Anne-Kathrin Peitz is a German documentary screenwriter, director and producer. She primarily works on classical music-related documentaries and television specials.
Education and early career
Anne-Kathrin Peitz studied English literature and Theatre in Leeds and Berlin. She currently resides in Leipzig. Peitz initially worked as a journalist for the :de:Berliner Zeitung|Berliner Zeitung, the :de:Leipziger Volkzeitung|Leipziger Volkzeitung and other German publications as well as English language newspapers. She later became the product manager for WERGO, the recording label for new music at Schott Music publishers. She combined her love of music and writing to serve as head of Public Relations at the state opera houses in Leipzig and Stuttgart.
Film, television and documentary work
While working at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Peitz was to first delve into documentary making by initiating The Singing City, a cinema documentary about the everyday life of a German opera house. The film won the Basler Filmpreis in 2011. Since 2011 Peitz works as a producer and writer for works including the multiple award-winning documentary John Cage – Journeys in Sound. Her debut as a director came in 2012 with her documentary seriesSounds of the Sidewalk – On the Road with Buskers.
Anne-Kathrin Peitz has directed numerous award-winning productions for television. Her music documentaries have been viewed throughout the world at film festivals and on numerous broadcast stations. Her expertise has been recognized in directing documentaries on subject matter of classical music and Avant-garde trends in the genre. Peitz’s primary work has been for the German production companyAccentus Music ; most of her films have been released on DVD under the label Accentus Music. Her directorial work on Satiesfictions – Promenades with Erik Satie earned her a nomination for the Grimme-Preis in 2016 and also received the :de:ARD|ARD television programming award. ”Befitting its extraordinary subject, Anne-Kathrin Peitz and Youlian Tabakov’s brilliant film about the French composer and hardline agent provocateur Erik Satie aims at more than a standard life-and-works biography”, notes Philip Clark from Gramophone magazine. Peitz's 2016 filmSilenced – Composers in Revolutionary Russia won the 2017 Czech Crystal for “Best Documentary” at Golden Prague Festival. The film looks at Russian composers of the early twentieth century: The fates of young rebels such as Arthur Lourié, Nikolai Roslavets, Alexander Mosolov, Sergei Prokofiev and Leon Theremin or Arseny Avraamov reveal much about the early Soviet Union’s cultural life, the hopeful and then tragic entanglement of art and politics to which so many artists fell victim during the First World War, the October Revolution, and the rule of Joseph Stalin. Peitz's film seeks to rediscover composers long banished and forgotten.
