WALTER – The Movie
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Our diet determines our health and our future. This film aims to explain why – and to show what everyone can do!
We want to bring one of the most important and moving documentaries to the cinemas. It tells the journey of Thomas Rohlfing that started with a tragic loss and led him halfway around the world. He questions those affected and leading experts – and discovers a treasure that can change our lives. Help us show his story and go into post-production with the collected material so that we can bring it to the cinema for you.
Funding period
10/1/20 -
11/22/20
Realisation
Autumn 2021
Minimum amount (Start level): 33,000 €
Interviews with German experts. Documenting the transition of a test group. Basic salary for the production team. Finalization of the film for streaming.
City
Frankfurt am Main
Category
Movie / Video
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What is this project all about?
In a moving, partly autobiographical documentary we explore the consequences of our diet on our health
A personal fate triggered the documentary. Walter – Thomas' beloved uncle from the USA – died after 16 years of suffering from the effects of type 2 diabetes. In the film we investigate the question of whether the suffering of people with similar clinical pictures can be reduced or even prevented.
We explore the causes of common diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, thrombosis, strokes and cancer. In an overwhelming number of cases, these are due to eating habits and lifestyle.
We also shed light on what causes industrialized nations in particular to eat unhealthily – and on terms such as conditioning, carnism and speciesism, which have unconsciously influenced us since our childhood.
A wholesome plant-based diet emerges as one solution approach. We focus on the benefits and risks of this diet. Leading experts from the USA and Germany will present their latest, partly groundbreaking findings.
We jump across the Atlantic Ocean and back again to build a bridge from American fast-food culture to mid-European home-style cuisine – and discover amazing similarities in the effects on our health.
In addition, we follow a number of mixed foodists with the camera in an experiment with an open outcome. In the course of the shooting, you will experience the consequences of a strict, wholesome plant-based diet on your own body and make it understandable for the viewer – with everything that speaks for and against.
What is the project goal and who is the project for?
Our goals
With WALTER, we want to show as many people as possible the dramatic effects our diet has on our health. The documentary should not only shake you awake. It is meant to be a support and driving force for positive change! The viewer learns what he or she can do with every meal to challenge common diseases. WALTER is a plea for self-empowerment as well as the diversity, abundance and positivity of a wholesome plant-based diet.
It is important to us that the topic reaches a broad mass, because never has it been as urgent as it is today: Never have so many people been affected by these diseases, and never have we had to work so hard for the future of our planet. Our film is intended to unleash a fact-based, undogmatic discourse – preferably in the middle of the mainstream!
Our target group
- Our film is for everyone who cares about their parents, kids or best friends.
- Our film is for everyone who no longer wants to be exposed to the next stroke of fate caused by illness.
- Our film is for everyone who has already lost or is threatened to lose loved ones by lifestyle diseases and who is looking for answers.
- Our film is for everyone who wants positive change.
- Our film is for everyone who no longer wants to watch how humans exploit resources, animals and fellow human beings.
- And: Our film is for everyone who would like to go to the cinema with their family or best friends, to have a great time together – and to discuss it for hours afterwards. :)
Why would you support this project?
If you want to stand up for the millions of people who suffer from common preventable diseases, then support us! You are making a decisive contribution to generating a new wave of health education across the country.
If you don't feel like running from doctor to doctor anymore but prefer to take your health into your own hands: Support us and ultimately yourself!
If you want to work efficiently for the environment, the climate and the animals, support us!
If you are an entrepreneur and want to know how your team can increase your mutual success with fewer illness days and higher productivity, support us!
You can make a difference!
How will we use the money if the project is successfully funded?
1st funding goal
We have invested all our savings in the acquisition of camera equipment, hardware and software as well as the interview trip to the USA – now we need your support! When we reach the 1st funding threshold, we can complete WALTER and make it available via online streaming. We can pay our film editor a base salary that includes producing a film trailer. We will also do important, complementary filming in Germany. German subtitles and a website will complete the project.
We also want to make the documentary scientifically sound. For this purpose, it is planned to convene an independent expert council that will check all statements made in the film for their truthfulness.
2nd funding goal
When we reach the second funding goal, we can make the film a magical, life-changing event for you, your family and your friends. There will be a cinema tour with screening in your area and at film festivals. We can bring award-winning professionals on board: music that gets under your skin, German and English-speaking voice actors for an international reach, multilingual subtitles, 3D animations and much more is possible. This increases the chances of the film reaching the largest streaming platforms. All of this should help to convey the message with maximum impact.
The plans include English subtitles, voice actor for German and English-language parts, a film music composer plus orchestra, sound design, cinema sound mixing, cinema tour in the DACH region and the necessary press work, music for the trailer, a fair salary for our editor, the shooting of additional scenes and b-roll, the hiring of a scriptwriter and the outsourcing of the film branding (logo, design and photography) to a freelancer or an agency.
Even if many people join our mission out of idealism and our artists would defer their fees, a production like this costs a lot of money. Especially when it is supposed to get from the screen straight into people's hearts, we cannot ignore the expertise of experienced professionals.
We strive to minimize costs where there is nothing to be said against it for reasons of sustainability or fairness. For this purpose, we have developed a code that is based on our values and serves as a guide for our decisions. This means that we always strive for inexpensive solutions that are perceived as fair, sustainable and appreciative for everyone. That is why we will list our costs as transparently as possible.
In the event that the second funding threshold is exceeded, we will invest this sum in building a project team to promote health, reduce animal suffering and protect the environment. In this way, for example, our next film documentary can be produced faster and more efficiently.
Who are the people behind the project?
Behind the project is the filmmaker, scientist and nutrition coach Thomas Rohlfing and this is his story:
A favorite person always leaves too early
“Do you know this special person who fascinated you as a child and to whom you were incredibly grateful for every moment together?
For me, this person was Walter. My “uncle from America” was actually my great cousin whom I first met when I was nine years old.
An intense pen friendship began that even survived my puberty. When I have to describe Walter, I have no words and I come to tears. He was warm and loving and exuded an incredible sense of security.
Limited by type 2 diabetes, he first lost feeling in his feet and then several toes. Something that we take for granted like walking became a daily challenge for Walter. Mentally, he was still perfectly clear until Christmas 2014. Suddenly things went downhill: from a distance I had to watch Walter succumb to his dwindling strength. In April 2015 he passed away.
Walter stands for all those people who passed away too early or suffer serious illnesses at a young age that could often be prevented. In addition to type 2 diabetes, my family also had heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolism, Parkinson's disease, thrombosis, arthritis and cancer. Friends suffered strokes or developed cancer before they were 40 years old.
All of this made me think: Are diseases like these my fate too? Do we really have to surrender ourselves defenseless? What can we do to prevent or even reverse it?
In spring 2020 I put everything on one card. The secure job as a meteorologist gave way to my self-employment as a filmmaker.
The collected knowledge should now be out into the world! For this purpose, a highly motivated team has joined me that is by my side with passion: the Rabbit Family. "
Become part of the family, too!
Team Thomas Rohlfing
Denis (co-founder of Startnext)
