Three Minutes of Innovation
How do you convey innovation and revolutionary ideas in such a short window of time? Filmmakers from the Focus Forward panel share their stories.
The Focus Forward panel at the Berlinale Talent Campus
How to tell a story in three minutes? How to shine a spotlight on the human, technological and social dimensions of an innovation in so little time? “Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas“ is a series of thirty three-minute films by thirty renowned documentary directors, all of which concentrate on, as the project’s website announces, “exceptional people and world-changing ideas that have impacted the course of human development”. Focus Forward is curated by CINELAN in partnership with GE.
Four of the artists involved – Jessica Yu, Phil Cox, Fredrik Gertten and David Leitner – along with Damon Smith, acquisitions director for Focus Forward, met at HAU 1 for a discussion on the project and its future.
“They’re films made by filmmakers we decided to have contribute to the series”, said Smith. “The idea was that these documentaries should be about innovations or ideas that have had a positive impact on how we live and how we think.”
After these opening remarks, the first five documentaries of the project were screened. Among these were MEET MR. TOILET by Jessica Yu, NEWTON CREEK DIGESTER EGGS by David Leitner and HILARY´S STRAWS by Phil Cox. When the lights came back on, the filmmakers spoke about the challenges and rewards of restricting themselves to a three-minute running time and developing a complicated subject matter in the process.
“Usually I make films about social problems. But here’s an example of a progressive government doing something right”, said Leitner of his film, which is about a wastewater treatment plant in Brooklyn, its relationship to the neighbourhood, its technical advances and its unusually sophisticated aesthetic values. “I had all of these themes – architecture, design, wastewater treatment, environmental concerns – and I had to put it all into three minutes. My brain was exploding”.
Jessica Yu, on the other hand, emphasised the appeal of the project for filmmakers. “It’s a very good bargain. They give you some money so you can make the film, but they’re also completely hands-off, directors have total freedom. So that combination, it’s what filmmakers would call a no-brainer.”
All the documentaries will screen online at the Focus Forward website (http://www.focusforwardfilms.com/#films) in conjunction with their premieres at festivals around the world. This global initiative will also, in the coming year, extend beyond the original batch of directors and reach out towards anyone with a camera.
“We just announced a $200,000 filmmaker challenge”, said Smith. “We’re inviting filmmakers anywhere in the world to make their own three-minute film on innovation and invention. And we’re going to be giving out a $100,000 grand prize at Sundance in 2013”, he concluded, barely concealing his excitement for what the future might hold.
301 Moved Permanently