“What’s up Next?” is a series of articles and interviews meant to better showcase the trajectories of our Next Talents.
We are meeting the 2024-2025 generation in two key moments: at the start of their trajectory – focussing on finding out more about the artists and what they expect from the program, and at the end of their course, discussing the things they picked up on the way.
With this first interview we are introducing you to documentary filmmaker and writer Renee Schräder.
Renee is a filmmaker focused on LGBTQ+ rights and the human-nature relationship. They graduated from St. Joost School of Art and Design in 2023, with a short documentary named Oaia Neagră (translated: Black Sheep). They basically rolled out of school into the Next program. “I have very few other experiences to speak of, but I am all the more grateful for it” Renee mentions. “Next pulled me out of that black hole that superseded graduating. Right now I am working on a new documentary that follows trans immigrants in the Netherlands and the questionable heteronormative IND interrogations they have to endure.”
We asked Renee to tell us more about a project close to their heart. “My graduation film is very special to me. It started with a plan to make a film about the connection between people and nature in rural Romania, since the biodiversity there is the highest in Europe. But on my very first day in the Transilvanian village, I fell in love. I panicked, of course, because not only would this love potentially derail my plans, it was also a queer love caught in a web of unmoving traditions and judgemental Christianity. It took only a few weeks for the entire village to find out something gay was going on, and soon after we were followed, spied on, threatened, assaulted. It was this experience, and the realisation that so many other queer people have to deal with this and much worse on the daily, that made me change course. Our relationship and the village’s reaction to it became the main theme of the film, poured into a diary form that puts the viewer right in the middle of it. I like to think of it as a love letter to anyone who’s ever been made to feel the way we did: like the odd ones out.”
The development of the Oaia Neagră (Black Sheep) film is quite telling for Renee‘s work process. “I create either from a place of curiosity, or a feeling of injustice. Making documentary film something that is no longer an extractive but instead a mutually beneficial process is something I spend a lot of time researching, thinking about, and implementing. One aspect of doing this involves my completely immersing myself in the world I am about to film. I get up close and personal, and often end up being a part of the story too. Not because I think I am that important, but because I never want the viewer to forget that my film is only my perspective and couldn’t be further from an objective truth, if such a thing even exists. This method also gives my films something disarming; it deletes a barrier, a distance that might otherwise make it more difficult for a viewer to relate to a story that is so far from their own. It might be best described as magical brutalism, a term I borrowed from writer Alvina Chamberland: a genre that lies in-between celebrating the magical and exposing the brutal.”
Talking about their inspiration, Renee mentions: “Some documentaries that have really inspired me lately are Anna Hint’s Smoke Sauna Sisterhood and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters. The films couldn’t be more different in style, but I think there’s something very similar in the way the directors have approached the documentary making process. They put their character’s wishes and wellbeing first, and manage to recreate an entire world in only 90 minutes of film. It goes to show that there’s really no need to disrespect someone’s privacy or boundaries to make a good documentary.”
We asked Renee also about their expectations from the Next: “For me, the program is the perfect stepping stone between graduating and starting life as an independent documentary filmmaker. The coaching, the workshops, and the group of fellow creators all-together are like a roadmap to building a solid foundation as a filmmaker – one I would have very much struggled to find on my own. I hope I get to build this foundation during the program, and put the structure to the test with working on one bigger and a few smaller (research) projects.
The idea of having some structural support in figuring out the maze that is the film world, I think would appeal to any recently graduated filmmaker. So when I heard about Next from a teacher I had at St. Joost, who had joined the trajectory herself when she was starting out, I was immediately interested.”
As the program is known for its facilitating meetings between the talents and guest mentors, we were also curious about Renee‘s dream mentor. “I would love to have a coffee with [Estonian film director] Anna Hints and pick their brain on their latest film, the importance of queer representation in film, and her methods for making ethically sound documentaries. If they could then go on to be my mentor both in film and in life, I think it would only be slightly dramatic to say I could die happy.”
Being the creative force that they are, sporting a strong passion as well as a great eye for catching the subjects worthy of being portrayed on the big screen, we cannot wait to see all the exciting things Renee Schräder will develop throughout this program!