Jonas Spriestersbach is a German filmmaker and cinematographer whose work moves between creative documentary and visual arts.

He first studied visual communication in Kassel, where he engaged with photography, installations and hybrid moving-image forms, before specialising in cinematography at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), one of Germany's leading film schools.

During his studies he directed several short and mid-length films that explore the relations between bodies, landscapes and political violence; among them, Time to Die, Motherfuckers (2016), shot between Canada and Germany, already experiments with a fragmented approach to space and migration.

His subsequent film Tiere (Animals, 2019), selected at DOK.fest München, confirmed his interest in long-term observational setups and carefully composed images at the crossroads of documentary cinema and contemporary art.

Meanwhile in Namibia is his first feature-length documentary as a director after working mainly as a director of photography; in this film he interrogates Germany's colonial legacy in Namibia, contested forms of "reparation" and today's structural racism, while taking on both cinematography and editing himself.

Spriestersbach's work is characterised by precise framing, long takes and a focus on institutional staging - in museums, tourist devices or development projects - rather than explanatory voice-over, allowing contradictions and power relations to surface with a discreet yet sharp sense of irony.

Selected filmography: Time to Die, Motherfuckers (2016, 15 min), Tiere / Animals (2019, 75 min), Meanwhile in Namibia (2026, 118-120 min).