In Dir muss brennen

Modern societies are marked by a growing discrepancy. Terms like freedom and flexibility invoke a working life and private lifestyle that promise independence and self-fulfilment. At the same time, doctors, health insurers and even employers register an underlying psychological insecurity: more and more people feel stressed and overextended, suffer from depression, anxiety and burnout syndromes. In her graduation film at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts, Katharina Pethke portrays the blurring of boundaries at work and the insecurities provoked by this. “Burning Within” shows people looking for help: seminars and coaching sessions where the coaches guide people towards self-guidance. Katharina Pethke has already proved her talent for visual essays in her last film “With Love – Britta Schmidt”, which showed great precision and formal decisiveness as well as a deep humanity. In both form and content, she continues her exploration of the causes and effects of emotional instabili ty with “Burning Within”.