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Body Language

BODY LANGUAGE is a black & white short-film by Dorith Mous and Alexander Haessner.

It tells the story of a girl, Ree, who loses love and acquires a broken heart. We follow Ree along her way to find closure by using her body as a diary. Ree seems self destructive and lost, but as she creatively expresses her emotions through the movement of her fingertips, you’ll soon realize she quite literally wears her heart on her sleeve.

  • Alexander Haessner
    Director
  • Dorith Mous
    Director
  • Dorith Mous
    Writer
  • Alexander Haessner
    Producer
  • Dorith Mous
    Key Cast
  • Ramon Reyes
    Score
  • Alexander Haessner
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 48 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 23, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    800 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:1
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Gotham Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    November 9, 2015
    New York Premiere
    2nd Price
  • LJFFF
    La Jolla
    United States
    July 30, 2015
    North America
  • IFFA Hollywood
    Los Angeles
    United States
    December 15, 2015
Director Biography - Alexander Haessner, Dorith Mous

Dorith Mous
Dorith Mous, born in Amsterdam in 1986, has spent over half her life in front of the camera as a high fashion model. She lived a nomadic life for over ten years, spending most of her time in cities like Los Angeles, London, Paris and Tokyo.
In 2012, the then 26-year-old Dutchie, moved to the Big Apple and smoothly transitioned into photography, which she had been practicing since the age of 12. Specializing in portraiture and documentary, she is essentially interested in telling a person’s story through imagery. She had her first solo exhibition in NYC in 2013.
Dorith has been featured in Magazines across the globe as a photographer as well as a writer, but still image and the written word didn’t seem to suffice on it’s own anymore. The new New Yorker joined her own forces and started telling stories through moving images in early 2015 with her director- and screenplay debut in the short film Body Language.
Inspired by the many different ways of creativity, she is a true Jack of all traits and wears her many hats in the art world with success.

Alexander Haessner
Alexander Haessner is an award-winning German-born New York and Los Angeles-based filmmaker and photographer
After completing his studies in art, Alexander began his photographic career in Germany and gained a reputation as a fine art and portrait photographer. Specializing in the Motion Picture Industry, Alexander traveled throughout Europe as a High-Speed Cinematographer. After moving to the United States in 2002, he began fine-tuning his abilities at the renowned Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara and graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree, an Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Departmental Award given to students who “make a difference”.
Haessner’s quest to tell stories eventually led him to the short film genre where he has carved a niche as an emerging talent.
Since 2005, Alexander is based out of Williamsburg, New York, and since 2015 he established a new base out of Los Angeles, California.

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Director Statement

Dutch-born Dorith Mous, the writer and co-director of Body Language, took a leap in 2013 by basing herself in NYC after spending three years in Los Angeles. Moving into a tiny room in a dark apartment, she unpacked a box filled with books and diaries.

In there, she found an old scrap book that held many short stories and poetry. Inspired by her own words from the past, she decided to once again pick up her grandfather’s fountain pen. She flipped to a blank page and wrote the story that became Body Language.

For nearly two years, this short screenplay was on the shelf for lack of the right person to put her words and feelings into moving image. Meeting German-born and award-winning cinematographer and director Alexander Haessner on set of a video shoot put an end to the search. The two creatives clicked like Legos and Dorith pitched him her story. Autobiographical as it seemed to Alexander, he proposed not to cast but have Dorith play the protagonist called “Ree” herself.

Two weeks later, the film was recorded with nothing but a room and a RED camera. The newfound friends worked side by side on everything involved in the project from start to end. The third and only other member of the crew was the creator of the ever so essential original score, which was composed by LA-based Ramon Reyes.