A portrait of film editor Gesa Jäger

At 19, Gesa Jäger experienced a “key moment” as a foretaste of her subsequent career as an editor. During an internship at a local Hamburg TV station, she had filmed a “boring press conference”. She edited the footage into a 30-second news item and realised: “Combining images and sound can create an authentic story that triggers our emotions.” She realised then that editing was “her thing”: What she didn’t realise was that it could be a profession in its own right.

It was only after abandoning a history degree, and more internships on various film sets that she landed in the profession that has taken her to the highest echelons of the film industry in Los Angeles in 2024 – as editor of İlker Çatak’s Oscar-nominated drama THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE, for which she had previously received the German Film Award. She discovered the world of the cutting room following a tip after her film internships: “It was the first time I saw how a film is made, right in front of my eyes.” Her affinity for editing is also linked to her penchant for music. Before her film career, she had played the piano and sung in a choir for a long time: “I’m a super emotional person, and music has always been an outlet for me, a way to express my feelings. When editing, I have noticed that human behaviour also follows spe­cific rhythms that can be changed, and that’s a very musical process.”

The now 43-year-old acquired the necessary know-how during her training as a specialist in film and ENG editing at Norddeutscher Rundfunk, and later while studying editing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Her graduation film, the mumblecore-style romantic comedy LOVE STEAKS, caused a sensation and won the New German Cinema Award in four categories at Munich Film Festival 2013. Gesa Jäger was also presented with the Editing Award for Feature Film at the film+ festival. For good reason: “There were 78 hours of improvised material, which we used to build the story in the cutting room. So, as an editor, I had much more influence than on films with a conventional script.”

Working with its director Jakob Lass proved formative for her future career: “He taught me to be open to every idea and not to say ‘no’ to any, no matter how nonsensical they may seem at first. Because that can lead to a solution that might work even better. If you don’t try things, you lose opportunities.” This experience also taught her to trust her instincts: “If I like a take because it moves me in some way, I think there must be something special about it.”

She edited two more films with Jakob Lass, TIGER GIRL, which screened at the 2017 Berlinale, and the 2018 adaptation of the novel RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. She became known to a wider audience overnight in 2020 with the Emmy Award-winning mini-series UNORTHODOX, directed by Maria Schrader. Working on that brought her together with one of her great idols – the multi-award-winning editor Hansjörg Weißbrich (SHE SAID). He was respon­sible for the rough cut, and each of them took on two of the four episodes in the final cut.

Weißbrich also put her in touch with İlker Çatak, who was looking for someone to edit THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE. After just a few minutes of their first meeting, she had the feeling she was: “... with a friend, not someone I needed to prove myself to.” In terms of creative content, the two of them were on the same wavelength from the start: “İlker takes a very close look when it comes to people. I’m most interested in the subtleties of human emotions and thoughts, as well.” She has been equally impressed by his attitude: “Like me, he believes that we are all on a journey and that no one has all the answers from day one.” This echoes her own feeling: “In the editing process, it’s fine to be completely open at the beginning. A film develops bit by bit.”

She is currently working on İlker Çatak’s new film YELLOW LETTERS, which was shot in Turkish. She is enjoying working with his long-time cinematographer Judith Kaufmann again: “She succeeds in making her images tell complete stories, and offers approaches for me to adopt in the editing process.” Following the international success of THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE, one possible career path could take her into the international industry. But Gesa Jäger is not looking for such a move at any price: “I’m already a little in love with the German film world, and I’m also extremely people-driven. It’s all about feeling comfortable with people for me, about trusting them and vice versa. Something great will always emerge from that. If I meet some­one like that internationally and I’m interested in the material, why not? Otherwise, I’m very, very happy here.”

Rüdiger Sturm