German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

In the spring, we talked to Toronto filmmaker Stephanie Weimar as she had just finished shooting her footage for her upcoming documentary WRITING THE LAND (produced by Primitive Entertainment for CBC Arts and Arte/ZDF), just in the nick of time as Covid struck Canada. When I contact Stephanie in June as we continue to follow two German-Canadian film projects in our series "The Making of", she writes: "Locking Arte today! Shooting for CBC tomorrow! And fine cuts for CBC next Friday!" Lots to talk about:

Hello Steph, four months to go and you're knee-deep in the editing process. What will be your opening image to launch and introduce WRITING THE LAND?
Books. Lots of books. And writers. And more books. Continue reading "THE MAKING OF: "WRITING THE LAND",..." »

In October, we introduced you to Toronto filmmaker Stephanie Weimar and her new project WRITING THE LAND (produced by Primitive Entertainment for CBC Arts and Arte/ZDF) in our series "The Making of" that follows two German-Canadian film projects in tandem. Half way through the creation of WRITING THE LAND, filmmaker Stephanie Weimar and her team are ready to edit:

None of us knew our next check-in would involve a world of restricted travel, social distancing, isolation and delayed media production plans. What does the Covid-19 situation mean for your project right now? Continue reading "THE MAKING OF: Ready to edit "WRITING THE..." »

Before Christmas, Berlin filmmaker Konstantin Bock told us about his pre-Berlinale travel plans in our series "The Making of" that follows two German-Canadian film projects. Over the past months, Bock has made some important headway with the (true) story --featuring expensive Canadian NHL players-- of 1980s German hockey club owner Heinz Weifenbach who dreamt of making it big … with the help of a dictator.

Konstantin, you’re deep in research and finding a voice for writing the film. How is that going?
Screenwriter Stefanie Schmitz and I received a writing grant from the German Film Board (FFA) and immediately decided to pack our bags and move to Iserlohn, the small town in the Sauerland area of Germany where our story takes place. Previously, I had spent an entire evening on the phone with several people from Iserlohn and I realized that this is not something we can do remotely -- we really needed to be there, research and explore locally, we needed to become part of the social fabric there. Where did Heinz Weifenbach live? Who did he interact with? And who didn't want to interact with him?

Following from that insight we found that Heinz' environment needed to play a bigger part in the film than we had originally envisioned: small-town hustlers, local political quarrels and the determined dream of making it big in the German ice hockey league against all odds -- that's the foundation of our story, a scenario that quickly disintegrates when a Libyan terrorist, who seems to be their only solution against bankruptcy, enters the stage. Continue reading "THE MAKING OF: THE ICE KING "on..." »

In October, we introduced you to Toronto filmmaker Stephanie Weimar and her new project WRITING THE LAND (produced by Primitive Entertainment for CBC Arts and Arte/ZDF) in our series "The Making of" that follows two German-Canadian film projects over one year. Now we're checking in with the team to hear about their latest travel, new writing that has emerged, and an editing road map.

Dear Stephanie, in our last conversation you mentioned that you were looking forward to seeing how the subject matter of your film interweaves – the land and the writing. Can you let us in on one of these, literally, story-telling and story-making encounters you had with a Canadian writer?
It’s all very exciting. So far we have visited with eight writers, most recently we spent two days with Esi Edugyan ("Half Blood Blues" and "Washington Black") and another two with Joshua Whitehead in Calgary ("Full-Metal Indigiqueer: Poems" and "Jonny Appleseed"). As we’re gathering more content, more stories, I can see each episode taking shape, which is always a thrilling experience. When a project, which previously had only been a vision in my head, actually comes into being. Continue reading "The Making of: "Writing the Land" in..." »

Last time, I highlighted the doc LEFT BEHIND as part of our special 40-minute program “The Future of Energy”, curated to broaden and widen our current Post-Oil City discussion around our footprint(s) on the planet.

Let me throw a spotlight on two other shorts in this series. The 2011 German short HURDY GURDY lets us into an enclosed cosmos - just like an instrument that starts over to play its song anew. Directors Daniel Seideneder and Daniel Pfeiffer noted that “The film observes people in a larger context. Time lapse and tilt-shift techniques are used to create a fairytale depiction of everyday life. This technique allows us to step back and observe our planet from a distance. ... Continue reading "The Future of Energy: Dangle" »