Tabea Hosche - That's how she rolls

Tabea Hosche is a journalist and filmmaker. But not Hollywood is in her focus, but rather people with disabilities. She wants to report about people just the way they are - not pitying, not heroizing, not only with regard to disability and its consequences. Why she would like to slip into the body of her daughter for a week, she tells us at REHACARE.com.

When did you last laugh heartily and what about?

Tabea Hosche: I laughed heartily when my younger, healthy daughter told my guests that I had been born in another country – she was talking about the former GDR – and finally added with serious horror: "Mama could not eat coconuts!" If this would have been the only problem in this country ...

What have you always been wanting to do and why have you never done this so far?

Tabea Hosche: Going on a trip around the world with my two children and my husband. Just getting off the daily life for a longer time and trying out something new – that teases me very much. We always discuss it, but so far it has remained a dream because that would mean so much organization and I as a freelancer also want to stay on the job. But who knows, maybe there will be the right time some day.

Which person has influenced you most?

Tabea Hosche: Phew! Difficult question: my parents. I grew up in a pastor's house, their Christian education has influenced me very much.

My old German teacher Gerd Franken – without him I would probably not have become a filmmaker. He has sent me – the small town girl – to an arthouse cinema in Cologne for the first time.

Of course, my husband and my two children who have turned my life around and are now the most important people for me.

You have the chance to become the German Federal Commissioner for the Disabled. What would you do first?

Tabea Hosche: I would ensure that people with disabilities have to fill out much, much less application forms and do not have to do so many visits to the authorities. It is sometimes quite absurd how often our daughter has to be examined, only so that each physician can determine individually that she is indeed impaired. So, I would wish for a better network between the individual authorities because it is not only for us as parents a lot of time, but for Uma it is also humiliating, as I think, if she gets repeatedly "tested" and examined.

Your life is made into a film: Who would represent you?

Tabea Hosche: I like Sophie Rois (Austrian actress) very much because she exudes such strength and boldness. I often would like to be like that as well.

I would like to be ...

Tabea Hosche: … my daughter Uma for a week. I would like to see the world through her eyes. What does she think when we again do not understand her? How does she feel during the therapies? How does she look at her little sister? How does she hear with the hearing aids and how does it feel for her when she has an epileptic seizure? For me this would be incredibly exciting and certainly enormously insightful.

Which questions would you like answered the most?

Tabea Hosche: I would really like to know when exactly and if possible also why the genetic defect of my daughter occured. This defect is so abstract to me and I would really like to learn more about it.

What I finally want to say...

Tabea Hosche: I wanted to say that I made a film about our family life with Uma's disability. "Uma and me - happiness, pain and disability" (Uma und ich – Glück, Schmerz und Behinderung") aired this summer on WDR in the series "People close up" (Menschen hautnah) and can still be seen until summer 2017 in the media library of ARD and WDR. Here is the link to watch it (only in German): ardmediathek.de