Director, Screenplay, Music
Berlin

Biography

Marten Persiel was born in West Berlin in 1974 and grew up in Hanover and Hamburg. In the 1980s and 1990s he was active in the skateboarding scene, where he also made his first short films. Eventually he completed a documentary film degree at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and at the same time gained practical experience as an assistant editor at HKF Filmproduktion Hamburg (1995/1996). In 1997/98 he studied Mixed Media Art at the University of Portsmouth (UK), followed by a Bachelor's degree in Directing and Screenwriting at the University of Westminster in London. After graduating, Persiel moved to Barcelona in 2001, where he worked as an editor and advertising director. In addition, he realised his own short films and documentaries. In the meantime, he lived and worked in the Philippines, where he made the surfing film "Three Foot Charlie" (2006), for example.

Persiel returned to Germany in 2009. He settled in Berlin and shot commercials and the music video for Lena Meyer-Landrut "Touch A New Day" (2010). In 2011 he realised his first feature-length film in Berlin: "This Ain't California", a documentary portrait of the subversive skateboarder scene in the GDR. The partly fictional film, described by Persiel as a "documentary tale", premiered at the Berlinale 2012 in the Perspektive Deutsches Kinos section, where it won the Best Film award. Other awards included the Special Jury Prize for Directing at the Nashville Film Festival, the Young Talent Award at the Filmkunstfest Schwerin and the Editing Award at the Deutscher Kamerapreis. In 2013 Persiel went on a world tour organised by the Goethe-Institut to show the film in Europe, Australia, Mexico, Indonesia and the USA.

Also in 2013, Persiel became a fellow at the renowned artist residency Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades (USA). There he began many years of research for a film project about time and biodiversity. In addition, he worked as a director for image and advertising films (e.g. Xbox One, Lufthansa, VW) and music videos (e.g. Fettes Brot).

In 2019, Marten Persiel began work on his second feature film: "Everything Will Change" ("The Way We Were"), a feature film with documentary parts about a young man who lives in a dystopian world in the year 2054 and by chance discovers the beauty of times past.  "Everything Will Change" celebrated its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival in September 2021. It won the audience award in the competition of the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival 2022.

 

Filmography

2019-2021
  • Director
  • Screenplay
2011/2012
  • Director
  • Screenplay
  • Music