German-Australian filmmaker Ella Knorz grew up in Heidelberg and experimented with filmmaking from a young age. The creativity has paid off because her short film NINE DAYS IN AUGUST has made its way to film festivals including Drama International Film Festival, Interfilm Berlin, and Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. 

We caught up with the filmmaker, whose work appears on T-Port courtesy of our partners at HFF München, to chat about inspiration, the process, and intuitive filmmaking. 

Hi Ella! Could you please introduce yourself in a few lines?

I was born into a German-Australian family, growing up in the picturesque town of Heidelberg, yet always feeling torn between continents. The filmmaking virus hit me when my best high school friend and I started experimenting with her iPod touch – a brand-new little device with endless creative possibilities. She later went into the music business.

I’ve stuck with movies until today. What I love about the cinematic language is that it combines so many art forms I deeply love: Writing, photography, performance, design, sound art, music and many more…

So in the time between being a ten-year-old and receiving my film school diploma I’ve made not less than 100 short films.

Why did you choose film as your medium? Is it your only artistic outlet or do you have others? 

I think I can really count myself among the first generation of digital natives – I don’t know the world without the internet, without being surrounded by images, or without a digital camera pointing somewhere towards me. So to me, film always felt like the closest medium to express my emotional experience of being human in the 21st century. Moreover, I love how it has the strength to describe the world without having to explain it.

I also feel this freedom in photography and writing, but nonetheless film has the strongest impact and depth for me.