I’m passionate about the social environments we create, and our fragile relationship to it, as well as with each other. My first documentary “The Sea In Me” was a journey into how the residents of a small fishing town were forced to deal with environmental challenges, urban planning issues, social inequality and economic disparity. These themes keep popping up in my scripted films as well, and hold center stage, both in my personal convictions as well as in my private life.
Coming from migrant parents, I’ve dealt with my fair share of cultural, social and economic challenges. Which is why I’ve supported (and continue to support) projects dealing with themes such as social inclusion, sustainability, regeneration and citizen initiatives.
Here are some examples from such projects:
The District book Series
I’ll start with the good news: the site is up and running! Visit Begegnungsorte.at for stories on how we relate to urban spaces. Packed with unique articles, videos and more.. the initial set of videos were funded by the Austrian Federal Chancellery (I love saying that-makes it sound sooo official, even though they dished out only a portion of the total costs), the district book series (or Begegnungsorte in German) focuses on local cultural heritage and public space in Vienna (for now).
The Open Heritage Series
OpenHeritage identifies and tests the best practices of adaptive heritage re-use in Europe. We created a series of case studies with Eutropian, to highlight the unique methods in which urban heritage sites have been revitalized for the common good. This project was especially meaningful for me: traveling throughout Europe and documenting unique cases of building and site re-use, and following the communities that have subsequently emerged around them. Have a look at the playlist below. The lengthy documentary films took 6 full months to complete.
The Wonderland Films series
I’ve been busy collaborating with wonderland platform for European Architecture on a series of short documentary films (funded by the Austrian Federal Chancellery) . The documentary series explore unique and inspiring stories of Viennese artists and initiatives that promote sustainable living and change the way we interact with our built environments.
More will be produced within the year, but I’ve created two films so far: “Plastic Love” follows Plastic (recycling) artist Julian Jankovic, and “Es muss doch Gehen” tells the inspiring story of Treecycle: A Viennese collective creating ecologically and socially sustainable “street furniture” in the form of unique and transportable ecosystems.
To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed creating these, and working with some creative people who are striving to do some good.
Have a look, and let me know what you think!
The Our Common City series
Citizen movements have been transforming local politics, as they enter city halls and initiate change. Activists from locally active movements convened in Budapest to exchange ideas and formulate strategies: we took the opportunity to create a series of videos out of the interviews we conducted. They’re not fully public as of yet, but here’s a sneak peak into one of them. Check back in January for the full album of 13 interviews and social media videos.
URBACT-Gender Equal Cities
URBACT held a workshop in Vienna on gender equal urban planning: creating this video, and the online campaign made me realize how ignorant I was to the amount of work that goes to ensure we live in all-inclusive environments. Vienna is one of the most important cities in terms of gender equal urban planning so it was a perfect case study. The campaign consisted of an image film as well as a series of short, effective social media messages, all of which you can view below, or here in this album.