Birthdate: 1951/01/01
born in: Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany
BiographySpeck was born in Freiburg in 1951 and has lived in Berlin since 1972. He studied German Literature, Drama and Ethnology at the Freie Universität Berlin. He then started working on video and film projects and was a writer and publisher. In his work he focuses on the men’s movement and homosexual identity.
In addition he has worked as an actor for several acclaimed film directors, among them David Hemmings, Robert van Ackeren, Ulrike Ottinger, and Ian Pringle. For many years he was managing director of the “Tali”, an independent arthouse cinema in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
As a director Wieland Speck started out with several video documentaries.
From 1979 – 1981 he studied film at the San Francisco Art Institute. He is director, author and producer of numerous TV and film productions and has worked for several film institutions and events, among them the Filmhaus Berlin, the Filmbüro Baden-Württemberg, and the Berlin European Short Film Festival. He has also taught at universities and film institutes.
Since 1982 Wieland Speck has been working for the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. From 1982 – 1992 he was assistant to the former director of the section, Manfred Salzgeber, being responsible for artistic and organizational matters. In 1992 Wieland Speck was appointed director of the Panorama section.
Wieland Speck has served on jurys of several international film festivals. From 1990 – 1998 he was a member of the Landesfilmförderung Berlin, the Berlin institution for film subsidies, and the board of the Hamburger Filmförderung.