Faculty

Manfred Becker

After coming to Canada from his home country Germany on a phony work permit in the mid-80’s, Manfred soon worked alongside filmmaker Peter Watkins at the NFB on his epic The Journey (Berlinade, TIFF etc.) The 1990’s Manfred spend in dark edit suites helping others to sort out their story (Sturla Gunnarsson’s Gerrie and Louise, Nettie Wild’s A place called Chiapas, Paul Jay’s Hitman Hart).

Early in 2000 Manfred stepped into the light and created his own stories. Since then he has made eight documentaries, about psychoanalysis, the birth of state sponsored terrorism to dark tourism that have been seen by audiences around the globe and have been recognized with a number of awards. His personal film, fatherland premiered at HotDocs in 2007 and went on to receive the Donald Brittain Gemini.

Manfred is a former executive member of the Documentary Association of Canada, a juror at Hot Docs, served as editor of the film magazine POV, and was a programmer for the annual 'Rendez-Vous with Madness' film festival in Toronto.

Manfred also teaches film at York University where he is pursuing post-graduate work in media studies, and gives workshops around the country on various aspects of documentary filmmaking. He continues to write and/or edit for colleagues like Barry Stevens’ (Offspring, The Prosecutor) and Thomas Wallner (The Guantanamo Trap).