Lucia Mann — a German screenwriter, playwright and author — will give a talk in room 150 of Pomerene Hall Tuesday. Credit: Courtesy of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies
Lucia Mann is going from Berlin to Buckeye in order to give a talk surrounding the world of film at Ohio State.
Mann, a screenwriter, playwright and novelist from Berlin, who is in residence — a temporary period when an artist works in a new environment in order to develop new ideas and work — at Ohio State’s Melton Center for Jewish Studies, is speaking Tuesday from 4-6 p.m. in room 150 of Pomerene Hall — located at 1760 Neil Ave. — regarding the process of filmmaking in contemporary Germany.
Carmen Nikazm-Taleghani, an Ohio State professor of applied linguistics and German and the chair of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, said Mann will be talking about her own experiences with writing and producing movies.
“She is going to talk about the process of writing a screenplay and turning it into a movie,” Nikazm-Taleghani said. “She will talk about the process of working with directors, the editing phases and the challenges, but also the excitements of [movie production].”
Nikazm-Taleghani said the talk is part of an event series the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures is running, which focuses on Franz Kafka, a German language novelist and writer from Prague.
“Our goal was to organize a series of activities and invite speakers that, one way or the other, have something to do with Kafka,” Nikazm-Taleghani said. “Some of the activities really focus specifically on Kafka, but some are more general because we wanted to use Kafka as a way to address other cultural topics.”
Nikazm-Taleghani said the choice to center the series’ events around Kafka was due to this year being the 100th anniversary of the influential writer’s death.
“Franz Kafka was a visionary. He was a very important writer in German literature,” Nikazm-Taleghani said. “This year was the 100th anniversary of his death, and there were a lot of exhibitions and programs in the German speaking world about this topic.”
Like Kafka, Mann is also a Jewish-German language writer with a connection to Prague, which Nikazm-Teleghani said is the reason the center chose to host her at the event series, which is partially funded by a grant from the German Embassy in Washington D.C., which provides money for German-related college campus events.
“Mann and her father together wrote a screenplay for a romantic comedy called ‘Ein Sommer in Prag,’ so Prague is the Kafka connection,” Nikazm-Teleghani said. “[Mann] is also working on a comedy where the protagonist is a Jewish woman.”
Hannah Kosstrin, an Ohio State associate professor in the Department of Dance and director of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies, said Mann focuses on her characters’ human nature when writing.
“Often, the way that she engages her characters [points] to their humanity and the way that they interact with other people,” Kosstrin said. “She often will feature Jewish protagonists, not always women, but very often women.”
Kosstrin said the Melton Center is thrilled to have Mann as a writer in residence, and is excited to feature some of her work in both German and English. She said if there is one thing Mann is best at, it’s showcasing Jewish themes in her work.
“There are a lot of ways that representation of Jewish characters and Jewish themes in mainstream pop culture manifest, and Mann is right in there doing some cutting-edge work in that area,” Kosstrin said.
Nikazm-Taleghani said she hopes that students from all majors attend the event.
“We would love to have not just our students, but all students on campus who are interested in the topic and want to learn more,” Nikazm-Taleghani said.
For more information about Mann’s talk, visit Ohio State’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures website.
