What are you currently working on?
For over three years, I’ve been working on my debut feature film, which has the working title UNDINE*. This documentary tells the moving story of how a close friend processed a traumatic event. Barely a month after her 24th birthday, she was dragged into a car at night, violently drugged and raped for several hours. To work through this emotional and physical trauma, she refound her voice in dance. A new relationship and the birth of the couple’s first child reawakened her trust in her own body.
What was your most recent project?
The short film ein mann zu sein. It’s also the precursor to my current project. In it, I try to put into words my personal feelings towards moral responsibility.
How did you first get into the film industry?
Six years ago, I spent a summer in the Alps working as a sound engineer for RIAFN (2019), which is an artistic documentary short film by Hannes Lang on the calls of shepherds. It’s a beautiful film and I have wonderful memories of working on it.
Who would you love to work/shoot with?
With people who make me feel at ease.
A film/series must definitely be made about...
It would be interesting to watch a film or series based on Italo Calvino’s novel The Baron in the Trees. But often adaptations don’t live up to books.
What role would you love to play?
The young Antoine Doinel in The 400 Blows by François Truffaut.
Who or what inspires you?
An old tree, a familiar scent or an alluring play of light. But I’m also fascinated by the diverse array of fictitious and human characters, their life stories and how they deal with their challenges.
What does creativity mean to you?
Taking the leap from potential to actual action and from possibility to reality. Turning something from a random eventuality and giving a clear shape to it by making it real.
What film shaped your childhood?
Banana Joe. My family separated when I was young so I look back fondly on the Sunday afternoons we all spent together on the sofa with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.
What film would you love to watch for the first time again?
I wish I could travel back in time and see The Lion King for the first time again.
What would you be doing if you hadn’t ended up working in the film industry?
I’d be working out in nature. Perhaps I’d be a tree surgeon or run a small mountain lodge.
Felix Rier is a freelance director, camera and sound engineer for documentary films. After completing his school-leaving examinations with a specialisation in finance and marketing, he moved to Berlin in 2016 to undertake a three-year traineeship as an audiovisual media designer. Here, he worked in the camera department as a first and second camera assistant, junior DOP and sound technician. He then studied photography and light at the ZeLIG – School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzano/Bozen from 2019 to 2022. He produced his first short film, ein mann zu sein (2021), as part of his film studies. He is currently working on his debut feature film.