»JURASSIC PARK«
USA 1993, Directing: Steven Spielberg, Editing: Michael Kahn, 123 min., original version with subtitles; feature film with Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum a. o.
Followed by a film talk with editor Gesa Jäger, moderated by Dietmar Kraus, curator Edimotion
On the fictional island of Nublar, near Costa Rica, billionaire John Hammond has created an adventure park. The special attraction is live dinosaurs, newly cloned from DNA finds. After a fatal accident, a group of scientists is tasked with reviewing and certifying the park's safety. But soon they find themselves in mortal danger. Jurassic Park is one of the most commercially successful films of all time and still impresses today with its suspenseful dramaturgy. It also set new standards in the field of special effects at the time.
Our guest, editor Gesa Jäger, recalls being glued to her cinema seat as an eleven-year-old – and says this experience is one of the reasons why she makes films today: ‘On the one hand, this is due to the female characters, which were unusual for the time, but on the other hand, it's also due to the unconditional suspense created by the editing – you can see the anticipation, the tension, the horror in their faces before you get to see it yourself.’
Gesa Jäger was born in Hamburg in 1981. While studying history, she discovered her passion for editing through internships in television and subsequently completed training as a ‘film and EB editing specialist’ at NDR in Hamburg. From 2008 to 2013, she studied editing at the Film University Babelsberg. In 2014, she received an award from Edimotion for her diploma film ‘Love Steaks’. In 2019, she received another award from Edimotion for the documentary film ‘Dreamaway’. Also in 2019, she received an award from the Saxony-Anhalt Film Art Days for her lifetime achievement as an editor. In 2023, she won the German Film Award in the Best Editing category for the feature film ‘Das Lehrerzimmer’ (The Teachers' Room). Gesa Jäger is a member of the German Film Editors Association (BFS), the German and European Film Academies, and the Oscar Academy AMPAS. She lives in Berlin.
In the series ifs-Begegnung: Edimotion, we ask editors about their personal favourite films, whose outstanding editing they would like to present.
An event organised by Edimotion – Festival für Filmschnitt und Montagekunst in cooperation with the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln, as part of the Filmforum NRW e.V., sponsored by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne.
