Biography
Melanie Liebheit was born in Münster in 1973. She studied ethnology in Munich and then in Manchester, where she graduated with a Master of Arts with distinction. From 2001, she worked for Documentary Campus e.V. in Munich until 2011. During that time, Liebheit also successfully applied to the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich (HFF), where she studied documentary film and television journalism. In collaboration with Anja Lupfer, she directed "Das einzelne Bild ist gar nichts - Ein Portrait des Kameramanns Thomas Mauch" (2004). Her feature-length documentary "Wiedergeboren in Westfalen" (2008), which explores Europe's largest Tamil Hindu temple in the small Westphalian town of Hamm-Uentrop, premiered at the DOK Leipzig festival.
While still a student, Liebheit was one of the founders of the documentary film festival Nonfiktionale in Bad Aibling in 2007, which she has co-directed with Tamara Danicic since 2016. They are also team assistants in the Department of Image Design at the HFF.
Collaborating with Gereon Wetzel, Liebheit directed the documentary "Die Kunst der Widerrede" ("Art of the Argument", 2017), which follows four law students who aim to qualify for the Jessup Moot Court, the most internationally renowned Law of Nations competition. Continuing her partnership with Wetzel, she began shooting the documentary "She Chef" (AT/DE) in early 2020. It portrays a young Austrian woman's journey through top international kitchens during her wandering years, with the Covid pandemic providing a crucial twist. "She Chef" premiered in October 2022 at the DOK Leipzig festival and received the FFF documentary sponsorship award at Munich's DOK.fest 2023. Subsequently, in May 2023, "She Chef" was released in German cinemas.