It took me by surprise when my lover wanted to break up. A few weeks later he contacted me again and wanted all back to normal. I told him that I’m writing him a letter. He said, don’t write a letter, make a film.

This film is made up of unsent love/good-bye letters from my archives. It spans a decade. It was photographed as I was writing a letter in October 2008, documenting a day at the computer.

As a voice over I am using excerpts from unsent letters I wrote to my partners as we were breaking up or not coming together. The different excerpts make one long good-bye letter spoken by me. I jump from 1997/98 to 2001 and 2004. The excerpts are not in a chronological oder, but sorted by content and have short titles.

I talk about what is wrong in the relationship and what is missing for me. How I see myself and what I look for in a partnership. The letters have an obsessive feel, as I try and clear and resolve, what is not possible to discuss with my partners. All have gone through a kind of mid-life crisis as they opted against our relationship.

The picture is a chronological photo story of me waking in the morning through the afternoon in my loft in Berlin. Working on a letter the whole day. Making and having coffee, taking a bath and washing my hair or eating a bun. In between I write and think, the letter gets longer. All the time the phone is beside me, I am waiting for a call.

The last scene is moving image through the loft. I am not at home, the phone rings, but no message is left on the answering machine.
 

Born: 1965, Germany
Filmstudies: Simon Fraser University, Center for the Arts in the Mid-80's

Lives in Berlin and works as Director/Producer.

Filmography:

1983
LIVIN’ IN THE CITY
12 min., S-8, Three-Screen-Projection
Experimental Film

1983
DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN?
3 min., 16 mm, B/W, silent
Short feature

1985
RUBBLEWOMEN / TRÜMMERFRAUEN
15 min., 16 mm, Colour & B/W
Directed in collaboration with Ian Doncaster and Bryan Sutton
Experimental Documentary
 
1989
SUMMER OF INNOVATIVE FILM 1989 I+II
2 x 20 min., Betacam, Documentary
Directed in collaboration with P. Buitenhuis
RIAS-TV, Berlin
 
1992
EAST...WEST...HOME’S BEST
75 min., 16 mm, Documentary
Director and Producer

1994
A WOMAN AND HER DOUBLE-BASS (Fragment)
approx. 10 min., M II, short film
Director, Line Producer
Part of the compilation film „Liebessplitter“ 3 sat
 
1997
ABOUT WALTER BENJAMIN I-III
3 x 12 min., Beta, arte, Documentary (Bio-pic)
Author/Director

2009
BORN UNFINISHED
29 min. DVD
Photo film, autobiographical Documentary

Work in Progress:
HEAD COLD
Feature length Documentary, long-term observation