Michelle Pröstler - Screenwriting and Directing

In the wake of a devastating, life-changing incident, a teenage girl grapples with the weight of silence and the fight to reclaim her voice, as her world threatens to fall apart with her in the middle of it.

What is the first film experience you remember that had an impact on you? 

I can’t really pin-point a specific film that would have been the “first” one. But as a child of the 90s I just remember I have always lost myself in movies and TV series – just really in stories. One of the early ones that definitely left an impression was “Mary Poppins” and then all kinds of movies and cartoons with (talking) animals. The first movie I ever saw in a movie theater was “The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers”, which was an amazing experience after watching  “The Fellowship of the Ring” only on the (old school) TV screen. 

What fascinates you about filmmaking?

So many things! How written words can become reality on the screen. How an actual movie can be made out of so many different raw material files that are filmed on set. The whole behind the scenes world, all the puzzle pieces falling into place. 

And how a team of amazing people spend their time on making a movie, always choosing the best outcome for the movie, not for their personal benefit. The whole “can do” attitude of other filmmakers. I love the little family that naturally forms on a film set and it always breaks my heart a little when we are done filming. 

Why did you choose Screenwriting and Directing?

I have always been a storyteller and a writer, with some published novels in the last years and before I started at the school. I knew that I am already a writer and had found my love for writing screenplays in the year before I applied to school. Now I just needed to find out if I am also a director – but I would say I have not only shown myself that I can be a director, I am 100% a filmmaker that loves to do all kinds of jobs to make movies come to life.  

Did anything particularly surprise you during your studies?

Definitely how many puzzle pieces and people are needed and have to be prepared to make a movie and that we were able to learn so many things in such a short period of time. After working in a different field for a bunch of years and then going back to school in my early thirties, it has surprised me how kind of natural it felt to me to make films – and how much I felt like I had found my place and the “thing” - my thing - that I’ve been looking for in life. 

And what does your future look like?

If I dare say: Full of stories – be it movies, series, books. I want to make stories, or be part of stories that mean something, that touch people and show them that they are not alone. And give hope. I always want to give hope with my stories.
In the industry I will give my very, very best, my heart and soul, and work ethic, and try to work my way up that tall and steep mountain of possibilities, to the big dreams that I hopefully one day can make come true.

For now I will direct my next short film this spring with an already amazing team of people that are coming together from different parts of the world to make a beautiful story come alive here in Iceland.