Patrick and Dennis Weinert are social documentary filmmakers and photographers from Germany, who focus on under-reported stories about human rights, armed conflicts and global health.
They have spent more than a decade directing documentaries across Asia and Africa, for example in Afghanistan, Congo-Kinshasa, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Syria, Pakistan and Myanmar. Their films are shown on public broadcasters such as ZDF, ARTE, NDR, DW, 3sat, ARD Mediathek and SRF.
Patrick Weinert (L) & Dennis Weinert (R)
Dennis and Patrick have found their way into journalism and documentary filmmaking as autodidacts and subsequently established their film production companies Weinert Brothers GbR (Europe) and Weinert Brothers Limited (Asia).
In 2018, medium magazine listed Dennis and Patrick among Germany's Top 30 Under 30 journalists. For their ARTE documentary on the Ebola epidemic in eastern D.R. Congo in 2019, they received a Peter Scholl-Latour Award for conflict and crisis reporting.
Dennis’ and Patrick’s 2021 reportage on child labour in Pakistan was awarded with a Helmut Schmidt Journalist Award. When Dennis and Patrick are not working on formatted TV documentaries, they focus on developing their personal experimental photography and film projects.
The brothers have written, curated and published two volumes of documentary photo books (A World in Distress, 2015 & Resilienz, 2019) and have directed and produced their debut essay short film Hinter unserem Horizont (Beyond our Horizon, 2020), which was commissioned by ZDF & 3sat and received a nomination for a Grimme Award.
While living in Vietnam between 2018 and 2021, Dennis and Patrick were invited to renowned film director Trần Anh Hùng’s directing masterclass, who inspired them to broaden the scope of their work beyond journalistic documentaries. They have been based in several South and Southeast Asian countries since 2017 and are now living in northern Thailand.
Currently, they are producing and directing their first feature-length independent documentary titled GOD OF SIGHT.