This an animation sequence I did for a documentary about an alternative regional school (“You belong to us”), a Low-Budget-film by Hella Wenders (dffb) that is still work in progress.
I usually am willing to work for No-(or Low) Budget projects if I’m interested in the theme. And if it gives me the opportunity to put in my own ideas and style.
Unfortunately I was a bit unhappy with the aesthetic decision of the director, who decided against the packing paper look – which was the look I preferred most.
The director suggested a squared paper instead of the packing paper. And so – as a compromise – we found this:
I was asked by bildwechsel, an audiovisual women’s film and video archive, to make a video contribution for their “High Format Videofestival” in Hamburg, called “Parole: Hochformat” (“Watchword: High Format”).
The motto is: “CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE OR TAKE ACTION”
The “High Format” videofestival will be staged in hamburg in autumn 2010 for the first time. It will take place at ten different locations: artist run spaces, alternative spaces, small galleries, womens+-places.
This is my animation contribution: “The Universe is Change” (2min).
Inspired by a friend who told me after my birthday that – by some kind of cross counting my birthdate and the current year – he had foreseen big transformations in my life.
The related Tarot card he sent me was card no. 13: Death.
Torn between my rational refusal of spiritual explanatory models and even though a litte impressed by the accuracy of the card’s meaning (there indeed HAD been big transformations in my life!), I started to think about the word “Change”.
I remembered some images I had drawn long before and tried them out, combining them with the thoughts and words that crossed my mind.
I did not know in what it would result, but the high format (and therefore less space that had to be filled) gave me the perfect limitation to narrate in the simple way the words and images were floating.
At some point the narration finished itself. Namely when I put in the Death card.
So I thought: okay, what bigger change than death could happen to my central character?!
Yet prefering to leave the final question unanswered: what if she had changed her rational thinking…?
