It’s been quiet around here for quite some time now, but don’t worry, we’ve been quietly working on “The American Backroom” in the background and news will be coming soon. Also, we’ve been developing a couple other projects and one or two of them just gained monemtum over the last couple of months, meaning that they consumed more and more of our time.
Now, here’s one of these other projects: ASTERNAUTS. A sci-fi comedy short film in Austin, TX, by a fantastic young director: Marta Masferrer. We’ve met Marta at the Berlinale Talent Campus in February, a section of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival, where she was a finalist of the Berlin Today Award producers pitching session with her project, meaning she pitched it to ten producers from Berlin, including us. We immediately fell in love with ASTERNAUTS, not only because it is one of the best comedy short film scripts I’ve ever read, but also because it is set in the same America that we also like to explore with “The American Backroom”. A perfect match, so wie picked it. And Marta picked us as producers.
Long story short: The film will be shot in early September in and around Austin, and we are also providing full post production in Germany at the end of the year. It’s our goal to get it finished on time for a premiere at next year’s Berlinale! But we still need a little push from you to get it made: We have just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to close our final gap in financing. Please take a look at the campaign and become part of something great! We have some fantastic rewards for your pledges, and you can also support us by sharing this campaign to your family, friends, co-workers, anyone… Please tweet us, facebook us or even google+ us 
We very much appreciate any contribution towards ASTERNAUTS and thank you so much for your help!
Es ist ganz schön ruhig geworden hier im Blog, aber keine Sorge, wir haben im Stillen und Verborgenen weiter gearbeitet an \"The American Backroom\" und Neuigkeiten gibt es bald. Wir haben außerdem eine Reihe von Projekten, die parallel entwickelt wurden, und das eine oder andere hat doch etwas schneller als erwartet Fahrt aufgenommen und ...
It’s been a full year since we’ve first pointed you to Yves Marchand’s and Romain Meffre’s fantastic photographs from the ruins of Detroit. About two weeks ago the british Guardian ran a great story about their work and their book “The Ruins of Detroit”
(amazon affiliate link), including an image gallery with a number of photos that haven’t been seen online before. You should check them out!
Today the german Spiegel Online also has a lengthy article on Detroit’s major architect Alber Kahn with even more photos by Marchand and Meffre.
These are absolutely worth reading and especially seeing! Beautiful photographs that hint at numerous and unfortunately sad stories from the urban America of the 20th century.
Auf die fantastischen Fotos von Yves Marchand und Romain Meffre aus den Ruinen von Detroit haben wir Euch schonmal vor ziemlich genau einem Jahr hingewiesen. Der Guardian hatte vor 14 Tagen einen tollen Artikel über ihre Arbeit und ihr Buch \"The Ruins of Detroit\" (Amazon Affiliate Link). Zum Artikel gibts auch eine Bildergalerie ...
Here’s a captivating blog by Steven Hirsch: Crustypunks. Pictures of and interviews with homeless punks he met at Tompkins Square Park, East Village, New York. Snip from Wikipedia: “Crusties is a term for members of an urban subculture, with roots in punk and grebo. The term pre-dates crust punk and can be used independently. The trend was most widespread in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s but there are also international subsets[1]. Crusties are noted for their unkempt appearance and are associated with road protests, squatting, raves and begging.”
Flipping through the blog you’ll hear life stories like this one:
I’m a product of the American foster care system. My mom’s a Czechoslovakian whore and my dad was a sand nigger. His name was Ahmad something or other. I grew up in the foster care system till I was three. So I woke up one day and I was fucking fifteen years old, ran away from the fucking group home. Decided it was in my best interests to become a crack head on the streets. And spent the last two years losing my mind in Oklahoma City. – Ketchup
Or this one:
I’m also a vampire. I was born and raised into vampirism. I was thrown out at a early young age from my family and everything by some wicked church people, satan worshippers or something. All I remember is I’ve been into it since I was born. I speak about eleven or twelve languages when I’m drinking. Not really right now. With the cancer setting in right now because of the heat and everything, just kinda like can’t think right now. Doing my own chemo. And I got a prescription for it, somewhere here in Manhattan. I just gotta go pick it up, if I could remember where the address is. I’m thirty seven. I’m not crazy. I’m not insane. I’m not stupid. – Jeremy
For more of these exciting portraits head on over to Crustypunks…
Steven Hirsch hat ein spannendes Blog: Crustypunks. Fotos und Gspräche mit obdachlosen Punks im Tompkins Square Park im New Yorker East Village. Wikipedia erklärt: \"Der Ursprung der Crusties liegt in der britischen Protestbewegung der 1980er Jahre . Von Großbritannien aus verbreitete sich die Crustie-Bewegung nach Europa, Nord- und Südamerika und verband sich in den ...
Here it is, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”, the first documentary film in stereoscopic 3D that is targeted at – let’s put it – more sophisticated art house audiences, and hopefully it paves the way for many more films to come, including our little project here. Directed by legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog (whose wonderful documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” already is one of the inspirational sources for THE AMERICAN BACKROOM) “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” leads us into the caves of Chauvent-Pont-d’Arc in France, famous for its extensive cave paintings. Since said cave is not open to the public, I guess you could call it utterly fantastic that Herzog chose stereoscopic 3D to capture images from inside.
The bad news is, so far there are no known theatrical release dates. And considering the numbers of smaller art house movie theaters in Germany that are actually able to screen a digital 3D documentary, I don’t see much hope for it being released in the near future. I’m afraid major theater chains won’t even consider it. It’s a pity. I can only speak for Germany right now, but there is an ongoing (and neverending) discussion about adding and financing digital projection systems to smaller theaters – and right now it seems that the digital revolution on art house screens over here has failed.
Back to “Cave” that premiered last night at the Toronto International Film Festival, and IndieWire got one of the first reviews:
Herzog naturally plays up the enigma at hand with epic grandeur, occasionally overdoing it but usually hitting the mark. Introducing the setting with a majestic crane shot (particularly immersive in 3-D), his camera soars above the cave and surveys the desolate landscape. Unleashing cosmic observations about “the abyss of time” and the like, Herzog ventures into the darkness with his small team, carefully illuminating the 35,000-year-old artwork within. The profoundly magical aura of the footage ranges from charcoal etchings of animals in motion (“almost like a form of proto-cinema”) to hints of attempts at self-portraiture (“as if the human soul was awakened within them”).
Head on over to IndieWire for the full review.
Gerold von DigitaleLeinwand.de berichtet von \"Cave of Forgotten Dreams\", dem ersten 3D Dokumentarfilm für das anspruchsvolle Arthaus Publikum, der hoffentlich auch Wegbereiter ist für weitere stereoskopische 3D-Projekte, THE AMERICAN BACKROOM eingeschlossen. Regie-Veteran Werner Herzog, der schon mit seiner wunderbaren Doku \"Encounters at the End of the World\" eine der Inspirationsquellen für THE AMERICAN BACKROOM ...
On August 28 franco-german TV network ARTE will be broadcasting two classic films shot in 3D: Alfred Hitchock’s “Dial ‘M’ For Murder” and Jack Arnold’s “The Creature From The Black Lagoon”. In order for you to watch it you only need anaglyph 3D glasses. The American Backroom and MovieBrats are giving away 10 sets of the official ARTE 3D glasses – for FREE! All you need to do is write an email to 3D@moviebrats.com, as subject line use “3D glasses” and don’t forget to insert your mail adress into the email. PLEASE NOTE: This sweepstake is only available for participants located in Germany, since we can send glasses only to mail adresses in Germany.
Am 28. August 2010 zeigt ARTE zwei Filmklassiker in 3D: Alfred Hitchcocks \"Bei Anruf Mord\" und Jack Arnolds Horrorklassiker \"Der Schrecken des Amazonas\", vielen besser bekannt als \"The Creature from the Black Lagoon\". Ausgestrahlt werden beide Filme im Anaglyph-Verfahren, dass heißt in rot-cyan. Das ist freilich nicht zu vergleichen mit der digitalen 3D-Technik, die ...
Wow! The Denver Post put together an amazing set of color photographs taken between 1939 and 1943 in post-depression era America. Some of the only color pictures that take a close look at the effect of the Great Depression on rural America. Color photos from times long ago are a treat anyway, but these ones are even more special. They’ve been taken from the archives of the Library of Congress, in particular from the color set of the 1930s to 1940s. Head on over to flickr to browse through them for yourself, but be warned, it’s a whopping 1,615 photos in this set alone.
Wow! Die Denver Post hat eine tolle Fotosammlung mit Farbbildern aus der Zeit von 1939 bis 1943 zusammengestellt, die vor allem die Auswirkungen der Großen Depressionen auf das ländliche Amerika festhalten. Farbfotos aus längst vergangenen Zeiten sind allein schon super, aber die hier sind nochmal ganz besonders toll. Und stammen allesamt aus dem Archiv ...
Nice series of pictures by photographer Seth Butler, in which he documents the use (or misuse) of “the ubiquitous, evocative and complex symbol of America’s self-image”, the Stars & Stripes, in everyday America: Tattered: Investigation of an American icon
Tattered heißt die schöne Fotoserie von Seth Butler, in der er die Verwendung der Stars and Stripes, das \"universelle, bewegende und komplexe Symbol des amerikanischen Selbstbildes\", im Alltagsbild Amerikas dokumentiert. Die amerikanische Flagge ist ja wirklich allgegenwärtig, und nicht immer geht ihre Darstellung mit dem so genannten Flag Code, den Regeln des Respekts gegenüber ...
At age 18, Mike Brodie took his Polaroid camera and began exploring the US by train. On his three year voyage he saw a part of America that can hardly be further away from what normally inflates our collective memory of US pop culture or tourist hearsay. It’s the world of vagabonds, hobos and freighthoppers. Brodie calls it “travel culture” and he came home with hundreds of amazing Polaroid pictures of an alternative American way of life between track beds and freight depots. He became known as the Polaroid Kidd, and his photographs can be seen at exhibitions all over the world.
Needles & Pens has an online collection of his pictures here and here, there are more at Arteven, and DryInk Mag did an interview with The Polaroid Kidd.
Mike Brodie hat sich mit 18 Jahren und einer Polaroid Kamera im Gepäck aufgemacht, die USA per Zug zu erkunden. Auf seinem rund dreijährigen Trip hat er eine Seite von Amerika kennengelernt, die kaum weiter vom allgemeinen Popkulturverständnis und den Touristenpfaden entfernt sein kann. Es ist die Welt von Vagabunden, Obdachlosen und v.a. schwarzfahrenden ...
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