„Inside Keyenberg“ is a project I've worked on between 2018 and 2020 along with the members of Climate Hub Hamburg and volunteers from other organisation.

It all started during the  Climate Reality Leadership Training in June 2018, when we first heard the story of Norbert Winzen. He wasn't representing any organisation or institution, but himself and his family. He told us his story: how his entire life and livelihood are being destroyed by the expansion of RWE’s coal mine Garzweiler II. We learned that tens of thousands of Germans have been forced to relocate in the past decades, uprooting entire communities. After Norbert’s speech, we searched the web to find more information, but there was none.

We were surprised to find out that hardly any media covered this issue. In fact, while Germany has been taking big steps forward in the generation of renewable energy and away from nuclear power in recent years, the coal industry has kept growing steadily, along with its CO2 emissions and, in addition, continues profiting from subsidies. That's why we decided to create our own awareness campaign, by creating a series of short films to showcase the (at the time) still widely unknown dark side of the coal mining in Germany. With these videos, we wanted to tell the story of the people who live in Keyenberg, a town that is undergoing relocation because of the expansion of the Garzweiler lignite mine. Some people have already left, while many others are still fighting. We wanted to help them save their home by spreading awareness and compelling people to take action. We wanted to give hope, engage the audience to act and empower them to act together for our future, focusing on three topics.

I worked on each step of the video production: writing, interviews, video making, editing, distribution... and of course photography and writing. Below, you can find my photos of the project, the videos, and links to the articles I wrote about our campaign and our experience.

For more details, please also visit the project page on the Climate Hub Hamburg website or check out the two articles I wrote documenting this project.