For “Dear Future Children”, director Franz Böhm accompanied three young activists and filmed their protest movements between everyday life and danger. A conversation about engagement, generational differences and death threats
Mr. Böhm, at the age of almost 22 you are making a documentary debut that looks like you haven’t done anything else for years. Where did you learn that?
I started getting interested in film when I was around thirteen. It may also have something to do with a family disaster that I experienced early on. Movies and the world of cinema became a kind of escape for me, and at the same time I wanted to learn as much as possible about filmmaking. In the Stuttgart high school that I attended, we founded a film company. We were able to try out, rotate, cut and mix an incredible amount. At the same time, I started as an intern in film productions at an early age. A director told me how important it is to get to know all the departments and I took that very seriously. I tried to gain experience everywhere, with the cameramen, in the editing room, with the lighting technicians. As a set runner, I was, so to speak, a girl for everything, blocking streets during filming, carrying cables, sometimes driving a van, all activities that are required for a film set to work. On the weekends I went to Munich and Berlin to watch productions there. I’ve always been interested in the question of how directors manage to create a working atmosphere in which everyone can give one hundred percent.
Why didn’t you go to a film school?
“Dear Future Children” was my application film for the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield near London, a really great school. I will start my studies there next year. It takes two years to complete a master’s degree, and the training is very practical. That suits me. At “Dear Future Children” there were a lot of film college graduates on the team, but also people who did not or not yet study film. London is also a center of the film industry with many great production companies. Conversations about projects often take place in cozy London pubs until dawn.
Your film “Dear Future Children” introduces three activists of global protest movements. Is it a coincidence that they are all young women?
First of all, we decided on three protest movements. We were not concerned with the gender of the activists. In consultation with people on site, we selected the person from a pool of people with whom we had exchanged ideas who best represents the protest movement, which was there from the start, and whose story is interesting. She also had to be willing to let us accompany her for a long time. With Hilda from Uganda it was clear anyway: she founded Fridays for Future Uganda. In Hong Kong I noticed that the fight for democracy really involves everyone, that it doesn’t matter what class someone comes from. The young Hong Kong woman with the pseudonym “Pepper” also touched us very much. With her doubts, with the problems her activism brings into her life, the risks she takes and the desperation that brought her to the streets in the first place. Rayen from Chile witnessed the death and serious injuries of many young people from police violence. But she has also seen the protests against Chile’s backward constitution have made a difference.
Hilda’s work in Uganda has nothing to do with the Fridays for Future school strikes in Germany. The critics accuse the demonstrating youth in this country of being wealthy and privileged.
Hilda is the opposite of privileged. Her initial motivation was very personal: the persistent droughts and floods as a result of climate change brought her family into existential need. Hilda lost her home when she was eleven years old. The family looked for a living in another area. Hilda works very effectively. First of all, she has to explain why it is important to protect the environment, she cleans rivers, and we see how she represents her country at the climate summit in Copenhagen. She does this on her own initiative without anyone behind her.
The activists risk a lot, their health and even their lives. In this film they expose themselves to a large public. As a filmmaker, how can you protect yourself?
We are in contact with all three women almost every day. In order to protect the identity of the Hong Kong protagonist, we decided to work closely with students from the well-known US Harvard University at the beginning of our work on this film. You have developed a concept that uses a number of measures to ensure that this film cannot be used against “Pepper”.
Is that even possible? Rayen from Chile can even be seen in her family.
The protest movement in Chile is very successful. The constitution is being rewritten. This is cheered by broad sections of the population. There is some protection through the backing. Rayen still lives in Chile, she studies there.
Did you film or use archival footage during the demonstrations?
Archive material is only in retrospect in the film, so very little. We shot during the protest actions, in a very small team, with the camera on our shoulders. We were in the frontline, everything you see in the film about the protests comes from our team.
To person
Franz Böhm , born in 1999, grew up in Stuttgart. Even as a teenager he gained experience in film productions and, after graduating from high school, realized his own first film projects such as “Christmas Wishes”, a documentary for which he accompanied homeless people in Berlin. In the coming year, Franz Böhm will begin his studies at the National Film and Television School in England. He lives in London.
His documentary “Dear Future Children” has already screened at international film festivals, has won several prestigious awards and will be released in cinemas on October 14th.
Have you and the team been attacked?
In Chile we were attacked by the police, in Hong Kong only afterwards with threatening messages. There were death threats, hate messages, hacking attacks by Chinese extremist groups who tried to harm our project. In front of the door of my flat in London were cartridge cases with my name on it. Attempts were made to hack our bank accounts and our project server, luckily they were well secured.
Are you scared?
Here, too, we work together with the university mentioned above. The team there can protect us from hacker attacks, they can trace threats and sometimes also sue people. We were prepared for threats. In a way, it’s also motivating because it shows how relevant the film is. We did not want to and do not want to be stopped. It is easy to create fear, but activists experience it every day and to a much greater extent.
You belong to the same generation as the people in your film. Right at the beginning you address the existing generation conflict with a scene: the old not only leave a world full of crises and conflicts to the young, they in a certain way ruin the future. Many say climate change is irreversible, but the ancients won’t see it again. Doesn’t that also create resignation among the young?
I belong to the generation that will see the climate turn against us even more than it is already noticeable. We are now seeing it in Germany too, parts of my family are badly affected by the flood disaster in July. People like Hilda work very hard to at least contain the consequences and prepare localities for them. Hilda has often warned of coming floods and probably saved lives as a result. It doesn’t help to say, it’s too late. Our generation will be on this planet for a few more decades. All three activists fight for a better future for themselves and their future children. Hilda also doesn’t believe in the ritualized speeches at congresses, where everyone always finds everything so “inspiring”, she demands tackling, doing. Nothing of the kind words arrives in the flooded villages in Uganda. You also have to know that these young people have become activists because they are barred from any other way of raising awareness of their cause. The road is their way out.
What role does social media play?
They are more of a help function here, to make an appointment to share content. But the protest takes place on the street. The young people know that they have the majority of the population behind them. They also don’t look for clashes with the police, they just defend themselves against police violence. But there are also police officers who show solidarity with the protesters.
Do you see yourself as an activist?
The film was not designed as an activist project. I would rather say: We did our job. And our goal was to give these young people and their stories a platform. But we also met with opponents of the protest movements because we wanted to perceive and understand the subject from different perspectives. In the cinematic implementation, however, it was always clear to us that we only wanted to be close to the protagonists. It is not a journalistic report.
Unlike many journalists, you don’t use certain images. In Chile, young people were killed by the police, and many lost an eye as a result of the targeted use of tear gas. You don’t show that.
We recorded five deaths on camera. We do not show this material. We spoke long and over and over again with the family of a slain boy, Abel. These conversations are included in the film, with the permission of the family. In Chile there is a great deal of distrust towards cameramen and journalists. There were so many journalists from Europe there, they flew in briefly, had no time, took pictures, ignored agreements, turned the word around in people’s mouths and left again. Many have told us: I don’t talk to anyone anymore. We showed our rough cut to the protagonists. You had the right to change scenes. Nobody made use of it.
What was the financial side like – also for the people who appear in your film?
We had a budget of 45,000 euros for the entire film. This includes 22,000 euros from a crowdfunding campaign and money from the MFG film funding from Baden-Württemberg. The protagonists and their families are contractually involved in the theoretical profit, we were only able to pay a few fees. We also shot when we had minimal funding. The whole team had to get along with little and could do it. In Hong Kong I shared a tiny 10 square meter room with the cameraman. It didn’t matter, we were mostly on the street anyway.
Do you want to continue making political films or are you also thinking in terms of entertainment?
I think there is no either / or. The story and the characters are the most important elements of a film. As a loose group of allied film people from England and Germany, we have developed a ten-year plan and want to manage to bring stories that are important and relevant to us onto the screen. We support each other in this. The stories often have a real background. We are currently working on a film about a journalist who uncovered a human catastrophe and risked her life and family for it. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to say much more at the moment.
Interview: Christina Bylow
