Kathrin Pollow
Historical Research & Consulting for Film & Stage Productions
Who Is My Work Interesting For?
Screenplay, Film, or Theater Direction:
The story is complex, the plot international, the characters are multifaceted, the topic is highly political and the setting historical…
Costume, Make-Up, or Set-Design:
What cotton dyeing techniques were used back then, who wore which colors and why? Are there specific regional skin diseases and were the streets lit with gas or what?
Production:
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Reshoots, corrections, and criticism due to a lack of knowledge about political controversies, historical facts, and colonial continuities are expensive, avoidable and unnecessary…
Why?
...You don’t have the time or leisure to research.
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...Where to start? Where and how to search?
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...You are overwhelmed and need help sorting through the vast amount of information.
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...You need fact checking and/or advice on issues concerning discrimination and racism.
What Do I Do?
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I provide you with relevant images, historical photos, articles, biographies, stories, music, films and books.
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If desired, we can discuss political details, local, international and global contexts.
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I make suggestions for potential interviewees, experts, eyewitnesses, and descendants.
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I research detailed historical knowledge, which can help establish connections to current events.
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I offer the security of a historically trained person on the team who is familiar with filming processes. I can provide information to individual departments from a central position, point out cross connections, and highlight and discuss critical passages in the script.
How Do I work?
I create photo and information archives for different departments and teams of production. I am flexibly available to my partners for conversation and information.
I tailor my services to the needs of the individuals/teams I advise. I am passionate, open to discussion and I strive to adhere to anti-discriminatory and anti-racist guidelines/perspectives. When a topic exceeds my expertise or my position is not conducive to the project I step down or hand over.
Motivation
The connection between art and other (scientific) archives of knowledge, and the opportunity to participate in projects that seek to tell complex (his-/her-/their*-)stories in a non-didactic way, makes my heart beat faster. I bring with me a background as a historian and of diverse international work experiences in artistic settings, with transnational and multidisciplinary teams.
