MORE THAN A FILM
GERMAN SOUL IS a live DOCUMENTARY where film, music, and an array of flavors converge for a truly shared exploration.
In GERMAN SOUL, Grammy-winning artist and ethnobotanist Justin Robinson leads LIVE audiences on a personal journey through Southern cuisine, embodied truth, and the tangled roots of identity.
What begins as a search to soothe a lifelong “sensitive stomach” and solve a family mystery soon spirals outward, from Carolina kitchens to DNA surprises, to Berlin, Ibadan, and back again. Along the way, familiar dishes take on unfamiliar names and reveal deeper, more complicated stories.
With film, live music, narration, and shared flavors, each performance becomes a gathering to question the myths at the heart of belonging and to confront what’s missing.
This live documentary isn’t here to settle debates—it’s here to stir the pot.
What truths can we taste, and which do we keep pushing to the edge of the plate? GERMAN SOUL invites you beyond the veil, into a ritual of honest reckoning and reconnection—with yourself, your ancestors, and your community.
Executive Producer: RHIANNON GIDDENS
Created by D.L. ANDERSON, JUSTIN ROBINSON
Produced by REBEKAH FERGUSSON, D.L. ANDERSON
The Work in Progress
We are actively developing this project, with research and production underway in the Carolinas, Central Europe, and West Africa. Through a series of work-in-progress performances, we are shaping the show in front of live audiences, prioritizing Southern communities and those most directly implicated in the story. Each performance includes extended conversation with the audience, and what we hear shapes the research: the structure of the show, the direction of our remaining production, and the deeper questions we pursue.
We are building toward a premiere and national tour beginning in late 2027. The live show is the center of a growing body of work that will expand into new ways for audiences to participate in the research, explore their own food histories, and go deeper into the questions German Soul raises.
Preview RESPONSES
“We do not want to face the truth about our trauma, but it is only in facing them that we heal, right? We need to learn these things, especially in this moment when we need to return back to ourselves.”
— Earthseed Audience Member
"I'm really excited about this opportunity to have a real conversation about what works for you from your DNA, from our ancestors."
— Ft. Worth Audience Member
"The film was brilliant — and it forced me out of my comfort zone, which is obviously something that I feel like you wanted us all to feel."
— Dea Berry Mitchell, historian, food writer, PhD candidate, UNT
“What I understand from my teachers is that choice is a function of expanded awareness. And I feel like what this film has the opportunity to do is expand people's awareness in a way that gives them more access to their choices.”
— Earthseed Audience Member
PREVIEW PERFORMANCES
This project is still in the development phase and we are planning more work-in-progress performances in 2026 and touring the final work in ‘27-28.
PAST
March 22, 2026 | Ft. Worth Modern Art Museum
Nov. 21, 2025 | Cucalorus Film Festival
June 08, 2025 | Earthseed Land Collective
April 24, 2025 | Biscuits & Banjos Festival
Interested in bringing German Soul to your venue or community?
Get in touch.
“The South was never one story. It was always layered, multilingual, multiethnic, and most of us were simply never taught that. German Soul is giving that real picture a stage, and I am proud to be part of it.”
— Rhiannon Giddens, Executive Producer
Follow The Journey
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Become a Soul Supporter 〰️
GERMAN SOUL is fiscally sponsored by the Southern Documentary Fund and all donations above $250 are tax-deductible.
Want to be A More substantial SUPPORTER of this PROJECT?
GERMAN SOUL is seeking philanthropic donors, partners, and investors.
We are midway through a development phase and seeking major donors, organizational partners and investors to sponsor events to further workshop and reach people hungry for stories that nourish a bolder sense of self and community health.
Fill out the form, and we’ll be in touch.