THE JURY OF 2023
Max Eicke
Photographer
Max Eicke is a photographer born and raised in Southern Germany.
He received his MFA in photography from Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg.
His work deals with desire, social relationships, and power dynamics, exploring a gaze that looks into human agency, taboos, and the photographic in equal turns.
Max’s sincere and personal language is carried through into his editorial work and can be seen in publications such as Stern, Spiegel, de Volkskrant, Vice, Berliner Zeitung, Camera Austria, and others.
His first book "Dominas" was published by Kehrer Verlag and he has exhibited work in Germany and internationally.
Eicke currently lives and works in Berlin. Together with Barbara Dussler he produced and co-hosted the podcast "Mackenbaracke".
Barbara Dussler
Actress and Student of Psychology
Barbara Dussler is a German actress living in Berlin. Since graduating from acting school in 2014 she has worked for several German theatres and has played different main characters on stage.
For two years she has also worked as an assistant casting director for films and series.
In 2019 she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. To destigmatize mental illness she started the podcast “Mackenbaracke” in which she is talking to her best friend Max Eicke open and honestly about her own experience with the disorder and invited professional doctors and therapists to talk about mental health.
Since 2022 she has been studying psychology at Freie Universität Berlin with the goal of becoming a therapist.
Katharina Mild & Veronika Bamann
Journalist I Psychotherapist
Katharina Mild, journalist, and Veronika Bamann, psychotherapist, from Bremen, Germany, are the hosts of the podcast „Gehirnerschütterung“.
They started the podcast to raise awareness for mental health, proving that mental disorders are a part of being human and not a rare phenomenon.
With that in mind they aim to normalize mental illnesses and provide valuable information and education as one of the main requirements for ending the stigma of mental health.
In the podcast they share their own experiences as well as discussing different diagnoses in general. It is their dream that one day having an appointment with a psychologist will be just as acceptable as going to the dentist.
Gaston Stabiszewski
Writer, Filmmaker and Comedian
Gaston Stabiszewski is a filmmaker, writer and comedian from Germany. He has been making films and video content for over 15 years, always using humour to explore the sadness of life.
He loves movies more than (almost) anything and believes in their unique power to move and transform. Most recently, his feature film debut “Pasadena” took a look at depression and grief from the lens of both the people going through it and the loved ones affected by it.
He is continuously looking for ways to destigmatize mental illness by reframing the heaviness with which it is usually depicted, locating levity and even comedy in what we prefer not to talk about.
Lily Peppou
B.Sc. / M.Sc. Psychology
Lily Peppou has been an ambassador and partner to Go Mental! since its beginning in 2020.
She is a psychologist with an MSc in Psychiatric Epidemiology and is currently completing her PhD on the determinants of compulsory admissions in Athens, Greece.
She is also a coordinator of the Unit of Social Psychiatry and Psychosocial Care at the University's Mental Health, Neurosciences and Precision Medicine Research Institute "Costas Setfanis".
Furthermore, Lily is a trainee psychoanalyst at the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Society and works in a private practice.
She has conducted a vast research and has clinical experience in the field of mental health; including the social determinants of mental disorders, stigma and patient empowerment.
