SONJA HEISS | AUTHOR & DIRECTOR
Sonja Heiss is a filmmaker and novelist based in Berlin, Germany. Her films HOTEL VERY WELCOME, HEDI SCHNEIDER IS STUCK and WHEN WILL IT BE AGAIN LIKE IT NEVER WAS BEFORE premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, received numerous awards and were shown at various festivals around the world. Sonja Heiss was nominated for Best Director and Best Scriptwriter at the German Film Awards. Her film WHEN WILL IT BE AGAIN LIKE IT NEVER WAS BEFORE was nominated for Best Film. Over 500.000 people saw it in German Cinemas.
In 2011, Berlin Verlag / Bloomsbury, published her highly acclaimed collection of short stories, DAS GLÜCK GEHT AUS (‘Running Out of Luck’). RIMINI, her first and critically acclaimed novel was published in 2017 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch. It was in the Spiegel bestseller list. She is working on her next novel for Kiepenheuer & Witsch with the working title “Louise Stein no longer has a body”. She also wrote for magazines, such as Harpers Bazar, Madame, Vanity Fair, FAZ Quarterly and Süddeutsche Zeitung. She frequently has worked as a visiting professor at a variety of German film schools. She just co-wrote and directed the series DEADLINES for ZDF / Second German Television, is writing her next feature film for cinema with the title RAGING MOMS and is working on the adaption of her novel RIMINI.
Workshop content
- Comparing film and literary source material
- In terms of scenic storytelling, dialogue, transforming inner monologue and descriptive sentences into action, conveying tone and mood
- Characteristics of source material and implications for adaptation
- Preparing a treatment and screenplay through one-liners that provide an overview of the material, as novels typically contain many times more scenes than a movie.
- Rearranging scenes for a cinematic dramaturgy
- Translating descriptions and ideas into scenes
- Artistic freedom in adaptation
- Appropriating the characters and their story
- Finding the one core theme of the movie versus the book
- Reading example scenes from famous novels that were adapted for the screen and comparing them to the film scenes, discussing the way the author and director approached it.
Workshop language:
English à Participants should have a good command of the English language
Workshop dates in Cairo: 1
9th-20th of September 2024 from 11am – 4pm (Goethe-Institut Dokki, 17 Hussein Wassef, Midan El Missaha)
Workshop dates in Alexandria: 23rd-24th of September 2024, 11am-4pm (Cultural Garage, Dr. Ibrahim Abd El-Sayed Str. 6)
Please note that watching Sonja Heiss’ film “Wann wird es endlich wieder so wie es nie war” (“When will it be again like it never was before”) at the Goethe Film Week before the workshop is obligatory.
Film screening in Cairo:
18th of September 2024, 7pm (Goethe-Institut Dokki, 17 Hussein Wassef, Midan El Missaha)
Film screening in Alexandria:
22nd of September 2024, 7pm (Goethe-Institut Alexandria, 10 Al-Batalsa St., Azarita)
Registration
Please send the following information for the workshops in Cairo or Alexandria by 07.09.2024 to: programm-alexandria@goethe.de
Application questions:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- E-mail address
- Cell phone number
- Why do you want to take part in the workshop?
- What is your previous experience with filmmaking?
Which workshop would you like to attend? Please choose from the locations listed below:
- Alexandria: 23rd-24th of September 2024, 10am-3pm (Cultural Garage, 6, Dr. Ibrahim Abd El-Sayed Str.)
- Cairo: 19th-20th of September 2024 from 10am – 3pm (Goethe-Institut Dokki, 17 Hussein Wassef, Midan El Missaha)
Only accepted applicants will be contacted by email on September 10th, 2024.