Searching Eva

Since she was 14, Eva has thought of privacy as old-fashioned. With incredible consistency, she lives her entire life in public and online, constantly commented on by her fans. At 17, she left her conservative home in a small Italian town and her parent’s problems behind and set off in search of freedom. Like so many searchers before her, she wound up in Berlin, where she is now living out of two large suitcases as the eternal sub-letter. To her Tumblr and Instagram followers, her unconventional life and the frank pictures and texts she posts about it are like an inspiring film – one that has more plot strands and climaxes than any daily soap. Eva is never the finished article and her life never stands still because she is always reinventing herself – as a model, a feminist, a queer writer or a self-determined sex worker. This powerful debut depicts how a young member of the digital generation stages her fragmented persona as a public spectacle. For Eva, identity is like fashion; she can change it as she pleases. A look at a world where a camera is never a problem – even during sex.
by Pia Hellenthal
with Eva Collé
Germany 2019 German, English, Italian 85’ Colour Documentary form

With

  • Eva Collé

Crew

Director Pia Hellenthal
Screenplay Pia Hellenthal, Giorgia Malatrasi
Cinematography Janis Mazuch
Editing Yana Höhnerbach
Sound Design Marcus Zilz
Sound Marcus Zilz
Production Managers Florian Fimpel, Daniela Dieterich
Producers Erik Winker, Martin Roelly
Creative Producer Giorgia Malatrasi, Daniela Dieterich

Produced by

Corso Film- und Fernsehproduktion

http://www.corsofilm.com http://www.corsofilm.com

Pia Hellenthal

Born in Bochum, Germany in 1985, she graduated in media arts from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in 2013. Her work has screened at international festivals such as Karlovy Vary, Solothurn and Oberhausen, and has won prizes including the H.R. Giger ‘Narcisse’ Award for Best Short Film. In 2017, she and other filmmakers founded the ‘Under the Influence’ film programme in Cologne. She is a recipient of a Gerd Ruge Grant for her work on Searching Eva. ‘Anonymous Asks’, an installation spin-off of her film, is being exhibited in the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland from late April 2019.

Filmography (selection)

2012 Ganoven; short film 2013 Palim Palim; short film 2014 Trauerkantate in sechs Arien; short film 2015 Reborn Babies; short film

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019