Daniel Kötter (born 1975) is a German documentary filmmaker and theatre director working across film, visual art, contemporary music and performance.

For almost two decades he has developed projects at the intersection of documentary practice and performative forms, often in collaboration with artists from different disciplines.

His works combine experimental film techniques, ethnographic observation and stage-based research, and take the form of films, video installations, music theatre pieces and hybrid formats.

Together with composer Hannes Seidl, he created several music theatre trilogies, including Falsche Arbeit, Falsche Freizeit, Freizeitspektakel, KREDIT RECHT LIEBE and STADT LAND FLUSS, all of which explore changing conditions of labour, economy and everyday life.

With stage designer and video artist Constanze Fischbeck, he also developed the state-theatre series on theatre architecture, urban space and performativity in cities such as Lagos, Tehran, Berlin, Detroit and Beirut.

From the mid-2010s onward, his filmmaking increasingly focused on political landscapes, urbanisation and resource extraction.

His notable works include Hashti Tehran, which received the German Short Film Award, and Rift Finfinnee, on urbanisation in Ethiopia, which won the DEFA Award at DOK Leipzig.

He has also developed a body of essay films on resources, infrastructures and territories, including Gold & Coal, Water & Coltan and Landshaft.

With Kukata Miti (2026), he continues his exploration of the links between natural resources, colonial memory, migration and global inequality through the lens of timber extraction in Germany, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

His works have been presented at numerous international festivals, biennials and art institutions, including the Venice Biennale, DOK Leipzig, Visions du Réel and the Maxim Gorki Theater.