[she/her] Managing director, story development
Sara Sommerfeldt has been working in the German theater and film industry for over twenty years. First as an actress, then also as a writer, director and producer of multimedia projects. After graduating as an actress from the HMDK Stuttgart, numerous theater engagements followed, including at the Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Staatstheater Stuttgart. She also regularly appeared in front of the camera for film and television productions and successfully initiated and realized her own theater projects. After the birth of her first child, she founded Voicemaniacs GmbH, as whose managing director she produced navi voices for the major navi manufacturers for ten years. In 2019, she released her album HERZ AUS GLAS, for which she created several music videos in addition to the songs. Through her commitment to more diversity and against abuse of power in the theater and film industry, she is in close exchange with numerous organizations and associations. For PQB, she regularly interviews well-known people from the cultural industry about equality, role models and future perspectives. In 2021 she founded RISING GAZE to develop film, series and theater projects with a focus on an intersectional Female Gaze.
[she/her] Expert on sexism & misogyny
As a freelance author, Susanne Kaiser writes books, essays, reports and analyses about society - right now about threatened masculinity and the authoritarian backlash, among others for DIE ZEIT, Der Spiegel or Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Her book POLITISCHE MÄNNLICHKEIT. WIE INCELS, FUNDAMENTALISTEN UND AUTORITÄRE FÜR DAS PATRIARCHAT MOBILMACHEN published by Suhrkamp Verlag. For more than 15 years, she has studied power relations between men and women in Muslim and in Western societies, and more recently, especially emerging phenomena such as organized misogyny and sexism. She is interested in what this has to do with role attributions, how ideals of masculinity and femininity are constructed and enforced, and how women are repeatedly relegated to a subordinate place in the social hierarchy - in which our media culture plays a major role.
As a journalist, she has primarily conducted research on the fringes of society, in marginalized areas and on extremist movements such as jihadists or right-wing terrorists. She has advised members of the Bundestag on these topics.
[she/her] Expert on anti-Asian racism and anti-Asian sexism
Ariana Gansuh was born in Mongolia and immigrated to Berlin with her family in 1998, where she grew up. She studied acting at the Berlin Film Acting School until 2011 and then moved to Frankfurt am Main. Since then she has been working as an actress for cinema and TV.
In 2012 she made her short film project SPEED AND STILLSTAND, for which she wrote the script and directed. She is currently working closely with dramaturge Roland Zag on WHEN THE RAIN FALLS. The feature film project was funded with script funding from Hessenfilm und Medien. In spring 2022, together with the Frankfurt-based production company Westlight Film, filming will begin on her short film OH FATHER, which was funded with an HKST project grant and which she will also direct.
Ariana is involved in various associations for her heart issue, diversity, and moderated the BFFS podcast “Schauspiel Held*innen" until 2021.
[she/her] Expert on gender, sexism and LGBTQ+
Lisa Charlotte Friederich studied acting at the HfMDK Stuttgart and applied theater studies at the JLU Gießen. In her bachelor thesis she dealt with gendering through formal means in streaming series. After guest engagements as an actress in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Heidelberg, she was a permanent member of the ensemble at Theater Lübeck from 2010 to 2012. The movie FRITZ LANG, in which she played the leading female role, won the Hessian Film Prize in 2016.
Her work as a director ranges from performative music theater to narrative feature film productions. In 2019 she wrote and staged the multimedia music theater piece CASTOR && POLLUX, which premiered at the Heidelberg Spring International Music Festival. With the musician Rike Huy she wrote, directed and produced the feature film LIVE, which was shown in competition at the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival and won the Dr. Marschner Foundation won at LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International.
[she/her] Expert on blindness & accessibility
Barbara Fickert was born in Mannheim. She first attended a special school for the visually impaired, but graduated from a regular high school. Then she studied law at Heidelberg and Berlin and worked as a logistics specialist.
Twenty years ago she had to do the training with the white long stick - at first reluctantly - which she doesn't want to miss for a minute anymore. In her spare time she plays acoustic guitar and percussion.
In 2016 she founded the KINOBLINDGÄNGER non-profit GmbH, which produces audio descriptions and extended subtitles for international arthouse films for German-speaking countries. Like this, she enables blind and visually impaired people, as well as people with hearing impairments, to follow what is happening on the big screen and to take part in this important part of social life.
Fluff
[it/nims] Expert on gender-sensitive language related to neurodivergence
Fluff is a queer, polyamorous and non-binary autist, studies Indology, Tibetology and Mongolian Studies at the University of Leipzig and therefore deals a lot with languages. Besides its studies it is self-employed and gives workshops and lectures all over Germany on the topics of awareness, Ableism and queer life. It also offers sensitivity reading and sensitivity consulting, from non-fiction to novels, and works with small publishers as well as well-known houses like rowohlt.
Fluff also runs a blog and Instagram page under the name Minzgespinst, where, in addition to awareness and education work on gender-sensitive language, it also reports on everyday situations, such as experiences of discrimination as an autistic trans person and life as an independent but care-dependent person. Here, its intersectional experiences also plays a role, as Fluff is both neurodivergent and queer.
[she/her] Expert on racism
Daniela Grubert, born in Braunschweig, first studied International Information Management, Psychology and Business Administration at the University of Hildesheim before finally realizing her desire to make the stage her profession. She moved to Berlin, continued her studies there at the University of the Arts and has since been active as an actress in various (guest) engagements such as at the German National Theater Weimar, Theater Dortmund, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Theater Augsburg, at the Luisenburg Festival/Wunsiedel, Theater Lüneburg, in feature/short films, and also as a speaker, moderator, singer.
As a Black woman herself, she has sometimes experienced discrimination and sexism - in professional environments, but also in everyday life - knows prejudices and therefore knows how important it is to have a meaningful, resolute, but at the same time respectful and sensitive discourse at eye level on the topics of equality and participation. Because we can only make a difference if we stay in dialogue.
Daniela Grubert
Taisiya Schumacher
[she/her] Expert on antiziganism & diversity
Taisiya Schumacher has been working as an actress in the theater and for television since graduating from the THEATERAKADEMIE KÖLN. She also works as a spokesperson.
Taisiya is a Russian Romni and since her "outing" she has been doing educational work and gives lectures and workshops throughout Germany. She also works as an author and has written a children's book about and for Sinti and Roma. In addition, together with Fatima Remli and Rosina Kaleab, she founded a female BPoC writers room so that visibility in the German film, television and theater landscape is generated from the point of view of those affected. Away from stereotypes, criminalization and romanticization.
Eva Diamantstein
[she/her] Expert on German-Jewish history of the 20th century
Eva Diamantstein studied fine arts at the ÉCOLE DES BEAUX ARTS in Paris and the KUNSTAKADEMIE Stuttgart. Since 1985 she has worked as a freelance director and set designer in Germany and Switzerland. She also worked as a lecturer at the UNIVERSITY OF THE PERFORMING ART (MOZARTEUM) Salzburg, at the BRUCKNER-KONSERVATORIUM Linz and since 2005 at various private acting schools in Berlin.
Scholarships from the VILLA WALDBERTA, the KÜNSTLERHAUS DER STADT MÜNCHEN and the LUISE-RINSER-STIFTUNG enabled her to pursue another field of activity as a writer. In addition to theatreplays, she also published essays and 2 poetry books. In her texts, exhibitions and installations, she deals with female perpetrators of National Socialism, the present of the repressed National Socialist past in language and behavioral patterns as well as the design of private and public living space, and war and persecution. Through her extensive research, she has developed a great knowledge about German-Jewish history, racism and exclusion. Eva Diamantstein works as a freelance artist and acting teacher in Berlin.
[she/her] Expert on gender, sexism und classism
Angelika Zacek studied directing at the ERNST BUSCH Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. For 12 years she has been working as a freelance director at theaters such as the Staatstheater Cottbus, Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Volkstheater Rostock and Mainfrankentheater in Würzburg. Her production AMPHITRYON was decisive for the award of the Würzburg theater for "Courageous theater work" at the Bavarian Theater Days 2011. In 2018, THEATER HEUTE nominated her as the best young artist in the critics' survey HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SEASON.
In 2017 she and her colleagues founded the association PRO QUOTE BÜHNE e.V. and, as chairwoman of the board, she fights for gender equality, diversity, modern management techniques and corporate culture at German theaters. As an expert, she is asked for various specialist committees, discussions and interviews at the political federal and state level. Her focus on feminism and breaking up stereotypes is also reflected in her artistic work, and is enriched by her growing awareness due to her political engagement.
Christoph Gérard Stein
[he/his] Exper on gender, diversity & LGBTIQ+
Christoph Gérard Stein is a freelance actor with German-French roots. After stays in France and French-speaking Switzerland, he moved to Frankfurt am Main. He received his acting training at the PLOT SCHAUSPIELSTUDIO.
Christoph also completed his studies in human medicine at GOETHE UNIVERSITÄT FRANKFURT and FACULTÉ DE MÉDECINE in Besançon and was trained as a systemic coach.
He is a member of the BFFS and the Queer Media Society. In 2020 he played in THE END OF SILENCE, a film about the Frankfurt homosexual trials from 1950-51, the then imprisoned Wolfgang Lauinger.
He is currently working with two colleagues on the stage program ECHT, MANN?!, four plays that deal with the question of male identity in different ways.
Alyk Blue
[they/them] Expert on LGBTQIA+ and racism
Alyk Blue is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and cultural theorist specializing in animation and gaming with a focus on LGBTQIA+ and racial issues, topics and representation.
Alyk was born and raised in Hong Kong, and their love of cultural theorism has lead them to explore cultures across the globe, reaching 46 countries (so far).
A tech geek, Alyk critically analyzes and deconstructs animation and games (all genres and platforms) for representation of traditionally marginalized groups.