The Collective

Meridian was founded in Berlin in 2009 by Lena Wachtel and Tomasz Bryl. Today the collective numbers four full-time members and a network of collaborating archivists, translators, and historians across twelve countries.

Lena trained as a film archivist at the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv in Koblenz before co-founding Meridian in 2009. Her restoration work has been recognised by the European Film Academy and the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. She oversees all technical restoration decisions and relationships with Eastern European national archives.

Tomasz grew up in Wroclaw and studied film history at the Lodz Film School. He has been a programmer at the Berlinale Forum since 2004 and brings that institutional network to Meridian's acquisition work. He is responsible for all programming decisions and partnerships with cinematheques.

Ana Luisa joined Meridian in 2015 after a decade at Potential Films in London, where she specialised in Eastern European independent cinema. She manages all licensing, subtitling, and distribution partnerships across 24 countries.

Markus is a photochemical and digital restoration specialist with 20 years of experience across analogue-to-digital transfer. He led the 4K restoration of The Salt Road and the Makavejev Estate projects. His technical reports have been published in the Journal of Film Preservation.