibitions

2021
KIOSK, Ghent, Belgium (group exhibition)

2019
2nd Biennale d’Architecture d’Orléans, France (group exhibition)
Atelierhaus im Anscharpark, Kiel, Germany

2018
Galerie bauchhund salonlabor, Berlin, Germany
Atelier Farbfieber e.V., Düsseldorf, Germany
Bezirk (Goethe-Zentrum), Guadalajara, Mexico
Centro Cultural Alemán, Monterrey, Mexico

2017
Museo Casa de la Memoria Indómita, Mexico City, Mexico
FMP1, Berlin, Germany (group exhibition)