Director's Statement
THE LOST VOICE is a story about a female pioneer who’s been forgotten in history. I go on this journey searching for the truth and try to discover who Pola was and consequently I am constantly confronted with my own identity as a
female filmmaker. There are many aspects we have in common – she didn’t have any children, she considered writing to be her vocation, she wasn’t an accomplished filmmaker – all traits I share with her. But there were also
differences – she was married three times, lived a life of luxury in an elegant Villa, and her appearance was of great value to her – qualities that set us apart.
As I continue to learn more about Pola, the more I question if filmmaking was my destiny. In mirroring her story to mine, I start to confront my own demons as a struggling filmmaker.
The story of Pola has taken me into the thick jungle of the Amazon as I try to make sense of her life and accomplishments. Searching for Pola has put me on a path to better understand my own meaning and purpose in life – and while I set out on a mission to save the lost voice of Pola and share her story, I come to realize that I have found my own voice as a filmmaker along the way.
BACKGROUND
In 1929/30, five Germans traveled to the Amazon under the leadership of August Brückner to make two movies. Brückner died in the process, but three of the protagonists wrote books upon their return to a changing Germany. The problem: each claimed to have taken over the leadership of the film expedition and completed the films…but who was telling the truth?
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In April 1929, August and Pola Brückner, Artur and Ruth Heye, and Edgar Eichhorn traveled from Germany to Brazil by ship to undertake a film expedition in the Amazon jungle. August, the leader of the expedition, had been to the Amazon five years prior to this journey and as a cinematographer worked on the film “Urwelt im Urwald”. This time, he set out to direct two movies on his own. He brought along Pola, his wife, who at that time had written screenplays. Artur Heye, a famous and well-known author travelled along with his wife Ruth to deal with the PR of the expedition. Franz Eichhorn remained in Germany but financed the expedition while his brother Edgar, a doctor by profession, took over the role of the cinematographer. When August suddenly gets sick, the team pushes on and continues filming. But weeks pass, and August conditions worsens. The expedition returns to their home base in Belém where August would succumb to his illness a few weeks later. The film isn’t done and the question arises: what to do now?
This is the moment where the narrative divides itself into three different stories, each told by one of the participants. As we unpack the books of the three narrators, we will search through the archives from all over the world to find evidence of what actually happened after that fateful day on December 19th, 1929 when August died in the hospital in Belém and the film expedition lost its leader. The kicker — each of the three claim they finished the movie. All claim they took over the leadership and were in charge. In the end, the story takes us on a journey to understand if Pola was telling the truth which would then make her the first female filmmaker to ever film in the Amazon, a fact that has not yet been discovered.