Intern helps link Memphis' budding movie industry to thriving German cinema

Photo by Alan Spearman // Buy this photo

"I've always been fascinated by how movies were produced," said Julia Donner, a film production intern from Berlin, Germany, who has been working at the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission this summer. Behind her is a poster for a made-in-Memphis movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt."

A film fan, film student, film production assistant and possible future filmmaker, Julia Donner of Germany turns 24 in Memphis on Wednesday.

The next day, she heads back home to Berlin, after nearly 11 weeks here as an unofficial ambassador of cinema, working to connect the historically significant and still-thriving movie culture and business of Germany with the emerging film industry of Memphis.

Photo by Alan Spearman

"I've always been fascinated by how movies were produced," said Julia Donner, a film production intern from Berlin, Germany, who has been working at the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission this summer. Behind her is a poster for a made-in-Memphis movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt."

With near-flawless English, Donner describes herself as "a total Berliner," but adds: "I love it here, I really love it. It was not just the work experience but the cultural experience -- really, the American way of life."

During her time here, Donner scouted locations for the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission, helped shoot audition footage for an upcoming Craig Brewer project and worked on a Bacon Brothers/Bellamy Brothers music video at the Shelby County Correction Center, among other activities.

"I've always been fascinated by how movies were produced, by how many people work to get a movie done -- the behind-the-scenes stuff," said Donner, who studied film production, accounting and promotion through the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, a state-sponsored program to support filmmaking in Germany. She also worked at the enormous Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, where such films as "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise, "The Reader" with Kate Winslet and Quentin Tarantino's upcoming "Inglourious Basterds" have been shot.

Donner's trip was organized by the Film Commission with sponsorship by FedEx and MemphisED, the economic development component of Memphis Fast Forward, a multi-agency initiative to improve local safety, government efficiency, education and business (including the music and film industries).

The visit is "a seed" intended to lead to the growth of projects between the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission and the Berlin-Brandenburg Film Commission, which already had established an alliance through Memphis Film Commissioner Linn Sitler's friendship with Babelsberg Studios head Henning Molfenter, who was in Memphis in 1996, assisting director Milos Forman on "The People vs. Larry Flynt." Later, Molfenter served as a Berlin-based consultant for the Memphis commission.

"I think we are at the beginning of something good here," said Tom Schmitt, 44, president and CEO of FedEx Global Supply Chain Services and chairman of the Greater Memphis Chamber. "I don't want to make this sound bigger than it is, but at the same time I want to recognize the potential that exists. We are starting small, but the sky's the limit."

A native of the small town of Biberach, Germany, Schmitt was enthusiastic about bringing Donner to Memphis. "There's something to be gained by exchanging ideas, exchanging players, collaborating with each other -- it could be anything from shooting movies, co-producing or just hooking up with a place with a lot of tradition and history in this industry. Just kind of plant a seed."

Historically, the German film industry is arguably the most important in the Western world, outside of Hollywood.

During the silent and early sound years, Germany's famous UFA (Universum Film AG) studio -- now the site of Babelsberg -- produced an astonishing series of milestones and masterpieces, including "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," F.W. Murnau's "The Last Laugh," Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel," with Marlene Dietrch.

The rise of the Nazis caused many key filmmakers to flee, but Germany re-emerged after the war with significant works by such directors as Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog, as well as such less-lauded international commercial successes as the naughty "Schoolgirl Reports" features and the shockers known as krimi, inspired by the novels of Edgar Wallace.

In recent years, Germany has been a top location for international co-productions, thanks to its studio space. For example, a full scale recreation of the famous circular gallery in New York's Guggenheim Museum was built at Babelsberg for the recent conspiracy thriller "The International," with Clive Owen.

As a film center, Memphis is Mickey Mouse compared to Germany's King Kong. But in such films as "Nothing But the Truth" and "A Family Thing," Memphis has demonstrated that it can "star" onscreen as Washington, Chicago and other cities. So German filmmakers looking for U.S. locations could choose economically attractive Memphis for all types of stories, Sitler said.

Also, the German government is extremely supportive of the arts, so funding is potentially available for Memphis filmmakers interested in German co-productions.

An only child whose parents work for Germany's postal service, Donner became fascinated with movies as a child, watching Hollywood productions on TV and pursuing film programs in school.

She said she learned about Memphis' growing investment in film when she contacted the Berlin-Brandenburg Film Commission to inquire about international opportunities. "I knew there were lots of film commissions around the world, and I was always wanting to work for one," she said.

She discovered Berlin and Memphis already had a relationship. Interest in a "film production internship" for Donner grew, and Donner and Sitler met for the first time in February, at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival.

In Memphis, Donner -- who had visited the U.S. twice before, in 2007 and 2005, but had never been to the South -- has been a guest at the Downtown home of Karl and Gail Schledwitz. "She's been a delight -- it's just like having one of our daughters home," said Gail Schledwitz, owner of Southland Companies, a real estate firm.

"I would love to stay longer -- I love the people I'm dealing with," Donner said. "It's not that people aren't nice in Germany, but the hospitality here is so impressive. I never thought I would love it so much to be away from home."

Donner said the Memphis experience has increased her certainty that she wants to devote her life to the film industry, possibly as a producer. "I will surely come back, and I would really like to come back with some kind of movie."

She said she'll encourage others to come to Memphis, too.

"I will really tell people, if they want to shoot in the States, why not here?"

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