Director Biography - Jakob Zapf

Jakob Zapf, born 1983, lives and works in Frankfurt, Germany . He is executive director of the companies Neopol Film (Fiction, Series, Documentary) and clipkult (Advertising, Image), both located in Frankfurt.

As founding member of the initiative "Junge Generation Hessischer Film", as chairman of the board of directors of "Vereinigung Hessische Filmwirtschaft" as well as member of the supervisory board of the regional film fund "HessenFilm und Medien" he lobbies for better working conditions for filmmakers and producers in Hesse. Jakob Zapf is also a Member of the Filmhaus Frankfurt and Director’s Guild of Germany (BVR).

Since 2003 Jakob Zapf is working on short films, music videos, theater and performance projects that were showcased internationally and won numerous prizes. From 2004 to 2010 he studied theater-, film- and media studies, philosophy and art history in Frankfurt and Paris on a scholarship from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. During his studies he worked in different positions on several film and video projects. Additionally, he took part in several scriptwriting and directing classes, e.g. with Mark Travis, and wrote his master thesis about script work in Lindsay Andersons "if...." and Schlöndorffs "Der junge Törless".

Jakob Zapf has a lot of experience in marketing and advertising, and worked, among others, for UFA, U5Filmproduktion, RatPack, 20th Century Fox and the world sales agency The

Match Factory. Today he works as a writer, director, producer and cutter. He works with industry clients such as Porsche, Toyota, PWC, Sinalco, Vileda, Heraeus Bildungsstiftung, World Vision and the City of Frankfurt.

Filmography:

A HANDFUL OF WATER

debut feature

Director, Co-author, Producer

THE THIRD KING

Short film

Dramaturgical Supervision, Associate Producer

52nd Internationale Hofer Filmtage – Official Selection // Oscar Qualifying 11th Bermudas International Short Film Festival – Best Cinematography, Best Acting // 35th Tehran International Short Film Festival – Official Selection // 3rd New York Shorts International Film Festival – Best Foreign Film // 14th BuSho – Budapest Short Film Festival // 3rd Transilvania Shorts Film Festival – Best Film, Best Cinematography // 5th Montecine Montevideo World Film Festival // 3rd Revolution Me Film Festival // 8th Edinburgh Short Film Festival // 4th Ciudad de Panama International Film Festival – Best Director // Bafta Qualifying 8th Aesthetica Short Film Festival // 2nd The Black Sea Film Festival – Best Director // 7th Roma Independent Film Festival – Official Competition // 3rd Bucharest Short Film Festival – Best Narrative Film // 3rd Asia Web Awards – Best Web Film - Shorts // 8th Mumbai Shorts IFF – Best Film // 7th Short of the Year 2019 Summer Edition – Best Film

SEIN KAMPF

Short film

Director, Co-author, Producer

47th Internationale Hofer Filmtage 2013 – Official Selection // 47th Houston WorldFest – Platinum Remi Award “Peace & Understanding” // 37th Montréal World Film Festival 2013 – Focus on World Cinema // 36th Grenoble Short Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection // 34th Durban International Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection // 24th Boston Jewish Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection // 23rd Muestra de Cine Internacional de Palencia 2014 –

Official Selection // 16th International TV Festival 2014 – Official Selection // 16th Olympia International Film Festival for Children & Young People 2013 – Official Selection // 15th Fiaticorti Film Festival 2014 – Official Selection // 12th International Film Festival Tofifest 2014 – Official Selection // Hessischer Filmpreis 2013 – Nominiert als Bester Kurzfilm // 10th KO&digital 2013 – Official Selection // 10th Jewish Motifs International Film Festival 2014 – Official Selection // 10th ANONIMUL International Independent Film Festival

2014 – Official Selection // 9th EfeboCorto Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection // 8th Days of respect 2013 – Official Selection // 7th Festival for Tolerance – Sarajevo Jewish Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection // 7th Festival for Tolerance – Zagreb Jewish Film Festival

2013 – Official Selection // 7th LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International 2014 – Official Selection // 6th Cineseptiembre, Mazatlán, Mexico 2013 – Official Selection // 6th Budapest Short Film Festival 2013 – Panorama // 6th Entretodos 2013, Brasil – Official Selection // 5th AniFestROZAFA 2014 – Official Selection // 3rd Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection // 3rd Social World Film Festival 2013 – Official Selection, Nominated for Best Short and for Best Director // 3rd Golden Orchid International Animation Festival 2014 – Official Selection // 2nd Kolkata Short International Film Festival 2013 – Special Festival Mention for Best Actor // Hessischer Filmpreis 2012 – Nominiert als Bestes Drehbuch // “Prädikat Wertvoll“ der FBW – Filmbewertungsstelle

AUFWÄRTS

Short film

Director, Author, Producer

WorldFest Houston/Texas - Silver Remi Award // Berlinale Hessen Talents 2011 // Visionale Frankfurt

NICHTSDESTOTROTZ

Short film

Director, Author, Producer, Cutter

WorldFest Houston – Platinum Remi Award // IFCT World Tour Seattle - Runner Up for Best Drama // International Fest of Cinema and Technology Los Angeles – Best Foreign Short // Pfingstopenair Passau

LIEBE LOLA,

Short film

Director, Author, Producer, Cutter

SEIN KAMPF

Short film

https://vimeo.com/clipkult/seinkampfscreening

Password: Kampf

NICHTSDESTOTROTZ

Short film

https://vimeo.com/clipkult/nichtsdestotrotz

Password: Neverevertheless

Director Statement

A HANDFUL OF WATER is about Konrad, 85, who shoots and hurts Thurba, 11, at night. Meeting each other will be life changing for both, but the bond they reluctantly develop is under constant threat from outside. This encounter between the old German man and the young refugee girl will only ever be short – obliterated by injustice, margined by society’s constraints, stolen from them by the world they live in. When I began writing of this film a very personal thing was at the core of it: the sensation that old Europeans and newly arrived people seeking refuge come from very different worlds, but we all carry our past with us.

When talking about Konrad, he is as well a very personal character for me, somebody highly inspired by my personal experiences, by my family and my grandparents, but he’s also a paradigmatic German man of his age, somebody accustomed to being alone and on his own, somebody who dislikes being interrupted in his daily routine, a grumpy, bumpy old guy, tending to focus on the negative side of things.

Thurba is just a child. I feel very close to her, her urge to be less a girl and more a boy, her grief over what she had to endure and her hope of getting to Britain and making life better for her family. The small things she tells us about her past show a hardship that the old man maybe never experienced. I think this is what slowly gets to him: That he sees parallels in her, but he can also see where her situation is nothing he ever had to endure.

Working on A HANDFUL OF WATER made me realise how Homi Bhabha is right: Migration is an act of dignity. We are all different, sometimes almost in an agonistic position, and we got to understand that difference. But it is one single, collective story: There is not the dead at sea on the one hand and the old war stories on the other. The living are carrying the dead within them, everyone has their own journey to make and everybody takes something of the other when they leave.

Jakob Zapf