Colleen Sturtevant
Werner Herzog
FilmmakerKnown for:
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Grizzly Man (2005)
Education:
Self-taught filmmaker; never attended film school
Werner Herzog has directed more than 60 films - fiction and documentary in roughly equal measure - driven by an interest in extreme human experience and the indifference of the natural world. His collaborations with the actor Klaus Kinski - Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982) - produced some of the most physically ambitious filmmaking in cinema history. His documentary Grizzly Man (2005) became one of the most widely seen documentaries of the decade.
Werner Herzog's Gear List(1)
Aaton
Connection note
Herzog has discussed using the Aaton XTR for his documentary work in multiple interviews; its shoulder-mount ergonomics suited his approach of filming in extreme environments with small crews, as documented in the making of Grizzly Man (2005) and Encounters at the End of the World (2007).
Product description
The Aaton XTR Prod is a 16mm film camera designed to rest on the shoulder with a balance that mimics the weight of a human head, making sustained handheld operation natural. Its quiet motor and ergonomic design made it the preferred camera of documentary and New Wave filmmakers working in the 1970s and 1980s. Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Agnès Varda were among its proponents.
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Last updated March 20, 2026