Films by Nadja Smith

2022, 105 min
by Tina Tripp

"Shall I stay or shall I go?" This question makes young people in East Pomerania sway between departure and attachment to their homeland, pragmatism and diffuse longings. MID SEASON follows 4 trainees in the hotel business on an island that is disintegrating into a booming, touristy coastal strip with shiny facades and a desolate hinterland. Just as their place of work, the hotel, is a transitory place, so the young people are in a transitory phase of life.»Bleiben oder Gehen?« Diese Frage lässt Jugendliche in Ostvorpommern schwanken zwischen Aufbruch und Heimatverbundenheit, zwischen Pragmatismus und diffusen Sehnsüchten. Sie leben in einem Land, das zerfällt in einen touristischen Küstenstreifen mit Hochglanzfassade und ein verödendes, langsam ausblutendes Hinterland. ZWISCHENSAISON lässt vier Auszubildende als ProtagonistInnen auftreten, setzt sie in einer visuell inszenierten Form in Bezug zu ihren Lebensräumen und stellt die Frage: Wohin ins Leben aufbrechen an einem Ort, der gezeichnet ist von auseinanderdriftenden gesellschaftlichen Verhältnissen.

Germany 2020, 110 min
by Janna Ji Wonders

In her documentary family saga WALCHENSEE FOREVER, director Janna Ji Wonders embarks on a deeply personal voyage of discovery spanning a century: She takes us from the family café at the Bavarian Walchensee to San Francisco to the infamous "Summer of Love“ and discovers the secrets of her family to track down their role in the generation chain. Surrounded by mountains, lake Walchensee rests in its endless dynamic and is the dramaturgical center of their life and this film. WALCHENSEE FOREVER is a very modern, soft and feminine documentary and a poetic project about generations of women, the circle of life and about the bond to one’s own roots.Statement of the Jury Compass-Perspektive-Award:This film is a crystal. The longer you look at it, the more you discover new facets. It portrays women of a family in Bavaria over five generations. Supplemented by extraordinary material obtained from the family's private archive, the protagonists report honestly, cleverly and directly to the camera. Accordingly, an overall picture of private life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries emerges from these individual stories. Everything that is told remains personal and individual and, not least because of the modest attitude of the filmmaker and her protagonists, it develops an overwhelming strength. Cleverly assembled, clearly filmed and narrated and produced with warm-heartedness, we listen to and watch Apa, Norma, Anna, Frauke and Janna. The silent chronicler of it all is the Walchensee, which connects all their lives.