We are staying in Europe from last month, but this time off to Helsinki, Finland, to catch up with 2013 NSW Stipi Kerri Ann Foweraker. She is a film director from Sydney who has lived in Melbourne, Wales, London and Denmark over recent years, but is now learning Finnish and making a film funded by the Finnish Film Foundation. She is in fact a master of many languages, not just the German she learnt at high school. Kerri Ann successfully applied for a SAGSE scholarship back then, and off she went to Engelschoff near Hamburg, for her exchange experience. Immediately after her exchange, Kerri Ann completed film school back in Australia, but then it was off to the UK and beyond.
Year of exchange: 2013 / 14
Group Leader: Eddie Cliff
School: North Sydney Girls High
Sponsor: Logwin Logistics
Town / city of exchange in Germany: Engelschoff (near Stade / Hamburg)
My fondest memories of my exchange are being at the Stade Christmas Market eating far too many Kindercrepes, and so, so much baking with my host sister. Together we explored the limitless wonders of German Christmas cookies – my favourite still Vanillekipferl. I fondly remember my first traditional Christmas in the cold, sitting by the real log-fire oven in the living room, drinking heiße Schokolade and unpacking my host mother’s magical advent calendar which lined the staircase.
I was lucky to have an amazing friendship with my host sister, Stephi – jeden Tag Party machen! The final day of school eating Döner in the picturesque Hansestadt, having a rolling goodbye to all my new friends and our adventures to Hamburg really stick out to me.
My exchange was also my first experience of snow in a city or town, rather than at Australian skiing mountains, and really sparked my love for colder climates. After Germany, I was a certified winter person. It was also just the experience of a completely different life in the countryside compared to my Sydney city life: watching my host sisters practise voltigieren (kind of gymnastics on a horse), learning to horse ride myself, setting off our own fireworks for New Year's. My host family even took me on a trip to the Netherlands, where I also got to practise some Dutch!
And of course, the main thing was language. I remember sitting in my host sister’s bedroom in the first weeks as she tried to teach me to pronounce letters with an umlaut properly – by the end of the exchange, I felt pretty fluent, with all the slang of a proper Norddeutsche.
I moved to Melbourne where I studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Television at VCA, specialising in Film Directing. I loved every minute of my degree, especially being surrounded by all the different arts disciplines in such a creative environment.
After film school, I moved to the UK – first to Cardiff, then London for almost 2 years. London was the perfect base to travel from following my graduate film to different film festivals. I went all over the UK and got opportunities to visit some exotic European destinations such as Gdansk in Poland. The most exciting was getting accepted into a Directing Talent Lab at the Reykjavik International Film Festival, where I even met the Icelandic president! This experience reminded me a little bit of the receptions at the embassy during exchange. The film is now exhibited in the Royal Air Force Museum in London and the Lithuanian Cold War Museum – it’s travelled more than me!
During this time, I worked in Soho as a localisation editor – the perfect combination of my film degree and interest in languages. My job included localising, subtitling and versioning commercials for clients like Rolex and Nespresso to be shown in different countries. I ended up working with content in over 50 languages!
COVID hit as my British visa ended, so it worked well to come back to Sydney, where I started to develop some longer film projects and worked remotely as a development assistant on TV drama. I did some cool things during this time, like the ABC Top 5 residency where I published content on Radio National and ABC Online. But the travel itch was burning, and as soon as the borders reopened, I was planning my escape….
At the beginning of 2022, I got selected for an artist residency in rural Finland where I lived for 2 months in mid-winter, writing a number of different film projects. I spent a further two months travelling around Europe, including visiting my host family again after 8 years!
I had always been planning to move back to Europe and especially wanted to return to a non-English speaking country. Hamburg was a contender, but my interest had been peaked by the Nordic region after my experience in Iceland, and a lot of binged Nordic Noir on SBS On Demand during the pandemic, especially inspired by Danish cinema.
So, after a short interlude living in Sydney Harbour, I moved to Copenhagen where I lived for one year – a really unique and exciting place. I focused on learning Danish and after 10 months, sat the PD3 exam which is the state exam for the Danish Language at B2 level, coming out with a perfect score!
And then 10 days after finishing my exam, I moved to Finland at the beginning of July. My Danish visa was ending, I was yearning to return to the snow, and I had been awarded a grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation called “Speak Finnish Boldly!”, which supported me for 3 months to learn Finnish while writing a feature film in the Etelä-Pohjanmaa region of Finland. Kind of the dream job for me – getting paid to learn a language while doing creative work. I lived in two very isolated small towns (Lapua and Alajärvi), quite literally in the middle of the forest.
In October last year, I moved to Helsinki, where I really feel like I’ve found a place to call home. Having grown up in Sydney, I need to live in a harbour town, and getting to have both the ocean and snow 5-6 months a year is the perfect combination for me! Celebrating New Year’s in -15 degrees with a free Käärijä concert (for all of you Eurovision fans) was a recent highlight.
I upped the ante this time and recently sat the C1 Finnish exam after being here for 10 months. Fingers crossed for a good result!
In Helsinki I’ve been working on a new short film (involving a real moose), and just found out that I have received funding from the Finnish Film Foundation to move ahead with the production! I am also writing my debut feature film inspired by my experiences here over the winter.
I’m hoping to find a way to stay in Finland for at least a few years. My ideal situation would be to keep my base in Helsinki and travel around Europe and beyond for international work – hopefully including finding a way to spend a few months in Australia each year (during winter, of course!). Let’s see if that can be a reality in a few years’ time. I have another feature film in the works in Greece, and am involved in a TV drama in France, so hopefully those destinations are on the cards in the near future too.
I also definitely want to continue learning languages – my next goals are Modern Greek, Italian and to actually be able to speak Swedish (not just Danish in a Swedish accent).
My exchange really accelerated my urge to travel – beyond just visiting new places, a desire to actually experience really living all around the world. It definitely set me up on the path I’m on today which has taken me to very unexpected destinations!
My host sister and I have an amazing friendship I’m so grateful for, and I’m so lucky to really feel like I have a second family in Germany. I went back for Christmas 2022 from Copenhagen – just a 5-hour train ride away – and it felt just like old times. Going from Danish back to German was a bit of a struggle but by the end of the week there, I felt like I was dusting off my German skills again.
Sometimes in Australia, I felt that learning foreign languages was a bit shunned, but after SAGSE, I was able to meet people who shared my passion for languages and travel, and now have a network of support all over the world. I have stayed with many GASSies on my travels!
I even made a German-language film in my second year of film school, which was the start of my foreign film journey! I wonder if I would have been so motivated to pursue non-English-language cinema if I hadn’t had this time abroad. I’m very appreciative to my sponsor for all the opportunities that the exchange opened up to me.