pooldoks is a small austrian documentary film company, started by markus wailand and katharina weingartner, with roots in new york city. for over twenty years we have produced political doc films, which we understand as tools for social change; first in new york, since 2004 in vienna.
our name derives from cheapdoks, a loose collective in the lower eastside of nyc, which for a while organized living room film screenings in response to the political climate of post 9/11.
our research laboratory/film production is now located in a green backyard in vienna's ottakring district. we produce only a few selected films, primarily intended to have a social impact.
we collaborate in eco-conscious, diverse, feminist teams and work on our movies with lots of love for the crafts of film- and soundmaking, storytelling, academic research, political activism and art.
going back to the our roots in new york, we are particularly interested in collaborations with filmmakers from the global south, especially from the african continent.
Elsa Okazaki
„not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
-- james baldwin
producer, director, dramaturge
Katharina Weingartner grew up in Vorarlberg/Austria and studied music and literature in Vienna. She worked for an independent music label in Cologne and initiated a political hip hop radio show in 1990 on Austrian ORF, which is still broadcast weekly. From 1990-2004 she lived and worked in New York, wrote about music and politics for SPEX, curated exhibitions, edited books and directed/produced radio and film documentaries for WDR, ORF, SRF, ARTE and Pacifica Radio, among others, mostly in search of the deep scars that colonialism has left in our society. In New York she ran a small production company, Knock Off Films. After moving back to Vienna in 2004 she co-founded the film production company pooldoks, which she executive produces since 2022.
Lace Relations, A, NG, co-director, co-producer (in production)
The Fever, 2019. A, D, CH, director, writer
The Gruen Effect. Victor Gruen and The Shopping Mall, 2010. A, USA, co-director, co-writer, co-producer
Sneaker Stories, 2008. A, GH, USA director, writer
Knock Off. Revenge on the Logo, 2003. A, USA, co-director, co-writer, producer
Shopping, 2001. Exhibition at Generali Foundation, Vienna, co-curator
too soon for sorry, 2001. D, A, USA, director, writer
Lips. Tits. Hits. Power? Pop Culture and Feminism, 1997 Folio, co-editor
director, artistic research
Anette Baldauf grew up in a small town in the West of Austria, surrounded by beautiful mountains, devoted Catholicism and a sturdy believe in White Innocence. She is a writer, film-maker and teacher. Her work is located at the intersection of social research, artistic practices and pedagogy with a recurring focus on the tacit histories of slavery and colonialism in Austria.
She is currently working on a documentary film on the threads that have interwoven the Western part of Austria and West-Africa along the trade of linen and cotton and more recently embroideries called “African Lace” (with Katharina Weingartner, Joana Reiterer and Chimoa Onyenwe, funded by ÖFI). She is head of the research project called “Fabricating Adjacency. Textiles, Trade and Terror” funded by the FWF, Austria (with Milou Gabriel, Moira Hille, Sasha Huber, Janine Jembere, Susanna Delali Nuwordu, Esther Ojo, Jumoke Sanwo, Mariama Sow).
Her last book publication is the result of a collaborative research projects called Dispossession. An Activity Book (K-Verlag: Berlin 2021, wit İpek Hamzaoğlu, Berhanu Deribew, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Rojda Tuğrul, Janine Jembere, Sílvia das Fadas). She is professor of Methodology and Epistemology at the Academy of fine Arts Vienna, where she co-directs the PhD-in-Practice Program together with Renate Lorenz.
DOP, production- & postproduction coordinator, green film consultant, LAFC
Natascha Gertlbauer grew up in Vienna/Austria and was strongly influenced by the early years of the local hip hop scene in her youth in the 90s. She studied cinematography and camera at the Film Academy in Vienna in the class of Christian Berger, simultaneously working as a camera assistant and lighting technician on national and international TV and cinema feature films. From 2006-2019 she was a partner in a production company specializing in commercial and image films, where she was responsible for camera and production and was able to acquire a lot of knowledge about marketing.
Since 2019 she has been working at pooldoks' production office and in 2022 she completed her training as a Green Film Consultant and is a member of the GFCA. Coming from a working-class family, she has a strong sense of justice, which is why feminist and anti-racist issues are also very important to her.
»Shopping, als gäbe es kein Morgen«
→ Interview von Karl Weidinger, Augustin, 2010
»Selbstreflexion und politische Verantwortung im neueren österreichischen Dokumentarfilm«
Ein Gespräch zwischen Anette Baldauf und Katharina Weingartner
→ zum Gespräch
→ zum Buch 'Produktionen des Politischen im neueren deutschsprachigen Dokumentarfilm'
scroll to top ↑
Copyright © 2024 pooldoks Filmproduktion & Co KG. All rights reserved.