STEFAN KLOOS MASTERCLASS
German producer Stefan Kloos shared his knowledge on developing, producing and packaging short documentaries during a Master Class on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at the IEK ACME, as part of the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century. He focused on the film project Breathless: Dominance of the Moment, a German-Czech co-production .
The project began two years ago, as an initiative of the German Federation of Cultural Organizations, the Leipzig festival and the Prague Documentary Institute. Czech and German filmmakers were asked to contribute novel ideas about documentary production on time and daily rhythms. The purpose of the initiative was to promote films that would otherwise would have very little chance of finding financing, while encouraging cultural dialogue between Germany and the Czech Republic. Five out of over 130 proposals were accepted – two from the Czech Republic and three from Germany .
“The committee didn’t just want to finance these projects, since in any case the money would not be enough to complete the films. We wanted to give the filmmakers the opportunity to realize their ideas without needing to compromise”, Kloos said. “There were a series of workshops held, where the filmmakers had to pitch their projects, exchange ideas and receive feedback on changes they could make”, he noted. The films had to be up to 30’ long, and although they were all to be presented in one piece, under the title Breathless: Dominance of the Moment, they were not expected to be similar to each other. Advisors during production were Miroslav Janek, from the Czech Republic, Peter Badel and Stephan Krumbiegel from Germany, Niels Pagh Andersen from Denmark, Susanna Helke from Finland, Clare Paterson from the UK and Catherine Rascon from France.
Excerpts from the five films were presented at the Master Class. These were One Day Today Will Be Once by Miruna Lazarescu, Milltown Μontana by Rainer Komers, I love my boring life by Jan Gogola, Time’s up by Marie Catherine Theiler and Jan Peters, and Phantom of liberty ΙΙ by Karel Zalud. The project was screened last October at the Leipzig festival.
