english / johannes musial

I’m Johannes, an award-losing magazine writer and documentary filmmaker. I write, direct and host. My reporting for German and international outlets has taken me across Europe, Africa, North and South America. I'm a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School. Having worked in New York for several years, I'm now based in Berlin. My current projects include a non-fiction book. On this page, there's a selection of my published work. For some personal and travel writing head over to the essay section.

Reach me via the social links above or the contact form below.

Reportagen • 20th August 2020

Wolfgang's Wonderful World

Feature (German): Wolfgang fell in love with a woman in Prague. Then Corona came and the border closed. But he wouldn't let that stop him from following his heart. Something he would soon regret.

TruDoku • 11th October 2019

Rubber Love

Documentary (German): A film about, well, sex objects. And about two people – she owns a brothel for sex dolls in the German city of Dortmund, he lives together with four silicone women.

Y-Kollektiv • 19th September 2019

Who‘s Afraid Of HIV?

Film (German): HIV is incurable, but thanks to modern medication one can live a generally normal life today. So we needn‘t worry anymore? The search for answers leads to a homosexual fetish fest in Berlin as well as the Botswanan savannah.

Y-Kollektiv • 20th June 2019

The Last Fiesta

Film (German): Chaos in Lloret de Mar. As every year, thousands of German high schoolers head to the Spanish city on their graduation trip. It’s the last big party before things get serious – study, work, standing on one‘s own feet. But first: alcohol.

Die Zeit • 22nd November 2018

How To Forgive Your Son's Murderer

Feature (German): 25 years ago, Mary Johnson’s son was shot dead at a party in Minneapolis. A decade later, she decides to visit the man in prison who took her only child. What happened then is a unique story about the power of forgiveness.

Reportagen • 4th April 2018

Torture

Feature (German): There’s a place in California where people volunteer to be tortured. They get beaten and strangled until they're unconscious. Participants fly around the globe to experience a nightmare come true: McKamey Manor. About those who only feel alive in the face of death.

Beef! • 1st April 2018

City Of Gold

Feature (German): Jonathan Gold was America's most celebrated food critic. Images of him hung on walls of restaurant kitchens across the country like wanted posters. The piece follows him on one his last wanderings around the Los Angeles food scene before he passed away in the summer of 2018.

Al Jazeera • 29th March 2018

Favela Ballerinas

Documentary: More murders happen in Brazil than in almost every other country, the majority of them in favelas like the Alemão in Rio de Janeiro. Often, children and teenagers are among the victims of narco fights and stray police bullets. To get girls in the slum away from gangs and guns, Tuany Nascimento teaches them ballet.

Reportagen • 23rd November 2017

Snow White

Feature: Diandra Forrest is the first successful American model of her kind – female, black, albino. A story about the many struggles of being both black and white. An account of trying to find recognition in the fashion industry with its controversial beauty ideals and in an American society still deeply divided by skin color.

Vice • 1st November 2017

One Curious Evening At A Conspiracy Award Show

Feature (German): Martin Leujeune used to be a journalist, then he lost sight of the facts. When he was to receive a price as one of Germany’s most notorious conspiracists, I went with him to pick up his award. During a long evening, he opened up about how he learned to love dictators and his father began to hate him.

Vice • 26th July 2017

Journey Through The Reich

Feature: This is what happens when 6,000 neo-nazis get together at Germany's biggest ultranationalist gathering, where participants chant, "Black is the night, in which we attack. White are the men who will win for Germany. Red is the blood on the concrete."

F Mag • 8th March 2017

The Woman Who Solved 11,341 Forgotten Rapes

Feature (German): In 2009, thousands of rape test kits were found in a Detroit police warehouse – all of them untested. Many of the crimes had happened decades ago. County Attorney Kym Worthy decided to investigate every single case. After all, she knew herself what it was like to be a victim of assault.

Vice • 21st September 2016

I Don't Really Believe In Love Anymore

Interview: Conversation with actor Jonas Sippel about living with Down syndrome, about love and parents who decide against having children with disabilities. Part of the series "Ten Questions You Always Wanted To Ask".

Reportagen • 3rd June 2015

Marathon For Losers

Feature (German): The toughest foot race in the world, a hundred miles through wilderness, maybe more. No one knows for sure. In fact, nothing about the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee is what it seems.

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