Does Charlotte Bronte spring to mind? It should.

She is, in fact, Barbara Zimmerman, but she has starred in two films about the Brontes. She and her husband Bernhard came from Dusseldorf to England and shot the movies on location in Haworth and Scarborough.

Think about that.

A group of German movie makers travelled to Britain to make movies about one of our most famous literary families. They do not drive so came by Eurobus bringing cameras and kit, props and costumes. Over the course of several visits to Haworth they planned the movie, made local contacts, arranged the use of locations and shot two movies.

Several scenes feature a lovely old horse and cart - what you cannot see is that the crew is pushing the cart since the horse is too feeble to move it uphill on his own. The production took over a year to finish. It was a true family project with the couple's children taking part too. Charlotte Bronte is performed in German with English subtitles. It won a Gold seal in Movie 99.

Barbara feels an affinity with the Brontes. She comes from a family of writers and was brought up in a vicarage just as the Brontes were.

Bernhard and Barbara are active moviemakers who make a wide variety of films. At UNICA 2000 one of their works was selected to represent their country. That was a documentary about Northern Ireland.

They are also very active in the German amateur movie world. They run a service which enters the best films from their country to major festivals abroad. The costs are subsidised by the government. The system simplifies the business of sending movies to other countries and is a welcome boon to festival organisers who only have one parcel to return after screenings. This keeps them in close contact with the top amateurs.

Read about the making of Vision 21.

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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