Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 4, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Susanne Schüle is one of Germany’s most successful cinematographers. She has received multiple awards for her work - her hallmark is an unobtrusive visual language that supports the film’s intention.
Her first feature-length documentary, Polish Passion (1996), was made while she was still studying (director: Stanislaw Mucha) and premiered at the Berlinale. “For all their curiosity, cinematographer Susanne Schüle’s images thrive on heartfelt closeness while nevertheless maintaining the necessary distance from the people.” (PNN). At the Dortmund Women’s Film Festival in 2001, her diploma film Mit Bubi heim ins Reich (2000, director: Mucha) received a commendation for its perfect handheld camera work, which succeeded in “showing the full truth about the interviewees with their thoughts and emotions” (jury). Absolut Warhola (2001, director: Mucha), a search for traces of Andy Warhol in two Slovak villages, became an audience favourite at the 2001 Leipzig Documentary Film Festival. Susanne Schüle received the cinematography prize “because the intelligent, unobtrusive camera translates emotions beyond language into images” (jury). For her “intimacy of the images, removed from blatant voyeurism, precision without conventionality and academicism, vitality and movement without agitation and actionism”, Susanne Schüle received the DEFA Foundation’s award for supporting young artistic talent in 2001 and, for Absolut Warhola, the Adolf Grimme Award in 2003 for “images that are as enchanted as they are grounded in reality, as grotesque as they are affectionate and yet also merciless”.
Susanne Schüle is a visual artist. She counts her collaborations with Gerd Kroske (Der Boxprinz, Germany 2002, and Wollis Paradies, Germany 2007), Branwen Okpako (Dreckfresser, Germany 2000), Katrin Eißing (Auf demselben Planeten, Germany 2002) and Biljana Garvanlieva (Die Akkordeonspielerin, Germany 2006, German Short Film Award 2007) among the important stages of her work to date. With Athanasios Karanikolas (HFF directing alumnus 2007), Susanne Schüle made another feature film in 2006 after many successful documentaries: Elli Makra - 42277 Wuppertal.
Susanne Schüle was born in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, in 1967. After completing her Abitur and training as a photographer, she first studied at HdK in Berlin and moved to the cinematography department at HFF “Konrad Wolf” in 1992. She graduated there with a diploma and distinction in 2000. While still in training, Susanne Schüle worked freelance as a cinematographer for cinema and television. She was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart (1999-2000) and the DEFA Foundation (2003). She led cinematography seminars at SFB and Cologne Filmhaus and gave guest lectures at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts, FU and HFF. She teaches film theory and history, the fundamentals of camera and lighting technology, and the foundations of documentary working methods in theory and practice.
With the professorship, Susanne Schüle is now returning to her alma mater and strengthening the previously all-male professorial team of her former cinematography course. She looks forward to the new challenge. Over the next five years, she will devote herself intensively to training the next generation of cinematographers - with commitment and at a high level.
