KATINKA OMIR

 I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker quite early on – even though as a kid I wanted to be a veterinarian, a fashion designer, a diplomat, or a secretary (I love to arrange things … I guess I was a squirrel in a previous life). I worked as a fashion editor at the German broadcasting stations ZDF and 3Sat during my time as a film student. It was a great experience, but after a couple of years I decided to leave the safe haven of a large broadcasting house and go into business with my husband as a managing partner of plankton. 

 

plankton isn’t a film production company in the classic sense of the term. We are filmmakers and mainly produce our own ideas. An agency and production company in one, so to speak. That can be self-serving at times. For instance, we were thinking about all the wonderful places we saw and lovely people we met on our short trips. That’s when we hit on the idea to create the international TV travel program Weekend, which I directed as editor-in-chief. You can see the show's first season on German iTunes.

Those years traveling the world with a camera, seeing all those wonderful places and meeting unique and lovely people, were an invaluable experience and I'm still not able to go on vacation without thinking in terms of shots (which actually drives me crazy whenever I’m watching a romantic sunset).  

​

I really love all of these projects and the people we work with but – it's actually more of an 'and' than a 'but'– I always kept fashion in mind. That led to a chat a couple of years ago with my friend Kerstin, the owner of my favorite fashion store: Hayashi. The idea for "Hayashi Loves You" was born. It’s just gone from there and I'm still very grateful for and excited about every single film and all of the amazing women I get to work with.

​