GFQ 2-2007 - german films

Similarly, Stefan Tolz was a graduate of Munich’s HFF/M, but had also
studied at the Georgian Institute for Theater in Tbilisi, with shortterm
stays at the film department of New York University and at the
Beijing Film Academy. He then worked, since 1993, as a freelance
filmmaker and producer for various public broadcasters and pro -
ductions for theatrical release, with his multi-award-winning feature
documentary On the Edge of Time becoming a ’must-see for cinema
lovers’ around the globe.
Thomas Wartmann, on the other hand, had studied Journalism in
Munich and later Directing at the American Film Institute in Los
Angeles. After working on several productions as an assistant director,
he traveled throughout Asia, Africa and South America as a
journa list for leading magazines before focusing on the directing of
more than 25 documentaries since 1994.
OPEN PLAN
“We had been making our films independently with individual companies
and came to the realization that it would be better to have a
mutually supportive infrastructure which would also take care of the
films once the production was completed,” Tolz recalls. “The idea
from the outset was that the company should not just be for us, but
should be open for other filmmakers as well so that they could have
a chance of participating in the value chain of their productions.”
Hence, the name Filmquadrat and the fact that there were only three
partners in the company: the fourth corner in the square was to be
kept open for others.
Among the filmmakers welcomed into the Filmquadrat fold were
Claudia Seifert (Arjeplog – Ice and High Tech in Lapland),
Lisa Eder (co-director with Thomas Wartmann on Living
Heritage – Beyond Samarkand), Bettina Haasen (Shadows
of the Desert), Arnim Stauth (The Dubai Experiment),
Annette Dittert (The Search for Happiness) as well as Richard
Ladkani (co-director with Thomas Wartmann on Living Heritage
– The Andean Healer) and Marcus Vetter (co-director on
Traders’ Dreams).
As Tolz explains, the focus of Filmquadrat’s output in the past five
years has been on feature-length documentaries for theatrical release
– such as Touch the Sound and Traders’ Dreams – and documentary
series whose subject matter is usually set abroad out side of
Germany. “We don’t make reportages, historical documentaries or
journalistic reports,” he notes. “We come from cinema and thus want
our productions to be visually of a high quality.”
As the titles of Filmquadrat’s productions show – e.g. Beyond
Horizon – The Niger Delta, Shomal – Riviera of the
Mullahs, or Living Heritage – Beyond Samarkand – the
output addresses international issues and is mainly shot in countries
outside of Germany. One of the reasons for this international dimension
is, Stefan Tolz argues, the fact that he and Thomas Wartmann,
for example, spent some time studying abroad and so became fa miliar
with foreign cultures.
But there are exceptions with films where the story is based in
Germany. Thomas Riedelsheimer’s latest theatrical documentary, for
example, Das rote Sofa (working title) is being made in co -
operation with a children’s cancer unit in Munich and addresses the
question of how children who are threatened by deadly diseases like
leukemia cope with the issues of life and death. Shooting has now
reach ed halfway through and been mainly done in Munich, with the
financing partly coming from the German Film Award prize-money.
Moreover, Stefan Tolz and Marcus Vetter have been looking at the
phenomenon of the online auction house Ebay in Germany in
Traders’ Dreams which will be released theatrically by Piffl
Medien later this year.
MAKING CONTACTS
“As a company, we enjoy a special situation in Germany,” Tolz con -
tinues. “There are few people in our age group with similar films
work ing the way we do, and it is a very small segment.” Moreover, he
is optimistic about the situation of documentary production in
Germany at the moment: “The possibilities have become more varied
and there are many program slots available. The fact is that everything
has become more and more diversified, and the contacts you have
are increasingly important.”
Since founding Filmquadrat, the filmmaker trio has been keen to de -
velop and extend their international network of contacts. “There are
all different kinds of ways of making international contacts: it can be
at the film academies where we are teaching, or when we sit on juries,
or at film festivals when you have a film invited. We have also been
recommended to people by the commissioning editors at SWR, and
the German-French “Rendez-vous” in Cologne and Munich was help -
ful.”
“At the documentary film festival in Leipzig, for example, we had an
opportunity to meet Canadian and Chinese producers to talk about
projects and the pitching sessions there are in a more family atmosphere
than at the Documentary FORUM in Amsterdam.”
FESTIVAL SUCCESSES
In its first five years, Filmquadrat has seen many of its productions
invited to international festivals and picked up for theatrical release or
TV airing by foreign distributors or broadcasters.
Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Touch the Sound was awarded the main
prize of the Critics’ Week after premiering at the Locarno
International Film Festival in August 2004 and then went on to pick up
the Golden Dove for Best Film in Leipzig and a nomination for the 2004
European Film Award in the category of European Documentary of the
Year (Riedelsheimer was a member of the jury for the European
Documentary Award for last year’s European Film Awards presented in
Warsaw in December). Touch the Sound also received a BAFTA
Award Scotland, a Lola for Best Sound Design and the 2006 One
World Film Festival’s prize for Best Sound.
Meanwhile, Thomas Wartmann’s Between the Lines – India’s
Third Gender has been to over 20 festivals, winning such commendations
as the Vision School Award at the Ophuels Festival in
Saarbruecken and the Audience Award at Turin’s Gay & Lesbian Film
Festival. The film was on the German Film Academy’s shortlist this
year in the German Film Awards’ categories for Best Sound and Best
Editing.
Moreover, Annette Dittert’s The Search for Happiness was
sold to the UK’s BBC and Russia’s Channel One, won two Adolf
Grimme Awards and received nominations for the German Camera
Prize and the International Emmy Awards.
Martin Blaney
german films quarterly producers’ portrait
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