Katharina Otto Bernstein

Life and Education

Otto-Bernstein (née Otto) was born in Hamburg, Germany, the youngest daughter of German industrialist Werner Otto (Crate & Barrel) and his third wife Maren. She has four siblings: Michael Otto, Ingvild Goetz, Alexander Otto and Frank Otto.

After attending St. Clare’s Hall in Oxford, England, Otto-Bernstein moved to New York to study philosophy and political science at Columbia College (BA) and received her MGA in screenwriting and directing from Columbia University Film School.

Otto-Bernstein is married to New York art dealer Nathan A. Bernstein. They have two children: Nicholas and Jonathan.

Career

As an undergraduate Otto-Bernstein worked for Town & Country magazine and wrote a lifestyle column for German Vogue. In 1989, she was hired by British director Don Boyd (Aria, Twenty-One, My Kingdom) to work on the East-West thriller entitled The Berlin Project. Once the production crew arrived in the divided capital, Otto-Bernstein became a witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of East and West Germany. This gave Otto-Bernstein the incentive to direct the television documentary, Coming Home (1990), dealing with the re-unification of German families, and compile the interview collection, In the Shadow of the Wall, featuring interviews with East German personalities, including intelligence agents Günter Guillaume, Horst Hesse, and the Soviet spy Ruth Kuczynski (Red Sonja).

Upon her return to the US, Otto-Bernstein directed the comedy, The Second Greatest Story Ever Told (1992), starring Mira Sorvino and Malcolm McDowell; the television documentary, The Need for Speed (1993); and the American segments of the documentaries When Night Falls Over Moscow - Arms Dealing in the Former Soviet Union and The Industrialists Hall of Fame (1993). In 1994, she founded the production company Film Manufacturers Inc. (FMI).

Otto-Bernstein's Beautopia premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. The film probes the dark side of modeling and features fashion icons such as Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Valentino Garavani, Karl Lagerfeld, and Calvin Klein. Beautopia was the Grand Prize Nominee at Sundance and won the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival. Janet Maslin of The New York Times called the film “a terrific and lively feminist analysis.”

In 1998, Otto-Bernstein met American theatre and opera director Robert Wilson (Einstein on the Beach, Black Rider, Lohengrin) at a cocktail party. This marked the beginning of a seven-year collaboration on the internationally acclaimed biopic, Absolute Wilson. The film features prominent collaborators such as Philip Glass, David Byrne, Tom Waits, Jessye Norman, and literary icon Susan Sontag in one of her last interviews. Absolute Wilson premiered to great critical acclaim at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival and became an international festival sensation, earning the prestigious Art Film of the Year award from Art Basel. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter wrote in his review: “An artist who operates on such a groundbreaking, international level as Robert Wilson deserves a documentary as good as Absolute Wilson.” A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted: “ Absolute Wilson makes you wish you had been there. Ms. Otto-Bernstein has performed heroic work."

In 2006, Otto-Bernstein published Absolute Wilson: The Biography (Prestel, Random House). She also penned the chapter “Absolute Watermill” for The Watermill Center – Robert Wilson’s Legacy (2011, Daco-Verlag, Stuttgart), and her short story "Dog Days" appeared in the book No Better Friend: Celebrities and the Dogs They Love, a collection of intimate essays edited by Elke Gazzara.

In October 2012, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Otto-Bernstein's Film Manufacturers Inc. is co-producing the German language thriller, Galapagos, together with KJ Entertainment. The film, written by Kathrin Lohmann and Katharina Otto-Bernstein, is based on Margret Wittmer's autobiography, Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galapagos, and will be helmed by Marc Rothemund (Academy Award nomination for Sophie Scholl: The Final Days).

In 2013, Otto-Bernstein served as dramaturge on choreographer Karole Armitage's (Tony Award nomination for Hair) ballet, Fables for Global Warming.

In 2016, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, the first definitive, feature length portrait of the controversial American artist Robert Mapplethorpe, produced by Otto-Bernstein, premiered at Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival to rave reviews. The film had its TV premiere on HBO on April 4, 2016 and is currently being released theatrically all over the world. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures was nominated for two Emmy Awards: Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program.

Other Interests

Otto-Bernstein is currently serving her 15th year on the Dean's Council of Columbia University School of the Arts as well as spearheading the Film Department’s thesis mentor program. She was honored by her Alma Mater with the prestigious Columbia University Alumni Medal in 2009. In 2012, Otto-Bernstein donated a state-of-the-art screening room at Columbia University's Lenfest Center for the Arts, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

Otto-Bernstein is a trustee and advisory director of the Metropolitan Opera, a member of the International Director’s Council of the Guggenheim Museum, and has served in the past as a trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. She actively supports a variety of social and cultural causes that foster sustainable and humane practices, and promote freedom of expression and peaceful co-existence throughout the world.

Works

Selected awards and honors