ENERGIE Directed By Thorsten Fleisch

Shane: Tell us about your film?

Thorsten: My film 'energie!' was made with a 30.000 volts transformer and no camera. I directed the high voltage on photo paper and the discharges exposed it.

S: How did you come up with the idea for the film?

T: I've been fascinated with high voltages for quite some time. before I build a tesla coil which I found great but I didn't see any artistic potential in it. I then tried to expose 16mm filmstrips with high voltage discharges but although I liked the concept the result looked boring. more like fuzzy hair. when I experimented with making photographs (or photograms to be more specific) with high voltage discharges I was on my way to making a film that would interest me concept wise and aesthetically.

S: Was this a school project?

T: No

S: How did you find your cast?

T: I have no cast, does that make me an outcast?

S: LOL! How long did the film take?  (From conception to final edit)

T: hard to say, probably about two years of experimenting with high voltages every now and then. from the first electrophotographs to the finished film was maybe around 8 months. the actual animation in the computer when I had all the photos was maybe 2-3 months.

S: What was the most difficult part of the shoot for you?

T: resisting the urge to apply the high voltage to people I don't like

S: Tell us about the films festival experience so far?

T: it's been doing really great. lots of awards and around 150 festivals so far.

S: What has been your most interesting Q&A so far?  What was your favorite question?  How was the dialogue afterwards?

T: I haven't been to that many festivals myself actually. but a very nice experience was a screening (I presented a collection of my films including this one) I recently did in milan in italy. the people were really enthusiastic and I had a lot of nice conversations with interesting people afterwards. most memorable a girl who was fakir that later told me she sometimes gives her back as a medium for artists to make art with surgical instruments on her. she invited me to think of something we could do the next time we meet.

S: What films or filmmakers inspire you?

T: I loved tetsua by shinya tsukamoto and though I didn't like his recent films I think he's back with nightmare detective which I thought was very good. also sion sono makes interesting movies like strange circus or the room.

S: What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

T: I've always been into watching movies and at some point I fooled around with my dad's old super 8 camera together with a friend of mine (jens thiele who made the sound for this film by the way) and that was very inspiring.

 S: What is next for you?

T: My next film will be called 'dromosphere' and it's on the one hand an exploration of spacetime on the other hand an investigation of the inertia of human perception, in particular the perception of velocity. I build a special dolly that I synced with a digital camera for precise long time exposure over a certain distance.

S: What is next for the film?

T: More festivals, the ann arbor tour and it will be on french cable tv.

S: If asked to give one piece of advice to a new filmmaker making their first short film… What would it be?

T: Don't let other people confuse you or water down your own vision with crappy advice. let common sense guide you.