Katarina Turler

My Story

Born on April 6, 1968, in Zurich, grew up in Zurich, and from the age of 7 in Birmensdorf, Canton Zurich.

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Attended high school at the Kantonsschule Limmattal in Urdorf from 1981-1987. Then a foundation year at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich from 1988-1989. Followed by interim years working in the stage design department at the Zurich Opera House and at the Theater Claque in Baden.

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Emigrated to the Netherlands in 1991 to study theater stage design (as there was no training available in Zurich at the time) and also to experience something different from the familiar surroundings in Switzerland and to live abroad for a while.

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Studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie from 1991 to 1996. Originally, I intended to stay for just one year, but after the foundation year, I continued studying, not in stage design but in photography. Since I practically solved all assignments using photography, this became a more obvious choice.

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After attempting to make a living with photography and finding it challenging, I pursued further studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) from 1997 to 2002, focusing on film and television sciences. This was also because my photographic works at the art academy often culminated in photo series or visual stories. During the studies, we had to find an internship for a few months. I chose the Filmmuseum Amsterdam, which involved archiving a large number of silent films. This led to my Master of Arts thesis, "Wie het laatst lacht, lacht het best" (He Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best), about the earliest female comedians in silent film between 1895-1915.

Once again, the question arose about what to do specifically with the studies.

I wanted not only to work theoretically but also to pursue a creative profession where I could create something tangible. Therefore, I ended up studying at the Filmacademie (NFtvA) Amsterdam from 1999 to 2003, focusing on editing. This ultimately brought together the various paths for me: the enjoyment of storytelling, visual creation, and the interest in puzzle-solving and finding solutions through improvisation and generating new ideas in the construction of scenes.

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The first film, "A Beautiful Frenzy," I created with my friend Mandra during my final year of study. The editing took almost a year, worked on occasionally on weekends or evenings.

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After that, I increasingly got involved in editing documentary films, first on two television series, "Werken aan Werk," focusing on presenting professions. Soon after came the short film "Nijnok," which won a Golden Calf. A year later, I edited the film "Dreaming by Numbers," which also received an award – the Joris Ivens Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). This laid the foundation for me as a freelance editor, and I was able to establish my own editing business. Successes followed, such as "Matthew's Laws," "A Strange Love Story about Ego," "Jongens," and "Berg." Over the past 20 years, I have worked on over 80 short and feature film projects.

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In Switzerland, I have worked on two films so far – "Rider Jack," shown in Swiss cinemas in 2015, and the film "The Chimansee Complex," the year before, as a co-production with the Netherlands. Additionally, some films were set in Switzerland – such as "Greifensee," "Winter Silence," and "Farewell Paradise," as well as the recently completed film "Captured."

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I did not have a direct mentor or editor who influenced me, but of course, there were filmmakers who impressed me with their style choices or the structure of their stories, likely broadening my horizons. Documentaries like "O Amor Natural" and "Underground Orkest" by Heddy Honingman, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Julian Schnabel, "Tree of Life" by Terence Malick, "Magnolia" by Thomas Andersson, to name just a few.

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At the moment, I mainly edit documentaries, and if possible, one feature film per year, for variety and because these two genres are increasingly merging, and I find it interesting to explore boundaries and fusion in both forms.