We live in a digital world. But we're fairly analog creatures. #WHEREAREYOU
explores the limits of digital communication. When I can communicate directly with a friend in California while sitting in Berlin. When I can experience political and cultural events around the world without leaving my house.
Where am I then? Who am I then? #WHEREAREYOU tells the stories of four protagonists who have one thing in common: digitization has entered their lives and they have to learn to deal with it, each in their own way. What remains? Their need for personal closeness.
And this demand becomes greater the more intensively they use digital communication channels. From the initial contact with digital communication until the loss of control,
applicable to the individual as well as society, the film always stays close to its four
protagonist. The film poses one of the big questions of our time which is “Where are you?”,
#WHEREAREYOU challenges the viewer to find their own personal position in
relation to this process and to deal with the consequences.
Alan lives and works as freelance director and editor in Berlin, NYC and beautiful
Uckermark. He does not only take care of his clients' films from all around the
world, but also of his three lovely daughters and cat Shila.
By now, Alan has developed a great passion for shooting films, especially cinematic
documentaries, documentary-style commercials and branded content clips. His ambitious freelance projects provide an intellectual counterbalance to his multi- award-winning international career in advertising for clients such as Mercedes,
What makes you fascinated with the cinematic language and what was the first film project you worked on as a director?
My first film project was a feature-length documentary about a huge marketplace in Cuernavaca, Mexico, which I recognized as a unique universe. It took me six years to complete the film and the entire process taught me more about myself than anything else before. Initially, it began as an idea I had envisioned ten years before I finally took action and started filming. It came out of the urge to capture this phenomenon and presenting it to an audience felt mandatory.
With every film project, I enter a new world and must navigate my way through it. As I create, I'm constantly learning. It's this interdependence with the film project that fuels my passion for filmmaking. While I consider cinematic tools to be pretty much limited compared to reality, they are necessary since they aid the transformation of thoughts and impressions into visual stories we can all be fascinated by.
What inspired you to work on your short documentary and why was it important for you to direct this project?
#WAY_Aurelio has been and still is planned to be a part of the feature-length documentary film #WHEREAREYOU, on which we have been working for ten years already. With this project, we are exploring the limits of digital communication. The along-gliding train is a metaphor for an intermediate world and the protagonist Aurelio, who carries both the past and the future on his smartphone, depicts the dependency on social media and digitalization. Without his phone, he would be lost during his journey; it's his only companion and his memory keeper.
What was the most challenging aspect of working on your docu project?
The challenges were, of course, diverse. They weren’t related as much to the technical execution of the documentary but were rather associated to the survival of this journey. We fairly quickly found bodyguards and a van on site, and the chance encounter with Aurelio as the perfect protagonist at the Rio Suchiate, the border river between Mexico and Guatemala, happened spontaneously.
The coordination between the filming on the train roof, the dealing with constant police checks (after all, we had an undocumented immigrant with us) especially in the border area with the USA, the confronting with the cartels who are quite sensitive to camera crews in their territories was not simple.
What is your next film project and what are you currently working on?
We are continuously working on the continuation of #WHEREAREYOU. The project
is completely self-financed so far, and we are urgently seeking financial partners/
investors, whether they be TV networks, production companies, or private foundations. Filming is half way through and there are already rough cuts of the existing two stories, as seen in #WAY_Aurelio. Our plan is to shoot two more stories and conduct further interviews with 'experts' about the subject, creating a 120-minute theatrical documentary.
A comprehensive treatment, including a project teaser and deck, is available and
will be provided by us upon interest: berlin@angrybuddha.de.
What is the most difficult aspect of distributing documentary projects?
For me personally, the duration of the entire process is certainly challenging. We also do a lot of advertising and that involves working on very short notice. The world of documentary filmmaking is quite different, and the competition is fierce. Getting funding is nearly impossible when you approach a project innovatively, especially in Germany, where the funding institutions are very entrenched.
We figured that the most effective approach is to split our project. #WHEREAREYOU into parts like we did with #WAY_Aurelio and generate attention for the entire project through film festivals. Consequently: fingers crossed.
Does the language of cinema stand out more than other arts to you? And why?
This surely has a lot to do with personal preferences. For me, the story and message always take precedence. The next thought goes to the medium with the best potential to convey that story, whether it's a photograph, an audiobook/ podcast, a novel, or a film.
What's exceptionally beautiful about cinema is that you already have your audience's attention from the beginning of the screening: they've paid for admission, are sitting in the dark in front of a huge screen and are ready to engage with what's about to unfold. My work is always designed to not disappoint that expectation - but rather, ideally, to exceed it.
Why do you make films and what kind of impact would you like to have on the world as a filmmaker?
I took my first steps in this field at the age of 15, and over time, it just evolved naturally. I make a living from advertising while documentary films are my passion projects, often times self-financed with the money from advertising. I've never seen this as a job. The filmmaker and the person Alan Rexroth have fused over time.
I continually strive to explore and redefine the boundaries of the film genre. There are countless stories to tell, and I attempt to narrate those towards which I feel a connection to. Moreover, I aim to make the world a slightly more positive place with the values conveyed in my films.