Retel Helmrich studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy (1986) and made his first feature film The Phoenix Mystery in 1990. A cinematographer and director, he has won many international film awards and has lectured widely on his renowned'single shot cinema'. His film The Shape of the Moon (2004), won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, Sundance 2005, and the Joris Ivens Best Documentary Award, IDFA 2004.