Damirali
Everyone has their own idea of what makes a good story, a good book, or a good movie. And that goes for the audience as well as for the narrator of this story. Preferences vary greatly from one individual to another, as they are strongly influenced by culture, family background and personal childhood and life experiences. And yet, audiences and narrators around the world come together every day to make a moral contract in which each party has duties and rights: the audience, which gives the narrator the time and attention they ask for and allows for itself to engage with the stylistic devices and narrative props of the story in order to nurture and explore their own interpretive needs; the narrator, who must not disappoint the audience’s expectations in order to be able to shed light on the issues they deem important to society beyond their own circle of acquaintances, and thus satisfy their own need to communicate.
We can therefore ask ourselves the question: can a film be a window on another world, another reality, another time in the future or the past? Isn’t a movie the only time machine we have? Or do we still remain prisoners of our own world and cultural references?
Since the world is in a state of perpetual change and humanity is constantly evolving as a civilization and society with its ethical and aesthetic demands, while maintaining seemingly unchanging interpretive categories such as “good” and “evil”, “beautiful” and “ugly”, our stories can be told again and again. Because in fact, we must face a double truth: all the stories of humanity have already been told in one form or another; and: no one in the world will ever be able to watch all the movies, let alone read all the books. And it is precisely for this reason that there is always room for new stories, with new narrators and a new audience willing to be taken outside the comfort of their own cultural references and open up intellectually to new worlds.
About us
The production company Damirali Film was founded in 2020 by Valentin Schneider as a new division of Schneider Media and aims to produce high quality documentaries and feature films.
After more than 40 years of successful and internationally awarded book publishing in the fields of contemporary history, automobiles and motorcycles, Schneider Media is now joined by a film division which is being developed with great determination. The aim is to transfer all the experience and quality standards of book production to the audiovisual medium. The three-language book programme of Schneider Media can be found here: www.schneider-media.eu.
In addition to its core historical activity of book editing, the Damirali Film specialized team refers to many years of experience and expertise in the production, publication and distribution of newspapers, magazines, video games and documentaries, as well as in academic historical research and knowledge transfer. Furthermore, Damirali Film relies on an international network of cooperation partners in entertainment, science and industry.
– 3 x Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award/SAH
– 3 x Award of Distinction/SAH
– MPC automotive book award in the category “History”/Motor Presse Club
– ADAC Motorwelt automotive book award in the category “Biography”
Valentin Schneider, founder of Damirali Film and co-director of Schneider Media, has over 20 years of experience in academic historical research and knowledge transfer. In addition to his work as an expert for various communities, museums and audiovisual productions, the implementation of his research projects has so far been supported by highly competitive state and regional funding amounting to more than half a million euros.
Damirali Film is driven by a spirit of creativity in the development and refinement of promising ideas, and by the ability to create a viable media product from a thought process, suitable for both a wide and critical audience.
The pool of ideas at Damirali Film is almost inexhaustible and is constantly being fed with new sources of inspiration, with themes from science, history, current events and sport.
The team
Valentin Schneider
PRODUCER
vs@damirali.eu
When Valentin was only 8 years old, his teacher already emphasized his ability to explain complicated issues to his classmates in an understandable way. That was in 1992, in the Rhineland. His subsequent professional orientation with two doctoral theses (History in France and Political Science in England), with highly endowed international research projects, notably in Greece, was clearly research-oriented, but always with the overriding aim of getting out of the ivory tower in order to communicate the knowledge acquired to as wide an audience as possible, through inspired conferences, exhibitions, publications or documentary films. It is therefore only logical that Valentin, as a film producer, is about to take the public on a journey through time with the sharp and thoughtful view of a scholar, in order to elegantly introduce them to complex subjects, to shed light, to dispel clichés and to put different points of view and ways of thinking into perspective. This will be done both in documentaries and in feature film projects, for which Valentin can draw on a rich pool of ideas.
To learn more about Valentin’s research activities: www.valentinschneider.eu
Carolin Schneider
PRODUCTION MANAGER caro@damirali.eu
Carolin Schneider, born in Euskirchen in 1985, emigrated with her parents to Normandy in 1995. After the baccalaureate, she obtained her Bachelor in performing arts in Caen before receiving a Master’s degree from the Institut Francophone de Formation au Cinéma Animalier (IFFCAM), a graduate school specialised in animal documentaries located near Poitiers. Carolin lived and worked in Dublin for four years (2009-2013), where she graduated from the Dublin Business School with a degree in Project Management. Since 2013, she has worked as a project manager for leading companies in the video game industry.
Vincent Schneider
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT vincent@damirali.eu
Vincent was born in 1990 and has been working as a freelance technical translator for twelve years. In addition to his Master’s degree in International Business Development (Université de Caen), Vincent has basic training as a stage artist and experience as a dubbing artist. So far, he has been able to demonstrate his skills in a Franco-German co-production for the German TV channel ARD and in several short films. In addition to his professional commitments in Dublin, Athens and Paris, Vincent has also been actively involved in the family book publishing business for many years, particularly in production and marketing.
Hans-Jürgen Schneider
SPECIAL ADVISOR
hjs@damirali.eu
Journalist, author, editor: Hans-Jürgen Schneider, born in 1946, has left no stone unturned in making a lasting impact in the print media. After completing his studies in German philology and geography at the University of Bonn in 1973, he worked as a journalist for 25 years, most recently as editor in chief, before founding his own publishing house in 1985 and publishing almost 40 reference books (some of which have won awards) on the subject of cars and motorcycles. His bestseller produced since 1985, “Klassische Vespa Motorroller”, is now published in its 22nd edition. In the 1990s, his media activities were complemented by an excursion into video production for major companies in the car and motorcycle industry. He has lived and worked in Normandy since 1995.
Service
Damirali Film relies on an established network for efficient location scouting in France, Germany and Greece. The portfolio includes coastal areas and islands in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, traditional villages and small towns, forests and mountainous regions, historical and archaeological sites, and architectural and industrial features in urban areas.
Scientific expertise allows the Damirali Film team to identify historical landscapes that do not require additional image processing and can then be used as a backdrop for a feature film or docu-drama: from ancient Greece to medieval France and to the battlefields of World War II. This saves considerable time and significantly reduces post-production costs.
Moreover, thanks to decades of experience in the field of industrial history, Damirali Film has precise knowledge of which props can and cannot be used. An international network of experts is at our disposal to help us choose the right period equipment for the characters: civilian and professional clothing, military uniforms and weapons, cars and motorcycles, background accessories such as daily newspapers, posters, etc.
What we offer
Thanks to original ideas and constant inspiration, Damirali Film has a special dynamic, both in the search for unknown locations and in all other phases of production.
The services we offer:
- Location scouting in France, Germany and Greece
- Production
- Production management
- Script doctor
- Storyboard
- Budgeting
- Legal advice for filming in France, Germany and Greece
Filming locations
Damirali Film seeks and finds the ideal location for international productions. Authenticity is then the focus of our attention in order to strengthen the impression of the images in relation to the basic idea and to achieve the desired result.
The regions we are familiar with:
- Western France: Normandy, Brittany, Vendée
- Greece: Attica, Aegina and the Saronic Gulf, Peloponnese, Western Crete
- Germany: Rhine-Ruhr, Rhine-Main, Eifel, Freiburg, Berlin
Contact
Please send your inquiries and offers for cooperation to info@damirali.eu – we will be pleased to answer you.
