The Making Of: An exclusive look behind the scenes of 2 new international film projects

Ryan Cox, John Price, Stephanie Weimar, photo by Alan Zweig shot on location in Iglulik, NU, while filming Zweig‘s film There Is A House Here. Courtesy S. Weimar

The Goethe-Institut Toronto presents:

The Making Of: An exclusive look behind the scenes of 2 new international film projects

www.goethe.de/canada/germanfilm

As Toronto is gearing up to watch 300+ films at the Toronto International Film Festival, you might be wondering what goes into “the making of” a film, from the idea to the screen.

Over the next 12 months, the film blog German Film @ Canada offers you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at two very different projects in the making: one a German-Canadian documentary about the relationship between literature and landscape, looking ahead to Canada as the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair; the other an international feature film uncovering the true story of a 1980s German hockey club —featuring expensive Canadian NHL players– that dreamt of making it big … with the help of a dictator’s money.

How do you frame and pitch the idea and convince partners to come onboard? What does the collaborative process of filmmaking look like, the interplay between writers, producers, cinematographers, composers? How do you stay true to your characters, whether real or fictional or fictionalized? How does an editor shape the final film, how does a composer support the director’s vision?

Follow the Goethe-Institut’s blog German Film @ Canada for questions and answers, impressions and insights from two international filmmakers, Stephanie Weimar and Konstantin Bock, alternating bi-monthly in talking about their film-making as they go.

As of September, we will introduce you to Berlin’s Konstantin Bock (Hattie Goes Cruising), who edited Oscar nominee Capernaum and is in development for his directorial feature debut THE ICE KING with his writing partner Stefanie Schmitz (Back for Good; The Pilot’s Wife). To save his struggling hockey club, a small-town German property developer makes a deal with no other than Libya’s Muammar al-Gaddafi, just to find himself on the dark side of international espionage and global oil interests, at a time when the first major Islamist terror attack shakes Berlin, Germany, and the world. Beyond private moral conflicts and high-stakes political intrigue that are as current now as 30 years ago, the film is also meant as a love story between a manager and his players. The story is so bizarre it has to be based on real events: Bock secured the story from a former German spy, who was involved in the events and is willing to offer up his archive and his collaboration for this project.

Starting in October, get to know Toronto filmmaker Stephanie Weimar (My Brother’s Vows; Equator – Line of Life), who has just started shooting with authors Madeleine Thien in Vancouver, BC, Eden Robinson in Kitamaat Village, BC, and Michael Winter in Western Bay, Newfoundland. Nine more writers and their home regions will follow as Weimar explores the artists’ work. This series brings to life the creative process of Canada’s leading authors and poets who take us on an exhilarating journey across a country in the throes of intense soul-searching. The land speaks — but what does it say? Primitive Entertainment’s four-part documentary WRITING THE LAND will be broadcast by the CBC and Europe’s ARTE in the fall of 2020.

logo