An Insider’s Look at Karmic Knot in Berlin - March 4, 2025

Dear Backers and Friends,

Signe and Sturgis recently returned from the European Film Market at Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany. The EFM is one of the largest film markets in the world bringing together 12,500 industry professionals from 130 countries. The main location of the EFM is the magnificent Gropius Bau, built in 1881, bombed during World War II, restored in the 1960’s, then ignored for 25 years as it sat directly adjacent to the Berlin Wall.

The European Film Market at Gropius Bau

However, we were not at Gropius Bau. Karmic Knot was chosen as one of 35 projects for the Berlinale Co-Production Market, an off shoot of EFM, and it took place at the nearby and more modern Atrium Tower.

The Karmic Knot Producing Team ( from L to R) Roberts Vinovskis (Latvia), Sturgis Warner (USA), Dominiks Jarmakovičs (Latvia), Signe Baumane (USA/Latvia), Fabian Driehorst (Germany)

Over a three-day period, the Karmic Knot Team had meetings with 34 companies representing 19 countries. The excellent Co-Production-Market Team organized the complicated schedules. Each company we met with had requested a meeting with us. For three days we sat at Table #15 and one by one company representatives  came by and talked with us for 25 minutes. Most were producers interested in a possible co-production, but we also met with sales agents, financiers, and film funds.

Meetings for the 35 chosen projects were held in two long rooms on the 13th floor of Atrium Tower

At each meeting Signe passionately explained why Karmic Knot is so important to make at this particular time. Sturgis, armed with PowerPoints, gave an illustrated presentation of the making-of process, and Dominiks and Fabian discussed the logistics and financial poetry with each potential co-production partner.

Against the Berlin skyline we showed sample clips of Karmic Knot from a laptop

Most film funds of EU countries are highly competitive. They also require that the work they finance be done in that given country. Producers from some countries are able to finance a whole film by themselves, but most need help to complete a film. So, those producers look for a co-producer from another country who could finance and be responsible for a particular part of the film, such as post-production sound, editing, design, special effects, or dozens of the other categories that go into the making of a film. Some films end up with six or seven co-producing countries attached to them.

The Co-Production-Market Team also programmed events where producers could meet and talk in more informal settings. Around the table from left to right: Signe, Fabian, Dominiks, Roberts.

We liked many of the companies that pitched us, thinking, “oh yes, we could work with these people!” But the timing of their funding and the particular categories they offer must fit like pieces of a puzzle with what we already have. Dominiks and Fabian are handling those negotiations, while Signe and Sturgis returned to Brooklyn to continue creating the raw artistic elements of Karmic Knot.

Signe straddling East and West at Potsdamer Platz, through which the Berlin Wall once passed. As a Latvian living in New York City she knows a thing or two about straddling East and West.

Thank you for your love and support!

Love,

Signe, Sturgis and the Karmic Knot Team.

To support “the Raw Artistic Elements” of Karmic Knot: KarmicKnotMovie.com/support