He is an award-winning filmmaker, and his new film Furusato, is a human-scale portrait of a small town in Japan's nuclear exclusion zone. It premiered at DOK Leipzig, where it won the grand prize, the Golden Dove, and is now touring film festivals worldwide. Previously, Thorsten taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and Boston University. From 2014–17 he was a fellow at MIT Open Documentary Lab. Trimpop received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Siegen and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Film and Television Konrad Wolf (Germany).