Villa Aurora Grant Recipients | 2023

Jan, Feb, Mar

Florian Baron | Filmmaker

Florian Baron | © Johannes Waltermann
Florian Baron | © Johannes Waltermann

Born in 1984, Florian Baron took his first steps as a filmmaker during high school. From 2004 until 2006 Florian Baron lived in Japan, where he worked on several film and video art projects.

From 2007-2012 he was a student in the director's department at the University for Film and Television “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam. He directed the documentary “RADIO TAXI” for ARTE, and graduated with his film “THE FINAL CALL.”

In the following years he worked in the USA on his documentaries "Joe Boots" and "STRESS."

In 2020 Florian Baron co-founded the production company Cannery Row Films in Cologne.


Project Description
Florian Baron will do research in the milieu of the “Urban Cowboys”: young African Americans who run a self-organized riding stable in Compton. Although African Americans have provided a majority of the mounted labor force throughout US history, black cowboys are hardly part of the US collective memory. Florian Baron plans to tell the forgotten story of the black cowboys cinematically based on the riding stables that are active today.


Filmography (Selection)
2018 | STRESS, 83min, Doc.
2017 | Joe Boots, 29min, Doc. (commissioned by ZDF/3Sat)
2012 | THE FINAL CALL. 60min, Doc.
2010 | RADIO TAXI, 18min, Doc. (commissioned by ARTE) 


Awards (Selection)
2018 | STRESS ‒ Next Masters Competition DokLeipzig, awarded with the DEFA sponsoring Prize
2017 | Joe Boots ‒ German Human Rights Film Prize, award for best documentary at doxs! Duisburg, nominated for the German Short Film Awards
2010 | RADIO TAXI ‒ awarded as best documentary at the film festival FICMEC, Beirut

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