Uli Gaulke

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Director of Documentary Filmmaking Specialisation programme and Senior Lecturer
gaulke@hku.hk

Uli Gaulke is an author and director of award-winning documentaries. 

At the HKU School of Future Media, Uli teaches courses such as Generative AI in Media Applications, Documentary Video Production and Documentary Film Appreciation. He received the Social Science Outstanding Teaching Award 2023 from the University of Hong Kong. 

Born in East Germany, Uli studied directing at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg in Potsdam.  His first documentary feature, Havanna Mi Amor, was invited as the opening film of the Berlin Film Festival Forum section and won the German Film Award LOLA for Best Documentary 2001.

His second film, Marry Me (2003), was screened at the Berlinale. It was followed by Comrades in Dreams, which was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and nominated for the World Cinema Jury Prize for Documentary. As Time Goes By In Shanghai (2013) premiered at Hot Docs Toronto and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival 2014. Sunset Over Hollywood (2018) was nominated for the German Documentary Film Award and selected for the SXSW Festival. 

Uli also worked as a director and cinematographer for TV documentaries like 24h Jerusalem and 24H Europe, which were aired on ARTE and other TV stations across Europe. 

Since 2023, he has been working on various AI film and video projects. His AI video installation “STEP BY STEP” was invited to the Venice Biennale in 2024. His advertisement video “GIBBON PSA” is used worldwide by Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Foundation as a campaign video against the trade in infant gibbons. Currently, he is working on the film project “OXYGÈNE - A Breath Across Borders,” a hybrid AI documentary about the French musician Jean-Michel Jarre.