Jonas Brand: "There's a Lot of Personality in Every Character"

Jonas, what film experience made you want to go into the film industry?

Jonas Brand: My father used to be a technician at the Kulturmobil Niederbayern. This is a travelling theater organized by the district and regional theater of Lower Bavaria. As a teenager, I was always allowed to go on tour and saw the plays what felt like a hundred times. I was very fascinated by the theater. Back then, the program included a children's play, an adult play, a short film and a feature film. I was thrilled to see how the plays and films were received by the audience and how you could reach people with them.

You also gained experience as a director in the theater, but your career choice fell mainly on filmmaking. Why?

Jonas: I actually had the dream of writing a novel when I was very young. First and foremost, I wanted to learn how to write – it wasn't yet clear which medium. That's how I became aware of the possibility of studying screenwriting at a film school and ultimately ended up in film.

About 40 people work on a film project

What happened to the planned novel?

Jonas: I had worked out an idea at the time and was in talks with a few publishers, but in the end I was too young and too inexperienced for all of them. The material wasn't quite ready yet either, maybe I should try again – 18 years later. (laughs)

The fact that it didn't work out back then gave you the chance to study as a guest student at the HFF in Munich and to study screenwriting at the Babelsberg Film University in Potsdam. How important was this time for you?

Jonas: In preparation for my studies, I did various internships on film shoots – that's where I discovered my enthusiasm for film work. First and foremost, I was fascinated by the teamwork, seeing how many people work on a project like this. The process of making a movie is so comprehensive: with 30 or 40 people, you end up making something creative. This time was crucial for my future career.

Today you live in Munich and are still very attached to your hometown of Deggendorf. Why did you come back to Bavaria after your studies?

Jonas: First and foremost, I wanted to attend the scholarship program at Drehbuchwerkstatt München – as an unofficial master's degree, so to speak. The work there is very practice-oriented and I thought it was a great opportunity to develop myself further. I was also much closer to family and friends here and had many contacts from my time at the HFF that I wanted to maintain. If you want to make films, you primarily go to Berlin or Munich. Those are the two German centers.

How do the ideas for your stories and protagonists come about?

Jonas: Sometimes it's historical events that interest me. I come across them through newspaper articles, for example. Sometimes I stumble across historical figures, start researching and realize there's an interesting story in there. In other cases, I draw on personal experiences, feelings or encounters. Sometimes I remember anecdotes from my childhood and think about how they could be turned into a children's film, for example. And then there's the case where you get a commission. Then producers get in touch who have an idea for a movie and hire screenwriters to work on it.

The normal filming ratio is 1:10

How does this fixed idea become a finished movie?

Jonas: First of all, I carry this idea around with me for a while and think about what story it could actually contain. As soon as I'm convinced of the idea, I go to producers and see if there's any interest in it. In the best case scenario, someone will then say yes and the idea is developed further together. You then approach various broadcasters or apply for funding and hope that it goes ahead. So a project like this has to go through a lot of instances and each one has to agree to work on it. However, there is no guarantee that a script will actually be realized.

How frustrating is it when you put a lot of work into a project and nothing comes of it in the end?

Jonas: You need a lot of resilience. (laughs) It was pretty frustrating at first. But you get used to it very quickly because it's just part of this industry. Our professors told us during our studies that a normal filming ratio is 1:10. It's perfectly normal to work on projects for a long time that then come to nothing. Or disappear into a drawer for five years and then suddenly be dug out again. You never actually write for the garbage can – some producer remembers the idea and when the time comes, you continue working on it. That happens again and again.

What projects are you currently working on?

Jonas: I'm currently working on a documentary film, which is a project close to my heart. It's very personal and highly topical at the same time. In the movie, I'm going in search of my great-grandfather. He was shot as a Wehrmacht soldier in Kiev during the Second World War. After he fell, he was buried there, but nobody knows exactly where. My grandfather started looking for his father 20 years ago, but unfortunately without success. I took up the search and contacted the Kriegsgräberfürsorge, an association that looks after such fates and systematically searches for war dead. I quickly realized that there was a story behind it that went beyond our family history, because thousands of war dead are unearthed every year. And at the same time, war is being waged again in Ukraine and thousands of new fates of loss are being created.

Can you even plan how this story will end?

Jonas: No, I don't know what the movie will look like in the end. It could be that we find my great-grandfather, but it could also be that we don't find him. Either way, it will be a movie about transgenerational trauma. I'm investigating how this trauma of loss has affected the family. Unfortunately, my grandpa won't be able to see the result. He passed away a few weeks ago. We had a very nice funeral and I thought long and hard about whether we should film there. We then decided to do it, because that's also part of the story. For me, this work is very valuable because it gives me the freedom to deal with myself and at the same time tell something socially relevant.

Young talent in the film industry needs a stage

2017 was the first time you received the cultural sponsorship award from your home town of Deggendorf and founded the Deggendorf Short Film Festival as a result. How important is a stage like this for up-and-coming Bavarian filmmakers?

Jonas: It's the be-all and end-all, especially when you're starting out. There is no comparable event in the entire Bavarian Forest, but you have to present yourself somewhere and make a name for yourself. Such festivals are always curated, which means that if your own film is shown, that's a small accolade in itself. There are always other filmmakers in the audience with whom you can network. When I founded the festival, my main aim was to create an opportunity for young people to experience culture. For me as a young person, it was incredibly difficult to get to know anything about art and film in provincial Bavaria. I always try to get lots of filmmakers to come to the short film festival and ask them about their careers on stage – so that young people in a small town like Deggendorf can also get an idea of how they could follow this path themselves.