_{Editor/director Jack Goessens}

The Dutch-born, Scottish-based editor and director, who will be at Berlinale Talents this month, straddles two filmmaking cultures… and two careers.

On the one hand, Goessens is an editor on such high-profile projects as Sony/Starz’s Outlander (now on series 7) and on the new Netflix show The Fuck It Bucket. On the other, he is a filmmaker in his own right. He has directed award-winning shorts, among them 2021’s Everyman, and is currently developing Boifriend, his debut feature as writer-director.

The film was one of the projects chosen to participate in last month’s International Film Festival Rotterdam’s CineMart co-production bazaar. It’s a coming of age story about a young lesbian about to start university and explore the LGBTQ scene for the first time. However, she is prey to strange visions and sees both hyper-feminine and ultra-masculine versions of herself in mirrors.

“She doesn’t understand these weird feelings she is having. These visions are actually physical manifestations of gender dysphoria and gender euphoria which some trans people have,” the director explains. “Basically, it is inspired by my own journey as a trans person.”

Goessens is working on a new draft of a screenplay and hopes Berlinale Talents will provide him with contacts and networking opportunities which will help the project.

The young Dutch-Scottish auteur originally did an economics and business degree in Maastricht (his parents wanted him to have a “sensible” career). However, while on exchange in Glasgow, he applied to do a film degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He was accepted and specialised in post-production. Not long after graduating, he was hired as a trainee assistant editor on Outlander.

“Big shows like that, you wouldn’t expect them to take as much risk as they do. They are so supportive. Every single time that I come back, they would step me up,” Goessens says of his rapid rise up the ranks. He is now the UK editor.

How does he balance editing high profile projects like this with developing his own work? “I try to do it in-between jobs - but the reality is that there isn’t that much in-between jobs time!”

Goessens therefore has to work in the evenings and at weekends. “Sometimes, I feel that editing keeps me sane because directing is such a volatile career,” he sighs. “The set part of shooting is actually my least favourite part of it.”

But, no, he doesn’t want to edit his own movie. “The editor-director relationship is so important. I know exactly what the benefits are of that relationship. I definitely want that for my feature, and I have somebody in mind as well…”
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