Students gain exclusive Workshop with Sophie Maintigneux
Cinematography students at MetFilm School Berlin, as part of BIMM University Berlin, were invited to attend an exclusive workshop and Q+A with French screen industry veteran Sophie Maintigneux.
Sophie’s career began in 1984, a time when she recalls there only being 3 female cinematographers working in Paris.
With over 70 projects in her portfolio spanning feature films, documentaries, and television series’, her most notable works include King Lear (1987) directed by industry legend Jean-Luc Godard, and more recently Mario (2018) directed by Marcel Gisler.
Over the day-long workshop, students gained new perspectives on the importance of cinematography and new ways of thinking about what colour can actually do: how it can hold emotion, protect something fragile, reveal desire, intimacy, yet stay true to the tone of a story. The talk moved from analog film and colour timing, to digital grading, skin tones and darkness, to the politics of who gets to be seen.
Hosting the workshop alongside Sophie was filmmaker and cinematographer Désirée Pfenninger, whose visual work explores human relationships, intergenerational history and female filmmaking.
Sophie has lived and worked in Berlin since 1988. She was awarded the Femina Award at the FilmFestival Max Ophüls Preis in 2001, and the camera award at DOK Leipzig in 2002. She also won the German camera award twice in the documentary film category for 2003’s Damen und Herren ab 65 , and 2009’s Die dünnen Mädchen.
Through the combination of our expert staff, and their industry connections across screen, acting and music, we are excited to regularly provide workshops like this to promote student growth and challenge their way of looking at their chosen creative industry.
