Florian Habicht: A Talk about Life, Film and Storytelling

Overview

Filmmaker Florian Habicht has ten years of experience in the industry, and is constantly searching for new ways to tell stories and share ideas. His films are seductive, whisking audiences away into new worlds, and allowing them the chance to fall in love with the splendour that caught his eye. At his talk on 'Life, Film and Storytelling', he shares with Robyn Malcom how he has developed his creative process over the past decade, working alone and in collaboration with other artists to make his films. "I love mixing my life with art, music, storytelling, acting, exploring, experimenting… I feel very lucky to be a filmmaker. And to share the films I've made" Habicht says.

Habicht was born in Berlin and moved with his family to the Bay of Islands when he was eight years old, attending high school in Kerikeri prior to attending the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts. It was at Elam that he began to make films; utilising his classmates as actors and collaborators. His first film of note was Liebestraume (2000) about musician Killer Ray.

So far he's has made six recognised films, including Woodenhead (2003), a surreal musical fairytale which was nominated in the Best Digital Feature section of the New Zealand Film and TV Awards and screened at a range of international festivals, and Love Story (2011), which Best Film, Best Director and Best editor at the New Zealand Film Awards and in 2012 won the Audience Choice Award at the Pluk de Nacht Outdoor Film Festival in Amsterdam. Love Story saw the filmmaker cast himself as the lead in a romance film set in New York which was constructed based entirely on strangers' suggestions.