Max RC Schleser | Australia | 0:59 | Short Film
Status: Official Selection
The mobile-micro movie Earth was commissioned for the Shoot4Earth (https://shoot4earth.org/) 2021 film marathon. The 24-hour global filmmaking competition focused on environmental thinking, and participants were informed on the day that they had to include FIRE, WATER, AIR, SOIL in the production. The micro-movie by Mobile Melbourne won the Best Music Award. Mobile music producer Martin K. Koszolko created the soundtrack under the moniker iubar project. Smartphone filmmaker Max Schleser filmed the project on iPhone 11 with FiLMiC Pro and edited the #EcoSmartphoneFilm with Luma Fusion on an iPad (8th generation). The video juxtaposes the city’s night with its artificial energy and the natural calmness of the sunrise. Using Struman optics micro-lenses, the micro-movie concludes with a focus on the minuscule that we (humankind) overlook and seem to have devalued. As there is no plan B, we need to create one. A smartphone might not be the most sustainable technology, but it is the most accessible camera and screen storytelling device. Climate consciousness, as a collective vision, will only be realised if everyone can engage in this conversation. At the Shoot4Earth online premier, Karl Bardosh compared the sunrise in Earth to Chris Marker’s La Jetée. The reference to Chris Marker’s moving-image project is particular significant in understanding the challenge of time; global warming acts like a time-traveller. While we cannot reverse its impact, we need to ensure that the past does not overhaul our future emissions.
In nature various micro systems form a symbiosis. Scale is not a determining factor as it our contemporary socio-cultural condition. Earth uses a macro lens to visually and thematically emphasis the significance of microstates. Just because we cannot see or perceive it, does not mean it is not significant. By means of recognising micro mobilities and reconnecting to the rhymes of nature, we recognise and change our everyday behaviours. Micro changes can have an enormous impact.
Director Biography – Max RC Schleser
Max Schleser’s experimental films, moving-image arts and cinematic VR projects are screened at film festivals and exhibited in galleries as well as museums (www.schleser.nz), including FLEFF Film Festival (U.S.A.), Festival de La Imagen (Columbia), Museu da Imagem e do Som do Estado – Museum of Moving-Image (Brazil), London Gallery West, South London Gallery (both U.K.), New Zealand Film Archive – Na Tonga Sound and Vision, Te Papa Tongarewa – Museum of New Zealand (both Aotearoa/New Zealand), Pocket Film Festival and Videoscope (both France). His community engaged documentaries are broadcasted on TV and online (https://www.behance.net/maxschleser). His mobile feature film “Max with a Keitai” (2007) is included in the public film archive in the Forum des Images in Paris and “Frankenstorm” (2014) was screened on CTV, Canterbury Television (2016). He is the Creative Director of collaborative digital storytelling platform 24 Frames 24 Hours (2016) and Viewfinders. gallery (2018). His transmedia project #Nucleus (www.goethe.de/nucleus) won multiple awards internationally.