Betty Lerche is a Berlin-based filmmaker born in Alsfeld, Germany. She began her film studies at the                                                        Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (German Film and Television Academy) DFFB Berlin before                                                            moving to Frankfurt. There she studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts, Städelschule, in the film

                                                class of the well-known Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Professor Peter Kubelka. She completed her                                                        studies with the highest possible degree of a "Master Student". Afterward she moved temporarily to

                                                New York City where she worked as a volunteer at the experimental cinema Anthology Film Archives. During this time she became strongly influenced by its founder Jonas Mekas and his poetic personal film style. 

For her short films "Rose" and "Amor" Betty Lerche was granted an Artist Residence in Tokyo by Fuji Film Japan. From 2000 until 2003 she lived inTel Aviv, Israel before she moved back to Germany. She then decided to explore new paths and made aagricultural apprenticeship on a biodynamic organic Demeter farm for several years. After this experience she continued with personal diary-style and experimental films which played in several festivals and Video Installations amongst them "Kaddish - Anne Frank" 2000 Hannover Sprengel Museum, Künstlerhaus.She also became friends with the Berlin-based Independent filmmaker Lothar Lambert with whom she collaborated on his projects about the Berlin LGBTQ+ community.

"WHEN ICEBIRDS CATCH FIRE" (in German: "WENN EISVÖGEL FEUER FANGEN") is her first full-length film. It was kindly supported with a grant from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion (Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt) and premiered in October 2023 at Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art and the Bundesplatz-Kino Berlin.