Student Spotlight

Over a couple of years we collaborated with the EPFL Philanthropy branch, interviewing the most promising students who have received support to conduct their studies at the polytechnic school.

Interview-driven documentary work starts well before the camera rolls. For each student portrait, we conducted a pre-interview to learn more about their background, their research, what drives them, and all those details that don't come out under the camera's eye. That preparation is what allows the filmed conversation to feel natural and light.

On shoot days, location and lighting were scouted and set up in advance, and the interview questions were shaped around what we'd learned in the pre-interview, leaving room for the conversation to go wherever it needed to go.

Across more than ten portraits, we met students from all sorts of backgrounds and fields. In this interview, we met Horia, conducting research on fat stem cells, attempting to understand how they "decide" what their role will be once they mature.