Bernd Sobolla was born in Berlin in 1962. He started out as a reporter in 1989, and since 1994, he is a freelancing film journalist for Deutschlandradio Kultur, Deutschlandfunk and Deutsche Welle among others. In 2005, he completed his debut short film "The magic ball" with co-director Peter Zimmermann. In 2007, he began working on "Auf der anderen Seite der Leinwand - 100 Jahre Moviemento", a film about the legendary Berlin movie theatre. Sobolla produced the documentary all by himself and without any public funding. It was completed in 2009 and opened in 2010.