Christopher Helkey (Production – B.A. ’15) is having a great senior year. His film, The Magic Moment, won a best documentary prize at the 2014 Film Outside the Frame awards, and soon after, he took his film to the Berlin Short Film Festival.
It’s exciting for any filmmaker to attend a festival and get the chance to see their work on the big screen. For Helkey, Berlin was also a homecoming. “I made the film while studying abroad in Germany, and I felt very blessed to be able to go back there to attend the festival,” he said.
The Magic Moment (7:30 mins) is the story of a paper engineer from Dortmund, Germany, who creates magical moving three-dimensional objects from paper. Helkey made the film while enrolled in SFTV’s International Documentary Program, based in Bonn. The festival was also an opportunity for Helkey to reconnect with German composer Steven Settinger, who created the music for his film. Click here to watch Helkey’s film.
“Meeting other directors and filmmakers was a very important part of the festival and I made many great connections,” he said. “It was inspiring to watch some of the best short films from around the world, ranging from documentaries to intense mystery dramas to horror films, and I was lucky enough to see all of them.”
The Berlin Short Film Festival is a platform for new talent and a celebration of cinematic creativity and innovation. The festival prides itself in providing opportunities for talented filmmakers from all over the world to learn together and exhibit their work in a stimulating, international environment.
“The whole experience was fun, interesting and professionally rewarding,” said Helkey. “I felt very honored that my short documentary was selected.”