Week Seven

In this week’s class we accomplished a lot. We watched Die Mauer, which I surprisingly enjoyed. I’m a girl that likes a film to have literary substance, some sort of story. But, this film didn’t need it. The images were quite loud enough. I think that time, still being so recent and controversially charged, is also still fresh and fascinating. To be able to pull together a film that documented the Wall being torn down is amazing. I just loved seeing the various ways that people reacted to the Wall, which, in-turn, conveyed what the wall meant to them. A place of work, security, obstacle to freedom, touristic-wonder, a piece of history to be bought, sold or destroyed. My favorite use and discussion point was the Wall as a canvas and a stage—as a place of expression. The most haunting image was of the woman performing a sort of dance up against the wall, crawling and clawing at it. There’s nothing like good, old-fashioned oppression to open a door to artistic creation, right?
So, oppression. Right. What do I have to work with as a writer? Well, there is, of course, being a woman in a male-driven society. And, then there’s me being in religious conflict for about five years now. Thank you, Catholicism and the Bay Area! And, mixing the all three is just plain cruel—Feminism AND Catholicism?! And, don’t even get me started on growing up in a whole family full of scientists, when I want to go into liberal arts. But, being fully serious, there is nothing like removing yourself from it all to realize what may have been holding you back. I feel very lucky to be able to do that. Here in Berlin, I feel like anything is possible. I have had endless things to write about. The creative energy is so incredible.
And, this week, we had Wolfgang Kohlhaase as a guest speaker! He’s a former GDR screenplaywriter, who has been working in the film industry since he was 20. And, he’s had a long and successful career since then. He’s living the dream! (Making it as a writer, that is). It was very cool meeting him. And, let me tell you, he’s a talker (which is a good thing for a storyteller). During the talk, he covered a lot of my questions about his career. But, after class, I decided to ask him a few questions. When is the next time I’m going to be able to? I ended up asking him for advise for someone who wanted to become a writer. And, he told me that above all, I should love people, no matter what. If I can love people and take interesting in everyday people, I will never have trouble finding an interesting story. And, then he went on for another 20 minutes and we just talked about writing in general. It was really cool.
Now, the only problem is, while I am having a very lucky time as a writer, I’m having a ridiculously hard time as a filmmaker. I’m admitting it now. I’m suffering from filmmaker’s block. Last week, it seemed that I had my film figured out. And, in theory, I do. But, I don’t know what to film. I know what it’s about, but I don’t know how to fill it. Something is missing, and I don’t know what it is.