WATCH online:
Part One
A Winter Visit
Germany 2012, 12:30 min.
Super8 to DigiBeta, b/w
English Voice-Over
Muisc: Cannon / Von Rabenau
Production, Direction, Camera, Montage: Fjodor Donderer
About the Film:
I met a friend at the railway station: after nightmarish visions of the end of the world in his sleep, and after heavy snowfall during the night,
he had embarked on a journey to a small town somewhere unknown, a winter visit, with the intention of looking for something in this world,
whatever it may be, for consolation, for inspiration, at the sight of the disastrous state this same world is currently in.
The film is the record of what he found on this trip into the unforeseen, taking a train, walking through the snow and holding a Super 8 camera.
In its narration, it reflects and comments on whatever my friend picked up on his way, with a sceptical but debonair attitude towards the people he met
and towards the world with all its contradictions.
“Looking For Something” is a kaleidoscope of images, thoughts and ideas displayed on the timeline of his journey and this film.
Watching it can be like an encounter with someone, and you might realize, the film itself is waiting to make friends, too.
It comes in grainy black and white, shot on Super 8 and is intentionally kept in a low-tech style, quasi all handcrafted.
In this sense it wants to be a statement for simplicity in an over-refined world, that destroys its natural ressources.
“A Winter Visit“ is an impressionistic travelogue and is the first part in a Four Seasons series of visits to the world.
The night had brought a cover of snow to the world, the landscapes, the villages and cities.
I wanted to get up and make my way into the world, taking a train, looking for something.
“Ah, yes, with this camera”, he said and continued to describe his impressions, while we were standing at this busy corner amidst the people rushing by.
I stood by a corner, looking, yet not watching. Time forgotten. A knowing smile on a lady’s face woke me up.
It was only a quick glance, I saw a half open window on the second floor, a piano lesson, a girl.
A petrol station at the crossing of the two country roads, heavily frequented by long haul lorries, all too loud for this silent winter day.
Like all the other cars crowding the streets, their presence never planned, and their otherness never imagined, when this town was built.
Then I had a rest, a café, and a piece of the local cheesecake. My boots under the table in a puddle.
After that I somehow got lost. Ending up in a park, redesigned by a commission.
And I was passing by, like a meteorite, and for a moment I felt free, independent of the world’s contradictions.
FESTIVAL SELECTIONS:
Oct. 2013 - Antimatter, Victoria BC, Canada
May 2013 - 10th Black&White Audiovisual Festival, Porto, Portugal
Apr. 2013 - Ljubljana International Short Film Festival, Slovenia
Mar. 2013 - Festival du Cinéma Européen, Lille, France
Feb. 2013 - Flicker: Artists and Super 8 - Smiths Row Gallery, Bury St. Edmunds, England
