Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1973, she studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in the 1990s and received several scholarships including from the Cité des Arts in Paris, the graduate school of the Berlin University of the Arts and working scholarships from the Berlin Senate and the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media. Her short and feature-length films have been exhibited in both cinema and gallery contexts. Her first film to be presented in Berlinale Shorts was World on Board in 2019.
1.What was your starting point for “That’s All From Me”?
When my daughter was born at the end of 2016, my life changed significantly from one day to the next. In the first year, artistic production was out of the question. A close friend offered me the book “Mother Reader” published by the artist Moyra Davey. It brings together texts that explore the intersection of motherhood and creative life, and it was very inspiring and made me feel less alone in my experience. There is a lot of autofictional literature on this topic but only very few films. I really had a hard time getting back into filmmaking. And dealing specifically with this crisis was a good way to become productive again.
2.Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Which one and why this one?
The film consists of quite different parts that make up the whole, and I don’t want to single out one scene. But I can say which scene I had the most fun shooting: It was definitely the encounter with the birdwatcher in the nature reserve. After filming alone for a long time, I was finally in the situation of a real shoot again: with a counterpart, time stress, and the pressure of not really being able to repeat anything. We were very lucky: it was already late in the year, but there was wonderful weather and light that day. And at the moment when I had planned to interrupt the interview but didn’t know exactly how, an airplane flew over and got louder and louder.
3.What do you like about the short form?
A short film is easier to make without funding. And self-financing allows more freedom to experiment and find the form (and the length) while working on the film.
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Jury Statement for the Berlin Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards and Special Mention
„Over this past week, we the International Short Film Jury , have been reminded over and over how the short form itself can allow for the kind of bold and unexpected moves, which would likely not work in a feature length. This is precisely why we are awarding a Jury Special Mention, and the Berlin Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards to a short film that uses creative non-fiction to reflect on a life lived between two consuming monoliths, filmmaking, and motherhood. An exchange of letters between women, no playgrounds and a bird watcher come together to tell a truly special story which may or may not actually be true. It is also a perfect example of why short films are people too. Congratulations to Eva Könnemann for That’s All from Me.“
The Awards and Jury of Berlinale Shorts
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PRESS REVIEWS
„A disarmingly simple video correspondence that reveals the discursive pleasures of the epistolary form, That’s All From Me plays with documentary aesthetics to create a wholly original and unique narrative. It tells the story of a struggling German filmmaker and mother writing to an acclaimed Scottish novelist for advice on how to create a new film, contrasting images of Berlin and the British seaside with their thoughts and feelings about creating art as women.“
review by Redmond Bacon for Directos Note
„Through all of these, the conversations cleverly unpack the internal wranglings that Isabel has regarding motherhood and her – not quite explicitly spoken – Fear that there isn’t room for both it and filmmaking within one person. Indeed, when she finally is unlocked enough to make a film about something else, it becomes about the reproductive cycles of birds and the all-consuming effort at goes into rearing young every year. That’s All from Me feels gentle enough to toch you off guard, but there is a richness to its inquiry that resonates deeply.“
review by Ben Nicholson for The Film Verdict
„Eigentlich gibt es nur eine Rechtfertigung für diese 23 Minuten währende Ausrede für einen Film, den Eva Könnemann nicht zustande brachte. Letztes gesteht die Regisseurin freimütig im ersten Akt ihres dreiteiligen Platzhalters an der Stelle, wo bei den Berlinale Shorts ein richtiger Kurzfilm hätte laufen sollen. Besagter erster Teil ist bloß schwarze Leinwand. Dazu ertönt ein fiktiver Brief eine Mutter (Charlotte Munck, The Shift) an eine Romanautorin namens Helen Durning (Eleanor Forbes).“
review by Lida Bach for moviebreak
„That’s All from Me ” by Eva Könnemann, which wonderfully combines real recordings with a fictitious correspondence and thus created a successful hybrid. „
mention by Doreen Kaltenecker for Testkammer
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„That’s All from Me, We Will Not Be the Last of Our Kind and City of Poets are more playful in their first-person narratives and give no indication of where the personal experience ends and the imagination begins. Each film succeeds in developing its own distinctive yet always appropriate formal language to get across what it wants to say. You can feel the sincerity even in the choice of filmmaking devices.“
interview with section head Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck for Berlinale Topics
reactions on letterboxd
Berlinale Shorts 