Private Project

IN THE WINGS

The documentary IN THE WINGS observes three theatre companies during their performances of Shakespeare's play ‘TWELFTH NIGHT’ - exclusively backstage, where women become men, men become women and people become characters.

  • Raphael Schanz
    Writer
    Alleingang (2021, 28min), Durch die Bank (2023, 30min)
  • Jenny Fitz
    Writer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    ALLE SPIELEN WAS IHR WOLLT
  • Project Type:
    Other
  • Number of Pages:
    10
  • Language:
    German
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Raphael Schanz, Jenny Fitz

RAPHAEL SCHANZ grew up in Hildesheim and lives as a director and producer in Berlin. He studied Communication and Social Sciences and Political Communication in Erfurt, Berlin and Jerusalem. He studied documentary film directing at the self-organised film school filmArche e.V. in Berlin. Together with Philipp Seifert, he is the co-founder of the film production company panther reh. He has directed several short documentary films. His film ‘Alleingang’ premiered at the Max Ophüls Prize in 2022. He was a scholarship holder of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and took part in the dok.art funding programme (Drehbuchwerkstatt München, HFF München) and the Pitch_IT@Berlinale programme (Goethe-Institut, Filmakademie Baden-Würtemberg, FAMU Prague). Raphael Schanz is a member of the AG DOK and the futurDOK young talent group, where he is currently designing a mentoring programme.

Trained as a photographer and anthropologist, Berlin artist JENNY FITZ worked on her first short film in 2015. In 2022, she created the film ‘Zettels Kampf’ together with filmmaker Fabian Prokein, which tells the chaotic and enthusiastic odyssey of a theatre group in Shakespeare's ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. Her love of theatre and the events on and behind the stage has led to numerous collaborations with actors and artists since 2010. In 2013, she completed the 4-year long-term portrait ‘Kammerspiel’ about a young actor. The social portrait is at the centre of her artistic work.

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Writer Statement

We all play theatre. Just as Shakespeare's characters deceive and are deceived, we put on masks, slip into roles or are pigeonholed by others. This social masked ball has fascinated me for a long time. ‘In My Eyes’ (2016) was about how refugees perceive themselves and others, and “Alleingang” (2021) was about a funeral director trying to fulfil a role on his stage - that of the cemetery - and during my work in the German Bundestag, I was also fascinated by the spaces and back rooms that remain hidden from public view away from the stage of the plenary chamber. The backstage of the theatre is a highly interesting space in which we can examine not only the nature of acting, but also the negotiation of gender identity and the boundary between fiction and reality. IN THE WINGS is about the acting process before the show, the interplay between human and figur and the relationship between front and back stage. These are all aspects that combine my love of artistic documentary film with my background in social sciences.

RAPHAEL SCHANZ, AUTHOR & DIRECTOR

The idea of making a film about the world behind the stage came in 2019 when I photographed a performance of TWELTH NIGHT in Rosslau, Sachsen-Anhalt. Being backstage and in the wings with the actors opened up a fascinating parallel world. One experience in particular has stayed in my mind ever since: one of the actors (role: Orsino) - his actual stage time was comparatively short - spent the time speaking along with his colleagues' lines, developping a full-on comedy act behind the stage. I never found out if he was just passing the long wait and had found a way for himself to maintain a certain energy level, or if he was inventing a show for me and the camera - but it was very entertaining, and made me see the profession, or vocation, of acting in a new light. For me, this is the research approach of this film: experiencing and bringing to life social practices and rituals in the world of the backstage, which can bring us closer not only to the various ensembles and their work with Shakespeare, but also to the joy of play(ing), losing each other, finding each other again, the joy of the chaotic search for meaning and the laughter that can redeem us when we fail, or get stuck in our throats - our decision.

JENNY FITZ, AUTHOR & CINEMATOGRAPHER