We Who Seek: Katja Meier
Katja and I first met thanks to the early days of Instagram as it would have it. Back in those days it was still a comparatively small community and it was easier to connect with others on the platform. I was in awe of her life in Tuscany with an outdoor bathtub overlooking an olive grove and I was inspired by her work, which you can read about in her book Across the Big Blue Sea. Fast forward to 2018 when I was traveling to Italy and included staying with her and her family for a few days. It was magic and such fun to finally be spending time together in person after so many years of being penpals basically. In recent years she has co-founded Zenka Films, which is focused on female-driven film productions with powerful and inspiring leads. Read on below for my interview with her….
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Let’s start at the beginning—you were born in Switzerland and ultimately you ended up in Italy. Your incredible book Across the Big Blue Sky is about your time running a refugee home in Tuscany. What brought you to that work and what have you carried with you since that chapter?
I worked at a women’s shelter in a Tuscan village and that directly led to my work in the refugee home (which was for women only). And it’s that experience and the memoir I wrote about it that led to $HARE, a TV series about wealth inequality and female empowerment.
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In 2022 you founded Zenka films. What drew you to telling stories in this visual format?
Across the Big Blue Sea was supposed to become a film. That project has died in the meantime but it brought me to screenwriting. I have a very visual brain. And I love the rhythm in dialogue writing - a skill you need for a good script.
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What has influenced your work the most?
Real people and real stories. When I managed the refugee home, I met women with incredible resilience. That experience fundamentally changed how I see wealth, privilege, and power dynamics. Now with $HARE, I'm exploring similar themes but through fiction. I'm obsessed with the question of what people do with resources and power when they have them. Do they cling to privilege or use it to create more equity?
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How much does your background and the place you live influence you?
Enormously! Being Swiss gives me this outsider-insider perspective on wealth. Switzerland is this fascinating contradiction – incredible prosperity with a certain reluctance to examine where all that money comes from. Living in rural Tuscany has been the perfect contrast – it's grounded me and given me space to observe the wheeling and dealing of my home country from a distance. Both places shape $HARE: we've got this wealthy British-Swiss mining family dealing with their heritage of exploitation while our protagonist chooses to live a simple life in a caravan on a winter campsite.
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Where do you go or what do you do when you’re seeking inspiration?
Walks. I take long walks in nature. Either in the Tuscan outback where I live or in the Swiss Alps where we produce $HARE (and where I own a caravan just like our protagonist ;-).
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What’s the most recent piece of art you’ve felt moved or inspired by—whether a book, a film, an exhibit, etc.?
A museum I always visit when I'm up in the Engadine, the valley where we film $HARE, is Muzeum Susch - https://www.muzeumsusch.ch/ - which sits in a jaw-dropping location and focuses on showcasing female artists. Every time I go, I'm blown away by works from female artists I've never heard of (but absolutely should have!). Last time I visited with Kamila Gazda, the editor and creative producer of $HARE. Kamila is Polish, so she recognized some of the Eastern European artists on display. We were both mesmerized by Tapta's https://muzeumsusch.ch/en/1931/Tapta-Flexible-Forms work. Her textile sculptures manage to be monumental and intimate at the same time. Considering what you do with Seek, I think you’d love them too.
In 2025, Muzeum Susch hosts Flow, the retrospective of Hungarian artist Ilona Keserü. https://www.muzeumsusch.ch/en/2045/Ilona-Keseru-Flow Can’t wait to see it!
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What’s the best advice you’ve received so far and who did it come from?
Writer and script advisor Ali Vingiano just asked me a similar question in an article she wrote about $HARE. The answer is to Use the Difficulty by Michae Caine - see the video of a fabulous interview with him on Ali’s Substack https://aliv.substack.com/p/an-inspiring-diy-tv-pilot-is-disrupting. And French solo sailor Isabelle Autissier’s tip to always have plans B, C, and D to fall back on if the wind isn’t blowing in your favour.
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And what advice would you give to someone who would like to turn their passion or hobby into a career, but is afraid to take the leap?
It's like gardening. It won't happen overnight. You need to prepare the soil, and put the seeds in. After that not much seems to happen. But suddenly these little plants start to break through. If you don't have time to look after them choose a species that can deal with dryness or your absence for extended periods. But don't think not having time means you can't be an artist or a creator. It's more about keeping at it. It's also never too late. I was 45 when I published my first book and 50 when I founded my fim production company https://katjameier.substack.com/p/why-im-doing-what-im-doing. Doesn't mean it will be easy. Gardening is hard work. But it's also deeply rewarding.
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You recently released the trailer for the pilot episode of $hare by Zenka Films. This is hugely exciting! In moving forward on this, what are you most looking forward to?
Three things:
1. Getting feedback from our audience. If you feel so inclined you can answer our audience questionnaire https://forms.gle/71pLPZvU4kvyL7gcA after watching the pilot.
2. Using that feedback to get back to the weaving of the story.
3. Keep working on $HARE with the incredible team https://share-tvseries.com/crew that made it all happen.
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What are you seeking more of this year?
Personally: Sleep and a proper holiday (and somebody who fines me if I keep talking about our TV pilot on said holiday).
Workwise: we're seeking viewers for $HARE’s 500k challenge https://share-tvseries.com/500k. The $8.95 each viewer pays to watch the pilot episode funds the production of the rest of season 1.
We put the seeds in, they developed into lovely plants (the pilot episode) now we need the audience's love to help them grow into the incredible forest $HARE is meant to be.
Katja is seen above wearing the Maya shirt, Katie dress, and Seek Scarf.
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Bonus is Katja's husband Sergeo in the Haus pants seen below!
