Film funds in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein will contribute €130,000 to six film projects, all of which must meet a “diversity checklist.”
Among them is feminist docu-fiction “Clownesse” about the life of contemporary “clowns.” It was refunded with €30,000. The film “Ich kann unsichtbar sein” (I can be invisible), a short documentary about a 40-year-old trans man, also received funding of €12,500.
Projects that apply for funding must fill out a so-called “diversity checklist.”
The MOIN Film Fund website states: “Applicants are now obliged to answer a questionnaire on the diversity of their planned project.” For example, applicants must answer whether there are “people of color” in the team. MOIN claims the checklist does not affect “artistic freedom or labor law issues.”
The website also states: “The film industry has the responsibility and the opportunity to portray our versatile, multicultural society, which is common in our everyday environment, in a modern, pioneering and diverse way – without lapsing into clichés or confirming unconscious biases.”
The MOIN Film Fund’s CEO, a White woman, says she wants to “film more diversity” with taxpayer euros. The fund receives €15.7 million, of which €9.2 million are provided by the city of Hamburg and another €1 million by the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Most of the rest of the funding comes from other public sources, including German public television networks such as ZDF.
“Let us film more diversity and tell stories that would otherwise go unheard: We want to see our diverse, multicultural society modern and in all its facets on the big screen,“ said Helge Albers, CEO MOIN Film Fund.
Albers, along with the entire staff of the MOIN Film Fund, appears to be nearly entirely White European, despite being based in one of the most multicultural cities in Germany. The entire team is pictured on their website.
The MOIN Film Fund does have its critics. Alexander Wolf, the conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group deputy leader and cultural policy spokesman, commented on the funding.
“The ‘diversity checklist’ is intended to support projects that fit into the absurd left-wing world view. And this is what comes out of it: Tax-financed gender ideologues push through their propaganda, in which ‘clowns’ and trans men are glorified as normal. Ideological minority politics is being pursued here, totally disregarding the reality of life. A new reality is being promoted instead — Huxley says, “Hello” — saying that the ‘Brave New World’ should be colorful, diverse, and migrant. All that nonsense at taxpayer expense,” criticized Wolf.
