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Q:
How did you get the idea of making a film on Casablanca
and using Rick's Cafe?
Wolfgang: We had a meeting with German TV editors in Hamburg
and the idea came up to do a documentary based
on an old film. The first film that came to mind
was "Casablanca," along with Humphrey Bogart,
Ingrid Bergman and the Rick's Café that never
existed. One of the editors went to the internet
and came back very excited saying, "You're not
going to believe this, but Rick's Café has just
opened in Casablanca!" This was maybe in July,
2004 and then we looked at your website and became
even more intrigued. I sent you an e-mail in October
asking if you'd be willing to cooperate, and I
remember Kathy that you answered positively right
away. Then Eva came in December to have a look.
Eva:
When I came in December I was even more
convinced that Rick's Café would be a great focal
point for the film. I was amazed at how open and
warm the people were. Wolfgang: Christian (the
cameraman) and I were shooting a documentary in
Poland when Eva went to Casablanca, and I remember
how curious we were about what she was discovering
there. I called her and got very excited. After
Christmas we made a story outline with the photos
Eva had from her visit. The station approved the
production and we came in March to develop a real
scenario.
Q: What is the channel
that's backing the production?
Wolfgang:
It's called NDR, the biggest public television
channel. We've done over 60 documentaries for
them.
Q: Is this the first documentary you've shot in
Africa?
Wolfgang: Oh no. We've done films in Namibia, Uganda, South
Africa, Zimbabwe.and of course Eva has a background
in East Africa having spent 18 years in Kenya
and Tanzania.
Q: Did the Casablanca
filming all go as expected?
Wolfgang:
I'd say 95% has gone according to plan. We're
especially grateful for Anne Marie's help. She's
lived here all her life and has a huge network
of contacts.
Eva: We'd
just mention it would be nice to have someone
who could do ."x" and right away Anne Marie would
punch a number on her mobile phone and have a
contact for us.
Q: What was your best memory of filming?
Wolfgang:
The best memory, and I'm sure all of you agree,
is the people. I can say we were here two weeks,
working round the clock and meeting and working
with so many people. We didn't meet one who was
not nice. The people are so warm and generous.
Q: What would you say
was your worst experience?
Wolfgang:
Well the worst was the camera breaking down after
two days and having to rent one for the rest of
the shoot. After that, I'd say the sequence at
the race course with the horses. It rained. We
were towards the end of filming and all the other
days had been sunny and clear, and here we had
cloudy skies and rain. It just wouldn't fit. We
waited and waited, and unlike Germany, we didn't
have to wait long for the skies to clear, and
we got our film.
Q: How is your film going
to be different from other documentaries on Morocco
or Casablanca?
Wolfgang: Well first, it's going to be exclusively on Casablanca.
I think that's unique - we wanted to give an idea
of what this large city is all about - not a tourism
travelogue that talks about Marrakech, the desert,
Agadir. Also, Casablanca is a big city with its
problems, but we wanted to show something positive,
show a city on the move. To do that we used Kathy
and her story with Rick's Café, a young stockbroker
who returned to Casablanca to work after studying
and working abroad, a fashion designer who's worked
at Lagerfeld, a young woman who started an innovative
way to export the zellige tile, and a wealthy
man who decided to breed racehorses. In short
we found people who believe in themselves and
their talents. There were some wonderful stories
- a woman physician, a widow, who's dedicating
her life to helping the street children. But we
decided not to do it, there was so much we found
that was very, very positive and we hope that
will help Casablanca. This documentary will be
shown in Germany and also in France (ARTE), in
October. It's going to help Casablanca, I think,
for our message as outsiders is this city has
a lot to offer.
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