Director and Writer at AFIN

Biography

My name is Meri Gelagutashvili and I am 29 years old. I am living in Germany (since 9 years), but I was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia. Already as a little girl, I was interested in everything creative. I painted, wrote stories and poetry, sang and read a lot. I wrote my first poem when I was 10 years old to express my emotions when my parents told me about the murder of a relative. I read a great deal of international literature and always visualized how I would stage the characters, the locations, the costumes or the atmosphere as images. At this age I already knew that one day I would become a film director! As a young girl, I was particularly interested in older people and their life experiences. I would talk to my grandparents for hours about their past, about the old times and collect ideas for my scripts or poems. I was particularly proud when I was 12 years old and was given the opportunity to interview a WWII veteran. I still have my notes from this interview and is such a great memory from my childhood. During my school days, experiencing the war in Georgia in 2008 moved me emotionally and gave me a lot of creative inspiration. Even though I was only 14 years old, I realized the danger to my country, my family and my friends. At this time it helped me to put my thoughts and worries on paper and I wrote several stories about my fear of loss, death and heroes. Later, I expanded my creativity into photography, theater and short films (at that time my camera was my phone and my cast were my friends). After graduating from school in 2012, I wanted to gain international experience and started working as an au pair in Germany and Austria. Thereafter, I did a voluntary social year (FSJ) in Germany, whereby I worked alongside care takers in an old people‘s home on the dementia ward. This year and all its challenges gave me a lot of insight and inspiration. I finally reached my goal in 2019 when I was accepted to study film directing at Macromedia University in Germany! During my studies I produced several short films and screenplays. I learned how to work the camera, sound, light and direct actors, gaining both academic and practical experience. My internship as an assistant director in one of the most popular German film production companies „Action Concept“ allowed me to be part of the TV production for "Alarm for Cobra 11" (2 films). This once again proved to me that the film industry is the right decision and what I always want to do. In 2020, I founded my production company "ART ROOM FILM" with two of my fellow students. Our start-up was quite successful for a year, but alongside our studies it was very difficult to manage a business. Having my own company was challenging, exciting and interesting, but in hindsight this was not the right time and in the end we decided to wind it down. Nonetheless, I am glad that I could gain this experience and learn from it, because in the future I plan to re-open "ART ROOM FILM". Two years ago I started researching intensively about what I wanted my bachelor film to be about. Coincidentally, I came across the most famous Georgian jazz singer of all times, Guili Chokheli, through a documentary. I found her and her life very interesting and it inspired me to create a socially critical musical drama/biopic. I wrote the screenplay for my short film „GIULI - It Was A Dream“ in 2022, and finished with post production in January 2023.