Latest / Beyond our Stories / How 1 Story Changed Everything | The Beginning of Beyond Our Stories
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- Ali Schmahl: Every person has a story. Some stories make us laugh, some challenge us. Some stay with us long after they're over. But sometimes the most meaningful part of a story isn't the ending. But it's the conversation that starts afterwards. Welcome to Beyond Our Stories. I'm Ali. I'm Stephanie. And very welcome to the very first episode of our podcast, an original podcast from Aleph Cine's stream Beyond Our Stories. Today we are talking about Who we are, what we do and why this podcast. And what's to expect from the podcast beyond our stories. Why don't you tell us, Ali? Yeah, ⁓ the podcast is ⁓ about people, is about stories, is is about ⁓ the ideas and ⁓ the people behind movies, because this podcast is to show that ⁓ stories and movies are not just ⁓ one hour or two hours. When you watch them and you you become you begin you get entertained, but the story it continues with the people who made that or who were involved ⁓ in these ⁓ these stories. Yeah, because we believe that through movies you can create stronger connections, or better said, you can create a bridge to different living realities so that you understand other people's perspectives much better, perspectives that you haven't lived through. That's why we're interviewing people that somehow connect through the movies that we think you shouldn't miss. Yeah, and this is ⁓ the very first episode of our podcast. ⁓ we are very excited. So I would suggest that we start ⁓ with both of us. ⁓ because this journey that we have and we had ⁓ since ⁓ almost six years, five and a half years, let's say. It's a very interesting journey and how we got to know each other is also a very interesting story, but we we talk about it briefly if we don't go to the details. And yeah, and we move forward why we made the movies privileged and I love you, my narcissist. ⁓ so Estephanie ⁓ or better say a step. both is fine. Yeah, I know. Do you want to start and tell tell ⁓ how it how it comes that we got to know each other and because it it started actually with you and not with me. So yes that so so to give a hint of what we're doing. We're both producers, but I started out as an actor. I trained in New York and then had to move back to Germany 'cause I didn't didn't get a visa right away. And I was looking into what I could do to stay in my craft, to stay ⁓ engaged to storytelling. Cause I I wanted to act, but I also wanted to act in English, preferably. And I didn't know people here. Like I I had my community in New York, but I didn't know filmmakers here. I didn't I had no one here really. So ⁓ I was looking into so what can I do to stay ⁓ engaged with my craft? So I started writing ⁓ some short film scripts. ⁓ and I just wanted to see how it goes because I never produced before. I've never written anything before. But I just wanted to see like how far I can go with that. And I created a short film script that I felt like, ⁓ this is ready to be produced. So then I had the next task in front of me, like finding people that I can produce this with. So I found a couple of people that I wanted to work with in Berlin, because I was also living in another city in Germany before. And while I was looking for people, I was still missing one of the key positions, one of the key roles that was really complicated to fill. And that was the role of the producer. And I didn't want to produce it myself because I was lacking the experience. And I was searching and searching and searching and I was almost giving up. But then somehow I found Ali. Do you want to take over from here? Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ somewhere I saw ⁓ an advertisement that someone is looking for a producer for a short film that is ⁓ that needs to be made in Berlin. And at that time I was in Berlin and I just wrote it it was Stephanie and I just wrote her yeah hey, I'm interested, but everything depends on your script. If your script is ⁓ Good enough? I would say yes. If not, then you need to find someone else. So ⁓ after that ⁓ chat that we had, ⁓ we met online and we talked about ⁓ the the the story, the script and what she did until now and what is what what is necessary to be done ⁓ at that moment. And I like the story, I like the script after reading it, and I said, Yeah, hey, yes, I'm in. So let's let's do it. And I was also promised that when he comes on board I would also get free equipment for the whole shooting. It didn't work out, but it was it was a nice add-on that I would have never said no to. It it's it's somehow it's somehow it it somehow could work out actually because because the very day the original the original offer that we got for the equipment ⁓ suddenly was cancelled. ⁓ very interestingly two days before the actual shooting days ⁓ the actual principal for therapy ⁓ the rental company just said yeah hey no no we are we are we we take all offer back we don't do that so we needed to find ⁓ the full equipment a big truck of equipment just ⁓ in less than one and a half days ⁓ and ⁓ one of the days ⁓ was Friday. And in Friday, many companies in Germany they work ⁓ half day. So ⁓ it was tough. and we we could we could manage that to get a very, very, very good offer. ⁓ also we had to pay for that, but not ⁓ not as ⁓ much as we actually should have paid ⁓ for the equipment. But yeah. I was already in full panic mode because I knew it was only two days and it was the weekend and it was good to have Ali there because Ali never panics. It's always like okay we're gonna figure it out somehow. It's gonna work out because it has to. So yeah, there's always a solution. We did figure it out actually. We did figure it out because because on the shooting day as soon as we arrived on ⁓ on set ⁓ the the full equipment was there and and ⁓ Stephanie was also how we could do that yeah it happened It it it worked out. ⁓ we don't need to panic ⁓ before we ⁓ tried everything. So ⁓ that's also important ⁓ for the listeners and the viewers. ⁓ never give up. ⁓ never think ⁓ because the first option didn't work out, ⁓ it won't work out anymore. There are many options and I always say to my friends or whoever is asking me for for an advice or anything, I say first never give up, second Always ask people. Always ask. Because you never know until you ask. And if you ask someone for support, for help, for for for a favor, for anything, there are two options. The first option is you get a no, and nothing will change for you. Everything is says as it is, the situation won't become worse. So This is the first option. So it means that the first option is your situation stays as it is. So nothing nothing happens. But the other option is you get a yes. And with that your situation gets better and you get what you wanted, actually. So ⁓ and that's what I do. I always ask people. I I it it doesn't matter if they are my friends, if they are my my family, if if they are someone stranger on the street in a bar in a cafe. I go to people, I talk to them, hey, we are doing this or I'm doing this. Are you interested? How are you interested? What would you do? And stuff like that. And you never know. You never know. We we we financed ⁓ two features ⁓ just just this way because we ask people and some we we got many rejections. So for sure there are always rejections, there are always no's but There are there are also yeses, then we could manage that. Yeah. And then also, since you are talking about rejection, I would also add, don't be too afraid to fail in some way. This is something that I'm still learning that ⁓ even through failing or even through getting a rejection, you can evolve. You can learn something or you can be redirected to the path that's actually the right one for you. So ⁓ I think that's also super important. And I wanna pick up on on the story that we're telling. about how we started to work together. So ⁓ I then decided to ⁓ take Ali on for the project as a producer, which I really had no choice because ⁓ I was either gonna do it myself or have him join as a producer. So that was an easy decision for me. But then also I saw one of your short films that you made and I saw Privilegue, a documentary Privilegue The first cut of Privilegue. ⁓ that was the documentary that Ali had recently done then. And after watching those two movies, I felt like we strongly aligned on our creative decisions. And I also really wanted to have Ali as the director of my short film. So that needed a bit of convincing. I think you're more open to it now. But at that time you were not open to it. No, no, I I'm not open to directing ⁓ even now because I don't like directing. I like producing and I like distributing, but I do ⁓ mainly now. But sometimes directing becomes an obligation for me because you and I have a clear vision of how our stories and movies should look like and should go on, ⁓ from the story, from the implementation, from the creating and everything. ⁓ We have a very specific imagination and expectation. So and to find good directors who have a clear and a good vision as close as to our vision is very hard and very tough. And in many cases ⁓ it it happens that we can't find a proper director and good director that can also understand our vision. And then we don't have enough time to find that director and then Stephanie comes to me and says, Yeah, hey, ⁓ I believe that this time you should be also the director and say, ⁓ Yeah, I did some convincing there. And I and I and I said, Yeah, hey, ⁓ if it's the way ⁓ it it will work out and it can work out and it's if it's the only way, then I take over the directing for sure. ⁓ it would be too much War too much more work for me, but I take over and and do that. And that's why ⁓ we I directed also I love my narcissist. We see also the the post half of the poster behind me. Yeah, ⁓ and that was ⁓ exactly the case because we reach out to to a couple of directors, good directors, ⁓ that's ⁓ we like their work, but their vision for this project wa wasn't even close to our vision. So we had to we had to make it in a way that's that worked for us as well. So that's why we we came up with the idea that I should direct the the the the movie ⁓ myself. yeah and I think to be fair yeah and to be fair I think for this project it also made sense because we already put in so much research and we interviewed the survivors together. So I think you were already in the space where you knew so much about the topic that I think that was exactly the right choice for the project as well. Yeah. It's working between us to to make projects together and make movies together because we have similar vision and similar goals with our projects that are that ⁓ we want to tell and we want to show. And for the for the listeners and the viewers who are ⁓ listening and watching and they are asking what kind of projects at all, ⁓ we'd like to create projects that are socially critical, that have a message and that could that could make a change in the society and in the world, even a very small change. ⁓ it's it's worse than millions of ⁓ views ⁓ and ⁓ purchases and sales. If we ⁓ have for example thousand people who understand ⁓ in a specific situation with just one of our movies it's more worth for ⁓ more worth for us than having ten millions of people watching the movie and they say yeah okay that's enough ⁓ so ⁓ we want to make a change with our projects, we want to tell stories from the ⁓ communities, from the groups and from the min minorities that are not heard, that are not seen. We want to we want to amplify their voices, ⁓ to show that they have a voice, we support them and there could be also changes, ⁓ even small changes for this community. Yeah, I think for me that came from ⁓ Like I had a long time in my life where I felt like I couldn't express my own voice and I didn't feel seen and feel hurt. And I had a couple of people that really helped me on that journey to find my own voice. And I also do think that it's important to use movies to show different perspectives of lives, because I think if you know as much as possible about what other people are going through, then I think it's harder to fear them or hate them. ⁓ I think a lot of the hate that's going on in the world right now comes from n really not understanding what you're hating, ⁓ what other people are going through. So if we see more perspectives, if we can create more empathy with the movies that we show, I think that's that that can help a lot. Yeah, and and to achieve that also the movies need to be seen. ⁓ because you can create a movie and then put it in your closet and ⁓ Then just show it to your family, friends who visit you. That's ⁓ that's also must often is the case ⁓ for many filmmakers. ⁓ but for us it is also important to reach the proper audience with our movies to to transfer the message ⁓ that we have with our movies. And to be able to do that, we ⁓ started our stream platform, ⁓ Aleph Cine Stream. ⁓ because the traditional distribution for ⁓ for films and movies is dead. And financially, economically and strategically it's not worth it for independent unknown producers, unknown companies to go the traditional distribution way. So we need to think of a new idea of How we can reach our audience and we can transfer our message that we have and we want to tell the society. And that's why we started Aleph Cineestream, a streaming platform where we showcase our own original productions at the same time and also we hand select every other movie that is available there. So it means that we watch every single movie that we get. from from other ⁓ companies, from other filmmakers, from from other people. We watch them through and then choose which one is close to our mission and then we put them on a wrestling platform for the audience ⁓ that we have and that we get. If you are interested to see what movies are available on our streaming platform, so feel free to check it out. You can you can go to your browser and enter www.ac stream.com. Or even you can go to your ⁓ Apple stores on iPhone and ⁓ Apple TV, Android TV, Android cell phones, iPad and tablet. And on the Apple Store or Google Play Store, you can search for Alef Cine Stream, A-L-E-F-C-I-N-E stream. And the app will show up. And ⁓ you can register for free ⁓ and watch ⁓ the movies you like. And there is also no subscription, there is no advertisement there, so you can enjoy without any interruption and without any hassle. So let's see. And to add on to that, you would also have the movie forever. So you buy it once. It's ⁓ the maximum prize is the ⁓ prize of a movie ticket. and you will have the movie forever. You can watch it as many times as you want. It will always be with you. And for example, the movies that we talked about, like I Love You My Narcissist and Privilegue, and also even the short film Ali and I ⁓ met each other with, ⁓ they are all on the platform. Yeah. It's called Anniversary, the short film. Yes. Yeah. ⁓ I'd like to talk more about ⁓ Privileg and ⁓ I love my narcissist. Because ⁓ because many people think why these two movies? So ⁓ I'd I I'd like to start with I Love My Narcissist. ⁓ because you were involved much more than you were involved in I in Privileg. Yeah. And the original idea came from you. So if if you can tell Why this idea and how how it comes that you choose this idea and this topic that would be amazing. Yeah. So it started four years ago. We've been working on this movie for a long time, which is also fairly normal for indie productions to spend a lot of time with a project. ⁓ we were looking for a new topic for a documentary. And at that time I already did a lot of research out of personal interest and personal experience. About narcissistic relationships. And I felt like at that time people already started talking about the topic, but in a very either comedic way, like ⁓ talk, like a narcissist is just somebody that's self-involved and ⁓ is not dangerous for other people. and also pe ⁓ words like narcissism and gaslighting were used, but without people fully understanding the meaning of it. Like the whether sh just randomly, care carelessly thrown around. And I felt like, ⁓ I think we should really talk about what this means and what this means for the people that are exposed to that, that have to live through that. But somehow we also weren't fully convinced that a documentary would be the right way to tell this story. Because with the documentary, you ⁓ You have the difficulty that people can easily distance themselves from it and say, ⁓ this would never happen to me. This just happened to these other people that didn't make smart choices. And ⁓ we really wanted to show that this can happen to anyone. And people that this has happened to are not weak, are not stupid for this happening to them, but they were exposed to ⁓ a manipulation and people that weren't having their best interests at heart. So ⁓ we tried to find a different way to tell the story and Ali had actually the first idea for this new concept. Do you want to talk about that a bit? Yeah. ⁓ as you say, the reason for not making a pure documentary it's true and also at the same time, it wasn't enough for us because Because a pure documentary at the end of the day and at the a after you finish it, ⁓ it might land on YouTube and get a couple of hundreds or thousand views and that's it. ⁓ and you have nothing from it and you didn't reach the proper audience that you wanted and that you expect. So one night, ⁓ around two AM or so, I was I was ⁓ sitting and ⁓ Thinking about the project, and then suddenly the the idea came into my mind, how about if we make a mixed genre of the movie? Meaning that we mix the fiction and the documentary, but not in a way that we show archived material or reenactments. Real real fiction story, as if when we remove the the documentary parts and the interviews with the experts from the movie. their story would make sense in full and people can also experience the the the full fictional drama story. So that was the that was the idea. And then we looked for for a for for the concept at the beginning and for for a good writer to write that because I'm not a good writer. I can't I can't write. I c I have I might have good ideas But when it comes to development or writing the ideas ⁓ in a proper way, ⁓ I suck. So and then we've we found ⁓ we found ⁓ writer, ⁓ Dallas King, ⁓ who came up with ⁓ some some concepts and some ideas. And then we ⁓ started developing the ideas ⁓ from the beginning, adding ⁓ more and interviewed fifteen people, ⁓ around fifteen people ⁓ With ⁓ their real life experiences with ⁓ narcissism and narcissistic partners, male and female and even in the family. And we then develop the stories in the movie based on those experiences of real survivors. Then we reach out to the experts that we have ⁓ in our movie and ⁓ Yeah, we are started we are started making this ⁓ making this movie and we are very happy that this ⁓ the movie is done and the movie is now available exclusively on LFC Newstream and that we got also ⁓ a lot of feedback ⁓ that made us very happy because because people are saying that they now understood why it is happening to them Or even people who are not in such relationships and who didn't experience that, they are saying, Yeah, okay, I see that I had potentially in my in my last ⁓ relationships, I had potentially to be trapped in such relationships and ⁓ luckily I'm not. ⁓ and many other, many other good, amazing feedbacks. and that's that's what we wanted to achieve. That's what we we we aim for. Yeah. And this movie is more about narcissism in relationships and also a bit about family dynamics. But really this can happen anywhere. This can happen in schools, this can happen at the workplace. Like for example, Ali and I were talking a lot during the process of ⁓ creating this movie, creating the concept, the script, and then shooting the movie about the moments where we experienced narcissism in other contexts. And ⁓ we realized, ⁓ actually we were exposed to it much more than we thought. So I think also this movie should be watched by people that haven't experienced a narcissistic partner or a narcissistic family member, but really also everybody that feels like this has nothing to do with me. Even if they end up in a position where they say, ⁓ this really hasn't happened to me, I think it's good to watch it because you can reflect on a lot of Patterns in relationships, anyways. Like you can really ⁓ start conversations with your closed ones and reflect on how you approach relationships and set boundaries, for example. That's what we we we hoped. ⁓ for example, for me, while we were developing the the the concept and the script, ⁓ now and then I went to a Steph and Cell and said, Yeah, hey. This situation that we are developing, it's it already happened to me. It's my real life experience. And I was I was totally scared because because I I I I was thinking, ⁓ my God. I was in such a relationship my whole life, and I even didn't know that. And I was very thankful and happy that I'm not in that relationship anymore. That made me think of of my past relationships and even also if in if think of my family dynamic, where many, many ⁓ situations in the movie ⁓ happened ⁓ to me and also the the other situations that we couldn't show in the movie, but we did research for, and I was very happy that ⁓ that's over now for me. And and after knowing that, that It it was happening to me and the situation is this situation and having clarity of every pattern and every situation. I could manage my trauma and I could manage my connection with those people that did that to me. So that opened my eyes and that gave me let's say solution to to to my my problems actually. ⁓ And I was very happy about that. And I hope that many people who've watched the movie I Love In my Narcissist also find out the reasons and the whys and the hows and they could do something for themselves to overcome their trauma, their ⁓ situation in their relationship, and even the people who are starting a new relationship and they they see the signs and the red flags, but somehow they are not. understanding it or they they don't realize that they can now realize. Mm-hmm. And there were small things also when we interviewed our survivors for the movie that I didn't fully understand while we were interviewing them. For example, we had a couple of people that talked to us about their partner's eyes turning black or their face entirely changing, like the mask is coming off. I had a har had a hard time understanding it while we were interviewing them, then this can be so dramatic. ⁓ but then when we were working on it on the stories more and talk w when we were talking to the experts, ⁓ and just spent more time with the whole story, I started to understand that this actually has happened to me too, in one of my one of my old old schools, ⁓ where I actually experienced this and then realized, ⁓ this sounds dramatic. This sounds hard to believe, but it does happen. ⁓ if you are interested to find out more, ⁓ go to Aleph Cream www dot-stream.com and use you will see there the the the movie I Love in my narcissist and You can watch a trailer there and ⁓ if you like ⁓ give it a try and and watch it ⁓ and share your thoughts ⁓ with us about the movie ⁓ in the comments ⁓ or even a review ⁓ and ⁓ on IMDB or letterbox ⁓ about the movie that will that will that will help to reach an even wider audience internationally so we could we could help as many people as possible. Yeah, and we really mean that when we say share your comments. Cause ⁓ we also want to ⁓ improve for ⁓ the coming movies. If there's something where you say, ⁓ this could have been this can have been better or we like this, then tell us. So yeah. So we know what our audience really wants to see. Now we talked about I love my narcissist. Whoever is interested, just go check it out. It's worth your time and you won't regret it. Believe us. ⁓ yeah, now the idea of how How I ⁓ started making ⁓ privileg, which is a very interesting story because many people at the beginning of this journey with Privileg, many people told me, hey, you won't make it, it won't be seen, and it's not worth it. And many people tried to tuck me down ⁓ on doing this project and and they they told me, ⁓ hey, you are wasting your time and so and so and so. And that was also your first feature documentary, right? That was also my first feature and my first feature documentary. However, this movie, this documentary, PVLEC, made it to Amazon Prime in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. And also available on our stream platform, Alepsin Stream. And also important is that it made it to cinemas in Germany. So ⁓ the movie that no one believed in made it to cinemas in Germany and made it on major stream platforms and our own stream platform. After all this journey, I was thinking by myself, okay, if I would have given up. This would not have had happened to me and for me. And I was and I am now very happy because because ⁓ Estefani knows that. I've I never give up. I try, I fail, I stand up, try again in a different in in a different way, and I learn from from my failure. ⁓ and After making this movie and bringing it out to the audience, I'm very proud because because many people, almost almost everyone, told me, Yeah, you are wasting your time, you you can't make it, it's not possible, and so and so. But it's possible for the listeners and the viewers. If someone is talking you down, if someone is telling you you can't make it, if someone telling you it's not worth it, leave yourself, trust in yourself. And just do it. And if you make a mistake, if you if you fail, if whatever happens, don't give up. Learn from it and do it in a different way. Try a different approach and learn from your mistakes, learn from your ⁓ failures and do it. Because if you believe in that, if you trust yourself, you can make it. No one can say you can't. Because If someone says you can't make it, it doesn't mean that you can't make it, but it means that they can't make it. It doesn't have to do anything with you. So you can make it, they can't. It's their opinion. So just trust in yourself and do it. I think what makes sense to to add here as well is find the right people to collaborate with and learn how to have artistic discussions about things. Like figure out for yourself and in working with others, what are the things that you can't compromise on and what are the things that you can let go of. You have a saying for this, Ali, right? Yeah. I I have a saying that's very interesting and ⁓ Steph makes ⁓ fun of it sometimes. I say if you dream as a big house, you get on I didn't even mean that No, which which one you mean that? I thought kill your dar I thought about kill your darling. ⁓ yeah, okay, that's that's yeah. ⁓ there I I I will I will come to that saying as well. ⁓ there is there is a saying in the film industry ⁓ kill your darling, but not in in real life, ⁓ for sure not. ⁓ it's not the case. It means that if a scene, ⁓ ver a create a a specific cre creative decision is Very, very, very important to you that you can't give it up. And you get many constructive feedback about that specific decision that tells you that tell you you shouldn't continue with that and you should should try a different approach. It's often hard to to accept that feedback and and give it and give it up and then and then lose yourself from that decision. And try a different approach. And that's why in the film industry people say, kill your darling. It means that just lose that creative idea that is very, very, very important to you. And try a different approach. And sometimes, for example, in in in the in the editing process, for example, you you made the movie, you edit, you edit it together, and then you see that A scene is not working or a specific shot is not working in a movie. It it doesn't make any sense. But you love that shot or you love that scene. And your editor says we should delete that scene. Your producer says you should delete you should delete that scene. ⁓ your creative director says you should delete that scene. And ⁓ everyone else who is involved because everyone think about the project itself and not about your ⁓ comfort. So they say you should that, ⁓ you should delete that scene, and but you don't like to that to delete that scene because it's your favorite chart, favorite scene. And this is the saying that comes in kill your darling. If you do that, you put even much more value into your into your movie or into your into your creative work. And we did that a lot with with Privileg, with I Love You My Narcissist. With Anniversary and with many other smaller projects that we did. ⁓ Yeah, but I think it's important to figure out when to do it and when not to do it. Because I also know for I Love You My Narcissus, there were a couple of moments where we were really, really in intense discussions about scenes. But you insist that that we should do it that certain way. And some of the scenes I might admit even turned out to be some of the best scenes. You you admitted already actually because because they're very they're very I can I can recall two specific scenes from the movie that before we start shooting the scene, ⁓ Steph came to me and said, Yeah, hey, this scene is not going to work out, this is not worth it, it's it looks bad, I don't like it, don't do that, don't do that. My DP came to me, I don't like this, don't do that, don't do that, the other the other ⁓ per ⁓ department came to me. Don't do that. I say I want to do it because it makes sense. It's not my darling, but it makes sense. And after doing it, after editing the movie, after putting that specific scene into the movie, after the first time watching it, a Steph came to me and told me. It worked. This scene looks good. I'm happy that you said yes and you didn't accept my My ⁓ reasons. And it it it became also the favorite scene of of some people ⁓ who watch a movie, they say that's my favorite scene because it's looks it looks very good and ⁓ that's ⁓ why we made that. ⁓ I can I can yeah, for example, tell one of them ⁓ which scene is. So if you want to No, don't spoil it and don't spoil No, I don't spoil it. I don't spoil it. ⁓ Is a scene that Michael is playing piano and Emily is singing behind and we see Sara in a different way. So just watch the movie, figure out that scene and just write in the comments. ⁓ we are very excited to hear what you think and if you could find find it. So ⁓ that's that's very interesting. But yeah, now that ⁓ now it became ⁓ one of the favourite scenes for for some people. ⁓ and I'm very happy about that. ⁓ I I don't regret it. Yeah. ⁓ So But I made you something important to sometimes important to to do your creative vision. You should you should be able to separate the killer darling and to doing your vision at the same time. So it's very important to understand what is what and how to do it and how to approach the right decision. Yeah. Which is also why you're good at directing and I want you to direct what we're talking I'm like direct, but yeah, as you say, ⁓ But I stopped you said project based. Okay. I take that for now. ⁓ but I stopped you from talking about Privilegue. You didn't you also didn't explain what pri what ⁓ privileg is about. Maybe that would be good to add. Privileg is about one person in the LGBTQIA plus community. It's about Henry. A person that lives in ⁓ in Berlin, it is primarily focused on his experiences in Berlin, but they reach internationally. So since it's about topics like religion, identity, politics, partnership, it is working internationally as well. Yeah. Thank you. And it's it's it's following Henry's life and Henry's perspective on everything. Yeah, I I'm I'm not good g good ⁓ with the storytelling when it comes to words, but my vision of ⁓ making movies is is very different. ⁓ I mean sometimes it's also hard when you spend so much time with a project, like we also experienced on other projects, then you just want to tell everything and focus on everything. Well I think from the outside then sometimes it's easier to say, ⁓ but no, but it's it's that. Yeah. And I haven't worked on privileg. I only saw ⁓ an earlier rough cut of it and then I helped distribute the movie as well. Yeah. Yeah. And thanks to you, it got a theatrical release, release on Amazon Prime, ⁓ in the US, UK, Canada, and ⁓ Germany, Austria, Switzerland. So But yeah, thanks to me, meaning really that I just pushed Ali to keep on. Working on it, keep on finding a distributor for it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, thanks to you. How how you did it, it doesn't matter. It it it matters that it's it's just because of you. So I'm very happy about it and yeah, ⁓ if ⁓ if anyone is interested to to find out and to see what is it about and ⁓ how the the situations are showed in the movie. ⁓ feel free to check it out. ⁓ go to Alefcnia Stream www.acstream.com and ⁓ watch the full movie there. There is no registration, no ⁓ subscription. ⁓ there is ⁓ there is free registration, no subscription, no advertisement. And ⁓ whenever you purchase a movie, you own it forever on LFCNS stream and you can watch it ⁓ as many times you like, whenever you like. It's totally up to you. And I would also say ⁓ about this movie, Henry made it so easy to relate to him in any way. Like I, for example, related to him even though a lot of the things that are going on in my life are very different from what he experienced. So I think it's really easy to identify with him and follow his journey. Yeah, we are moving ⁓ slowly towards the ending of the very first episode of ⁓ the beyond our stories. Thank you so much, ⁓ Stephanie, ⁓ for starting lead past podcast ⁓ with me together. I mean it's gonna be a fun journey. That will be a very fun journey for sure. And for people who are asking if we are just working together, no. There's a clue in here we have the same last name. Yeah, exactly. They're there we have the same last name, so ⁓ you can you can figure it out. ⁓ we are more than co workers, ⁓ and that's s sometimes ⁓ a challenge that we could manage hopefully until now. and that we can manage ⁓ every every time we had ⁓ difficulty or we had different ⁓ opinions ⁓ about a specific topic. ⁓ So it's basically basically like we introduced ⁓ at the beginning of the podcast, it's what happened and when the story is over and when the story is told, right? Because we started our relationship after we shot ⁓ our short film and then have been together ever since. Yeah. Yeah. That's how it is. There is a signature ⁓ closing question that I ask every guest that we have. ⁓ today ⁓ my guest is ⁓ Steph. but she's not actually But I'm also hosting the co-host ⁓ of the podcast. So ⁓ but today sh he is let's say as a guest. I'm also today as a guest-ish. ⁓ but we are the host ⁓ of the podcast, both of us. ⁓ so ⁓ we ask always the last closing question, the same for anyone and everyone. So Esther, what is the one story, one movie, or even one personal experience that you can always remember and change how you see people? We talked about that already ⁓ privately when we were talking about I love you, my narcissist. For me, I love you, my narcissist would be a success if it just changed one person. If one person went away with it and felt like this has done something for me. But I didn't consider that the journey with this project would also change a lot for me. Cause it also changed a lot about my own relationship. Our relationship got so much better because of the conversations that we had around this movie. And the obstacles that we had to overcome with that. And then also other relationships to my close people have improved immensely since ⁓ we worked on this project. And I would give everything for that. So yeah, it it really is this project that changed the world for me. And I hope it does the same thing for other people as well. Cool. Amazing. Thank you so much to the listeners and the viewers who watched ⁓ until now. If today's conversation resonated with you, we'd encourage you to continue the journey by watching I Love You My Narcissist and Privileg on Aleph Cine's dream. The movie I Love You My Narcissist explores the realities of narcissistic abuse through personal stories and expert insights and together with conversation like this one, our hope is to help people feel understood, supported and less alone. Previlec follows one person's journey in the LGBTQIA plus community and his difficulties and challenges with society, politics, religion, and how his partnership looked like. With our movies and this podcast, we want to create more connections between people and more understanding for each other's life experiences. At Aleph CineStream, we believe that PowerPoint stories. Can inspire meaningful conversations and meaningful conversations can inspire real change. You can watch most movies on Aleph Cness, just simply go to www.ac-stream.com and watch the movies. There is no subscription, there is no advertisement, the registration is for free. And you can also even use our apps on iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, iPad and tablets. If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd really appreciate if you follow the podcast, left a review, and shared this conversation with someone who might need to hear this. Every story begins on the screen, but it continues within us. Thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time on Beyond Our Sorts.