Ein Wunder sein: Berliner Paare Aller Art

(To Be a Miracle: Berliner Couples of All Kinds)

Documentary | 1h57m | German with English Subtitles | 2011

In collaboration with Maurus Knowles
My Roles: Concept, Co-Writing, Direction, Camera, Editing, Soundtrack Composition, Production

Technical Details:
Hi8 Analogue Video | Black & White | 4:3 Aspect Ratio | Created as an Installation Piece

Synopsis

Ein Wunder sein: Berliner Paare Aller Art is an experimental documentary that explores the lived experience of long-term relationships in contemporary Berlin. Ten couples of varying identities, orientations, and backgrounds—each together for at least two years—are interviewed individually, responding to a shared set of 18 questions about love, intimacy, and partnership.

Each partner is filmed separately, and viewers are not told who belongs to whom. Instead, the film invites observation and reflection. Structured into chapters, the order of responses shifts with each question, creating a rhythmic and relational layering of perspectives. Interwoven between chapters are brief black-and-white photo sequences in which select couples are revealed, gradually dissolving the anonymity.

Minimalist and meditative in tone, the film omits the interviewer’s voice entirely. By doing so, it encourages viewers to sit with each face, each voice, and each answer—unfiltered and uninterrupted.

The result is a quiet archive of love—not as fantasy, but as it is lived.

Creative Process

After seeing countless films focused on the beginnings of love stories, Maurus and I were inspired to explore something less commonly portrayed: what happens after the beginning. We defined “long-term” as a relationship that had lasted more than two years, and set out to find ten couples in Berlin whose stories would reflect the city’s diversity—across identity, orientation, lifestyle, economic background, culture, and education.

The concept was clear from the start, and the visual and audio styles were carefully chosen to support it. Drawing inspiration from 1960s academic and psychoanalytical interview films, I used my Sony Hi8 Handycam—a trusted analogue camera from my early media work—to capture the project. The Hi8 format, with its grainy magnetic tape and native 4:3 aspect ratio, brought a warmth and texture that echoed early 8mm film. Because the camera used the NTSC system, all footage was shot at 29.97fps and later transcoded to 24fps to bring a more cinematic feeling to the final piece.

We filmed over a two-week period in spring 2011, and I began composing the soundtrack under my band name Nevec Red at the start of the year. From the beginning, the sound was envisioned as a counterpart to the visual intimacy—organic, subtle, and emotionally grounded.

The aesthetic was minimalist by design: black and white footage, raw textured backgrounds, and extreme close-ups of each subject. I wanted viewers to be drawn into the faces and words, not distracted by setting or surface. The questions asked during the interviews were removed entirely in the final edit—leaving just the subjects themselves, speaking as if directly to the viewer.

Because so much was done in-camera, post-production was remarkably efficient. Aside from basic transcoding, desaturation, and brightness/contrast adjustments, the only significant edit was a vignette around the frame to simulate the feeling of watching old 8mm projection footage.

What emerged was something deeply personal and unpolished in the most intentional way. Even the background imperfections—reverberant rooms, occasional city noise—were embraced as artifacts of the medium. These sounds were not just left in; they became part of the score. In one case, birdsong outside the window inspired a musical motif that became a recurring element of the soundtrack.

Challenges and Highlights

The greatest technical challenge we faced was with the audio. At the time, I didn’t have access to professional equipment—no boom mics, no soundproofed studio. Instead, I relied on lavalier microphones clipped directly onto the interviewees, recording straight into a handheld digital recorder. The setup was minimal, and while it captured voices clearly, it also picked up the natural reverb of the large, mostly empty room.

Despite our best efforts, the ambient noise of the city—distant traffic, birdsong, the occasional murmur of life outside—crept into the recordings. At first, I saw this as a flaw. But the more I listened, the more I understood these sounds as a kind of vérité texture, reminiscent of the 1960s academic films I had drawn inspiration from. Many of those recordings were made not by filmmakers, but by scientists and researchers—people who prized content over polish. So rather than attempt to remove or mask the environmental sound, I leaned into it. Some of those imperfections even became creative opportunities.

Exhibitions & Reception

Premiere: 48 Stunden Neukölln Arts Festival, Berlin (June 2011)
The film premiered as part of an immersive installation in the 48 Stunden Neukölln Arts Festival. Rather than being shown in a conventional cinema setting, the project was always intended as part of an environmental experience—something visitors would enter rather than just watch.

Maurus transformed a dilapidated early 1900s boiler room, housed under a hostel, into a poetic space for reflection. The architecture itself became part of the work: two narrow upper walkways overlooked a sunken lower level, where rusted metal remnants and a scattering of paper love letters evoked layers of past and present. Dim, low-wattage lightbulbs hung at irregular heights, and a single rose in an old wine bottle glowed from a wall recess under its own light.

The documentary was looped continuously on a large brick wall, projected without fanfare. We expected people to drift in and out—to catch a chapter or two and move on. But something unexpected happened: many visitors stayed. Some watched the entire 1 hour and 57 minutes in one sitting. Others returned later to continue. The quiet attentiveness, the stillness of those who lingered, became a kind of living feedback—unspoken but deeply validated the project.

International Screening: Vandalorum Museum of Art & Design, Sweden (March 2013)
In 2013, the documentary was selected for the Internationel Konstfilm Utställninng, curated by Tim Reed at the Vandalorum Museum of Art & Design in Värnamo, Sweden. For this showing, the piece was adapted to the space: a continuous loop on a screen in the museum’s cantina area. The volume was lowered to blend with ambient conversation, and new English subtitles were added to maintain accessibility without dominating the environment.

This subtle integration allowed the work to become part of the museum’s rhythm—quietly offering itself to curious viewers without demanding attention. It was a gentle continuation of the project’s core principle: to listen, to witness, to give space.

Online Release: February 2018
The documentary was made available for free public viewing on YouTube in 2018. It remains accessible to anyone interested in long-form, intimate, analogue storytelling.

Full Film