HE-LI GEISSLER

I found my first form of artistic expression at twelve, on a skateboard. A handrail, a concrete ledge, a flight of stairs: each became a surface for reinvention. The board was my tool for self-empowerment, a way of claiming public space and reading the city against its intended use. That instinct to see things differently, and therefore tell them differently, still drives my work as a writer and filmmaker. It also defines what I stand for. My focus is on questioning established narratives of gender and identity, and on reimagining them both cinematically and aesthetically.

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My storytelling is grounded in two master's degrees. The first is in Directing and Cinematography from the University of Art and Design Linz. The second is in Writing and Creative Producing from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Just as formative were fifteen years of hands-on practice: I worked at the award-winning Theater Hausruck as creative production assistant to its Nestroy Award–winning artistic director, helping to develop innovative, interactive theatre productions and creating the media design for them. As a documentary filmmaker and editor, I've made films on socially relevant topics, several of them closely connected to the theatre's work. I've also worked with my own production company for international brands. Through that work I've learned to find the narrative heart of every project and bring it out with precision.

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My visual language was shaped by masterclasses with internationally renowned filmmakers. In cinematography and lighting, these included Christian Berger AAC (The White Ribbon), gaffer Jakob Ballinger (By the Sea) and Nicola Daley (The Handmaid's Tale). My sense of light was further refined by camera experts Achim Dunker and Thomas Benesch, professor at the Film Academy Vienna. I sharpened my documentary eye in dialogue with Wolfgang Widerhofer, one of the defining figures of Austrian documentary film. I explored directing with Katharina Mückstein and dramaturgy with Keith Cunningham. Online masterclasses with Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae, two of the most influential storytellers in American television, rounded this out.

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For me, cinematography is never just about producing high-end moving images. Whether I'm writing a scene or framing it, my guiding principle is the same: motion changes emotion. On the page, that means characters who are moved, who shift, resist and change. In the image, it means a camera that doesn't just capture that movement but makes it felt. So every scene starts with one question: does it work dramatically and spatially? Thinking story and image together, and shaping both with intention, is at the core of my craft.

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As a practitioner of Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi, I train my sense for the decisive moment. I carry that discipline straight into the edit. I sense when an image unfolds its full power and when the rhythm of the montage calls for the next impulse. It's the search for the unmistakable detail that defines my stories.

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My award-winning short film YOU&ME was screened at the Short Film Corner in Cannes. I'm currently developing my feature debut – funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. I adapted a novel shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 into a series. I see this work as translation: preserving the dramatic depth and the core of the original while finding its audiovisual form. Feature film, series adaptation, documentary or brand film: the form changes, the question doesn't. What is this story really about, and how can it be felt? Script, image and edit all serve that answer, and the approach always stays cinematic.