CONFLICTING IMAGE, 2022
How does the depiction of war change in times of Smartphones and the internet? This documentary uses only YouTube material filmed by soldiers, journalists, civilians or war zone tourists to portray the absurd global theater of war and its depiction through GoPro cameras, TV and VLOGs. A study of modern war aesthetics, the promotion of romanticizing and glorification of war.
Running Time: 70 Minutes
Available with English, Italian and German Subtitles.
Editor: Marie Falke
Production: Filmwerk Kalliope
Producer: Sophia Schiller
Festival Selections:
2024→Kinosuite International Jakarta, Indonesia, Official Selection
2023→SpinOff Student Doc Rome, Official Selection
2022→Near Nazareth Film Festival Israel, Semi Finalist
2022→Festival Audiovisual Comunicurtas Brazil, Official Selection (South-American Premiere)
2022→Terraviva Film Festival Bologna, Official Selection
2022→Visioni Dal Mondo Milano, International Contest (World Premiere)
2022→Part of "HotDocs Recommended" at the 2022 HotDocs Canada Doc Shop
More on: @conflictingimage, MUBI, Letterboxd, German-Documentaries and IMDb.
IDKYYDKM, 2019
"I Don't Know You, You Don't Know Me" is a 2-channel Video Installation filmed in Beijing, China. The whole video was shot from exactly the same position, out of a window of a flat on the 14th floor of a skyscraper, over a course of 3 months. Documenting daily life, smog and the harsh Beijing winter.
Running Time: 22 Minutes
AMERICAN ABSTINENCE, 2016
On 11 May 2016, I counted 296 things from the United States of America in my life. I did without (almost) all of these things for (almost) a month. For a total of 35 days, I accompanied myself with a compact-camera. I only realized the true extent of my asceticism during shooting. Not only tangible things constitute the representation of the USA, but also American pop culture and all means of modern communication, including the internet. American culture with its post-industrial achievements and innovations has become a kind of ersatz religion for many people, including myself. These insights exposed the naivety of my original idea. It became a challenging task to become an American recluse from one day to the next.
The 70-minute documentary film American Abstinence describes my attempt to cope with this task.
Werner Herzog’s Of Walking in Ice and Michail Lermontow’s A Hero of Our Times rescued me for the first week, but reading texts about great, suffering men was not a sustainable substitute for my actual main problem: my apparently truly existing internet and communication addiction.
And so a film about abstinence became an amusing insight into my personal life and my doomed attempt to be abstinent.
Running Time: 67 Minutes
PACHINKO, 2015
„Pachinko“ is a documentation of a typical gambling hall often found in Japan.
The game Pachinko is a mixture of a traditional pinball arcade and a slot machine.
To play the game, players rent small metal balls that function as the active object as well as the bet and price. The slot machines are bright and colorful, featuring super heroes and depictions of famous anime characters. Each machine creates a constant noise, overlaying with all the other machines.
The 7-minute documentary short is divided into four chapters, which are introduced by one line of a text in faulty english, written outside the hall.
Starting outside, the viewer is gradually introduced into the absurdly loud inside of the pachinko parlor. The calmness in the small Ogu-Ginza shopping street is interrupted every time the door opens.
In a voyeuristic style the camera slowly approaches the situation trying to draw as little attention by the gamblers as possible. The constant humming and the mechanical clicking of the metal balls being tossed around in the machines create a dominant sound layer that increases with every other step one takes inside the hall, where players can be seen ordering more metal balls, playing while simultaneously smoking or texting and seemingly ignoring the unbearable sound backdrop that surrounds them. In these weird circumstances one must remember that betting is involved. Players often stay for hours, loosing huge amounts of Yen.
Running Time: 7 Minutes
ERSTER GANG, 2015
A performance in an urban underpass in Karlsruhe filmed in an uncut wide-angle shot.
Resemblance with usage of pyrotechnics by football fans and demonstrators create a anarchically seeming disturbance in the location of the performance. The artist enters the rundown site, with the already lit object in his hand and starts making circles in a rounding in the middle of the underpass. The four minute video documents the change of color, diffusion of light and sight in the underpass caused by the heavy blue smoke. Because of the artificial lightning placed on the top corner of the rounding, the blue smoke shifts into green, the tagged yellow tiled walls get covered with a brown blur and the whole film frame gets fogged.
By the time the fog has almost vanished, the smoke grenade taped to the glass bottle gets thrown in to a hole in the rounding. Smashing the ground and rolling around on the floor in a jerky, uncontrolled movement. As the motion of the object stops, the video loop starts from the beginning.
In contrast to the content of the video the presentation of the work itself is temperate and is not imposed on the visitor. Only a quiet hiss sound generated by the smoke grenade is audible in addition to a occasional clink, caused by the object hitting the ground, which also marks the end of the video.
The performance shown in “Erster Gang” crashes with the petit bourgeois of Karlsruhe.
A small but inevitable loss of control in a strictly regulated city.
Running Time: 4 Minutes
ZWEITER GANG, 2015
A performance on an intersection in Karlsruhe filmed in an uncut wide-angle shot.
A quiet night in an idyllic part of town. The intersection shown is empty, but well lit by large high hanging street lights, only a cat strolls around.
After a few seconds of silence a bicycle enters the frame from the right. Attached to the bicycle are two smoke grenades, one yellow, one black.
The cyclist starts driving in a wide circle, trailing behind a big cloud of thick smoke. The smoke cloud grows with every lap the driver takes.
Occasionally some sparkles appear, and the bicycle vanishes and reappears out of the yellow and black haze, until it cannot be seen anymore.
For it‘s last appearance the attached smoke grenade starts to catch fire, even visible through the now solid smoke, the burning grenade and it‘s invisible vehicle then disappear out of the frame.
The whole frame is filled with smoke, the street lights are only fuzzy dots.
Slowly the smoke is clearing and the intersection get‘s back to it‘s initial state, the cat
is lurking under a car, then running across the street.
Finally a car lights up the remaining haze, and the video loops starts from the beginning.
Running Time: 5 Minutes
60secondsIN, 2016
A selection of videos from the ongoing documentary series #60SecondsIn, which is presented solely on instagram @max.viktor
Running Time: 1 Minute (each)
Other Works
ABOUT
VITA
2023→Active Member of Filmwerk Kalliope e.V.
2021→'Contact Zones' Guest Lecture at University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe
2021→Diploma (M.A.) with highest honors, at University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe
2019→Studies at UNISTRAPG, Perugia, Italy
2017–2018→Studies at Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing, China
2013-2021→University of Arts and Design - Mediaart and Philosophy with Răzvan Rădulescu, João Tabarra, Barbara Kuon, Andrei Ujica, Isaac Julien, Raphael Zagury-Orly, Joseph Cohen and Peter Sloterdijk
2013→Internship at Documentary Filmmaker Marcus Vetter
1992→born in Tübingen, Germany
SCHOLARSHIPS
2022→Neustart Kultur Grant by Stiftung Kunstfonds
2021→Mediaart Grant by MWK Baden-Württemberg
2020→Scholarship by Riemschneider Stiftung
2020→Diploma Grant by HfG Karlsruhe
2019→PROMOS Grant by DAAD
2017→PROMOS Grant by DAAD
2017→24h Residency at Evoluon, Eindhoven
FILMS
2022→'Conflicting Image' (Documentary Feature Film)
2016→'American Abstinence' (Documentary Feature Film)
2016→'Pachinko' (Documentary Short Film)
2013→'Donna Victoria' (Short Film)
2012→'Noche en vela' (Documentary Short Film)
ART
2017–today→’60secondsIn' (Video)
2018–2019→'I don't know you, you don't know me' (Videoinstallation)
2015→'Erster Gang' / 'Zweiter Gang' (Videoinstallation in collaboration with Robin Mang)
2015→'Graffiti Filming Sucks' (Videoinstallation)
CAMERA
(selection)
2023→'Ephemeral Antipodes' - Videoinstallation by Lena Zwerina
2019→'Sensory Airplanes' Opera and Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm - Premiered at Heidelberger Frühling
2019→'Le Pauvre Matelot' Videoinstallation for Kleines Haus Staatsschauspiel Dresden by Lena Zwerina, Matthias Otto & Philipp Eckle
2018→'Lybes Dimem - Tachy' Musicvideo
2017→'COLLAB ENSEMBLE' Video of Performances with Jonathan Bepler
2017→'Goudi - High on You' Musicvideo
2015→'IN THINGS OUT DOING OUT DOING IN THINGS = IN THINGS 2(OUT DOING)+ IN THINGS' Video of Performances with Jonathan Bepler
2015→'Pedestrian' Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm
2014→'SF MODE' Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm
2014→Accounting Monument' Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm
2014→'Nachbar' Short Film by Max Clausen, shot on ArriFlex 16mm
2012→'Der beste Kaugummi ist immer noch der eigene Rotz' Short Film by Max Clausen
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
2024 'Conflicting Image': Kinosuite International Jakarta, Indonesia, Official Selection
2023→'Conflicting Image': SpinOff Student Doc Rome, Official Selection
2022→'Conflicting Image': Near Nazareth Film Festival Israel, Semi Finalist
2022→'Conflicting Image': Festival Audiovisual Comunicurtas Brazil, Official Selection
2022→'Conflicting Image': Terraviva Film Festival Bologna, Official Selection
2022→'Conflicting Image': Visioni Dal Mondo Milano, International Contest
2022→Part of "HotDocs Recommended" at the HotDocs Canada Doc Shop
2020→'Luis Ake - Bitte Lass Mich Frei': Bucharest Film Awards, Official Selection
2019→'Leo for 76666 Apparel': Sarajevo Fashion Film Festival, Official Selection
2019→'Leo for 76666 Apparel': Art Fools, Eco Fashion Film Festival, Official Selection
2019→'Luis Ake - EGO': First Time Filmmaker Sessions, Official Selection
2017→'DonQ': Szczezin European Film Festival, Telefone Art, Official Selection
2017→'American Abstinence': LiftOff Film Festival Amsterdam, Best Student Film, Winner
2017→'Sisyphus Effect': Nespresso Talents, International Schools Selection, Winner
2017→'American Abstinence': ARFF Selection October, Best Student Film, Winner
2012→Camera for 'An mich ist gedacht': Cineslam Tübingen, Winner
EXHIBITIONS
2022→'BTSW/CI'
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG, All we as
2019→'I Don't Know You, You Don't Know Me'
→Karlsruhe, GER: ZKM/HfG, Tag der offenen Tür
2015→'Erster Gang'
→Tokyo, JPN: Ogu Ginza Street, 'GoPublic' (Exhibition in a Public Space)
→Karlsruhe, GER: ZKM, 'BYOB' (Long Night of Museums)
2015→'Zweiter Gang'
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG Karlsruhe, 'Clash' curated by Isaac Julien
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG Karlsruhe, Annual Exhibition
→Stuttgart, GER: Fine Arts Academy, Annual Exhibition
2015→'Graffiti Filming Sucks'
→Karlsruhe, GER: ZKM/HfG, 'Green at Globale'
2015→'Pachinko'
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG Karlsruhe, 'I would blush if I could'
→Karlsruhe, GER: Schlachthof, 'MAUxHfG Go Public'
COMMERICAL
(selection)
2021→'Luis Ake - Ein schöner Traum'
2020→'Luis Ake - Lilith'
2019→'Choreographic Accessories for Fabia Brüning'
2019→'Luis Ake - Schillerndes Mädchen'
2019→'Luis Ake - Bitte Lass Mich Frei'
2019→'Luis Ake - EGO'
2018→'Luis Ake & Luca Morte - Komm Spiel Den Laufpass Zu Mir'
CONTACT
↑
Disclaimer © Max Viktor Herbert, 2024
Conflicting Image, 2022
How does the depiction of war change in times of Smartphones and the internet? This documentary uses only YouTube material filmed by soldiers, journalists, civilians or war zone tourists to portray the absurd global theater of war and its depiction through GoPro cameras, TV and VLOGs. A study of modern war aesthetics, the promotion of romanticizing and glorification of war.
Running Time: 70 Minutes
Available with English, Italian and German Subtitles.
Editor: Marie Falke
Production: Filmwerk Kalliope
Producer: Sophia Schiller
Festival Selections:
2024→Kinosuite International Jakarta, Indonesia, Official Selection
2023→SpinOff Student Doc Rome, Official Selection
2022→Near Nazareth Film Festival Israel, Semi Finalist
2022→Festival Audiovisual Comunicurtas Brazil, Official Selection (South-American Premiere)
2022→Terraviva Film Festival Bologna, Official Selection
2022→Visioni Dal Mondo Milano, International Contest (World Premiere)
2022→Part of "HotDocs Recommended" at the 2022 HotDocs Canada Doc Shop
More on: @conflictingimage, MUBI, Letterboxd, German-Documentaries and IMDb.
I Don't Know You, You Don't Know Me, 2019
2-channel Video Installation filmed in Beijing, China. The whole video was shot from exactly the same position, out of a window of a flat on the 14th floor of a skyscraper, over a course of 3 months. Documenting daily life, smog and the harsh Beijing winter.
Running Time: 22 Minutes
American Abstinence, 2016
On 11 May 2016, I counted 296 things from the United States of America in my life. I did without (almost) all of these things for (almost) a month. For a total of 35 days, I accompanied myself with a compact-camera. I only realized the true extent of my asceticism during shooting. Not only tangible things constitute the representation of the USA, but also American pop culture and all means of modern communication, including the internet. American culture with its post-industrial achievements and innovations has become a kind of ersatz religion for many people, including myself. These insights exposed the naivety of my original idea. It became a challenging task to become an American recluse from one day to the next.
The 70-minute documentary film American Abstinence describes my attempt to cope with this task.
Werner Herzog’s Of Walking in Ice and Michail Lermontow’s A Hero of Our Times rescued me for the first week, but reading texts about great, suffering men was not a sustainable substitute for my actual main problem: my apparently truly existing internet and communication addiction.
And so a film about abstinence became an amusing insight into my personal life and my doomed attempt to be abstinent.
Running Time: 67 Minutes
Pachinko, 2015
„Pachinko“ is a documentation of a typical gambling hall often found in Japan.The game Pachinko is a mixture of a traditional pinball arcade and a slot machine.To play the game, players rent small metal balls that function as the active object as well as the bet and price. The slot machines are bright and colorful, featuring super heroes and depictions of famous anime characters. Each machine creates a constant noise, overlaying with all the other machines.
The 7-minute documentary short is divided into four chapters, which are introduced by one line of a text in faulty english, written outside the hall. Starting outside, the viewer is gradually introduced into the absurdly loud inside of the pachinko parlor. The calmness in the small Ogu-Ginza shopping street is interrupted every time the door opens.
In a voyeuristic style the camera slowly approaches the situation trying to draw as little attention by the gamblers as possible. The constant humming and the mechanical clicking of the metal balls being tossed around in the machines create a dominant sound layer that increases with every other step one takes inside the hall, where players can be seen ordering more metal balls, playing while simultaneously smoking or texting and seemingly ignoring the unbearable sound backdrop that surrounds them. In these weird circumstances one must remember that betting is involved. Players often stay for hours, loosing huge amounts of Yen.
Running Time: 7 Minutes
Erster Gang, 2015
A performance in an urban underpass in Karlsruhe filmed in an uncut wide-angle shot.
Resemblance with usage of pyrotechnics by football fans and demonstrators create a anarchically seeming disturbance in the location of the performance. The artist enters the rundown site, with the already lit object in his hand and starts making circles in a rounding in the middle of the underpass. The four minute video documents the change of color, diffusion of light and sight in the underpass caused by the heavy blue smoke. Because of the artificial lightning placed on the top corner of the rounding, the blue smoke shifts into green, the tagged yellow tiled walls get covered with a brown blur and the whole film frame gets fogged.
By the time the fog has almost vanished, the smoke grenade taped to the glass bottle gets thrown in to a hole in the rounding. Smashing the ground and rolling around on the floor in a jerky, uncontrolled movement. As the motion of the object stops, the video loop starts from the beginning.In contrast to the content of the video the presentation of the work itself is temperate and is not imposed on the visitor. Only a quiet hiss sound generated by the smoke grenade is audible in addition to a occasional clink, caused by the object hitting the ground, which also marks the end of the video.
The performance shown in “Erster Gang” crashes with the petit bourgeois of Karlsruhe. A small but inevitable loss of control in a strictly regulated city.
Running Time: 4 Minutes
Zweiter Gang, 2015
A performance on an intersection in Karlsruhe filmed in an uncut wide-angle shot. A quiet night in an idyllic part of town. The intersection shown is empty, but well lit by large high hanging street lights, only a cat strolls around. After a few seconds of silence a bicycle enters the frame from the right.
Attached to the bicycle are two smoke grenades, one yellow, one black. The cyclist starts driving in a wide circle, trailing behind a big cloud of thick smoke. The smoke cloud grows with every lap the driver takes. Occasionally some sparkles appear, and the bicycle vanishes and reappears out of the yellow and black haze, until it cannot be seen anymore. For it‘s last appearance the attached smoke grenade starts to catch fire, even visible through the now solid smoke, the burning grenade and it‘s invisible vehicle then disappear out of the frame. The whole frame is filled with smoke, the street lights are only fuzzy dots.
Slowly the smoke is clearing and the intersection get‘s back to it‘s initial state, the cat is lurking under a car, then running across the street. Finally a car lights up the remaining haze, and the video loops starts from the beginning.
Running Time: 5 Minutes
60secondsIN, 2016
A selection of Videos from the ongoing documentary series #60SecondsIn, which is presented solely on instagram @max.viktor.
'DonQ': Official Selection 2017 Szczezin European Film Festival, Telefone Art
Running Time: 1 Minute
Other Works
About
VITA
2023→Active Member of Filmwerk Kalliope e.V.
2021→'Contact Zones' Guest Lecture at University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe
2021→Diploma (M.A.) with highest honors, at University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe
2019→Studies at UNISTRAPG, Perugia, Italy
2017–2018→Studies at Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing, China
2013-2021→University of Arts and Design - Mediaart and Philosophy with Răzvan Rădulescu, João Tabarra, Barbara Kuon, Andrei Ujica, Isaac Julien, Raphael Zagury-Orly, Joseph Cohen and Peter Sloterdijk
2013→Internship at Documentary Filmmaker Marcus Vetter
1992→born in Tübingen, Germany
SCHOLARSHIPS
2022→Neustart Kultur Grant by Stiftung Kunstfonds
2021→Mediaart Grant by MWK Baden-Württemberg
2020→Scholarship by Riemschneider Stiftung
2020→Diploma Grant by HfG Karlsruhe
2019→PROMOS Grant by DAAD
2017→PROMOS Grant by DAAD
2017→24h Residency at Evoluon, Eindhoven
FILMS
2022→'Conflicting Image' (Documentary Feature Film)
2016→'American Abstinence' (Documentary Feature Film)
2016→'Pachinko' (Documentary Short Film)
2013→'Donna Victoria' (Short Film)
2012→'Noche en vela' (Documentary Short Film)
ART
2017–today→’60secondsIn' (Video)
2018–2019→'I don't know you, you don't know me' (Videoinstallation)
2015→'Erster Gang' / 'Zweiter Gang' (Videoinstallation in collaboration with Robin Mang)
2015→'Graffiti Filming Sucks' (Videoinstallation)
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
2024→Kinosuite International Jakarta, Indonesia, Official Selection
2023→'Conflicting Image': SpinOff Student Doc Rome, Official Selection
2022→'Conflicting Image': Near Nazareth Film Festival Israel, Semi Finalist
2022→'Conflicting Image': Festival Audiovisual Comunicurtas Brazil, Official Selection
2022→'Conflicting Image': Terraviva Film Festival Bologna, Official Selection
2022→'Conflicting Image': Visioni Dal Mondo Milano, International Contest
2022→Part of "HotDocs Recommended" at the HotDocs Canada Doc Shop
2020→'Luis Ake - Bitte Lass Mich Frei': Bucharest Film Awards, Official Selection
2019→'Leo for 76666 Apparel': Sarajevo Fashion Film Festival, Official Selection
2019→'Leo for 76666 Apparel': Art Fools, Eco Fashion Film Festival, Official Selection
2019→'Luis Ake - EGO': First Time Filmmaker Sessions, Official Selection
2017→'DonQ': Szczezin European Film Festival, Telefone Art, Official Selection
2017→'American Abstinence': LiftOff Film Festival Amsterdam, Best Student Film, Winner
2017→'Sisyphus Effect': Nespresso Talents, International Schools Selection, Winner
2017→'American Abstinence': ARFF Selection October, Best Student Film, Winner
2012→Camera for 'An mich ist gedacht': Cineslam Tübingen, Winner
EXHIBITIONS
2022→'BTSW/CI'
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG, All we as
2019→'I Don't Know You, You Don't Know Me'
→Karlsruhe, GER: ZKM/HfG, Tag der offenen Tür
2015→'Erster Gang'
→Tokyo, JPN: Ogu Ginza Street, 'GoPublic' (Exhibition in a Public Space)
→Karlsruhe, GER: ZKM, 'BYOB' (Long Night of Museums)
2015→'Zweiter Gang'
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG Karlsruhe, 'Clash' curated by Isaac Julien
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG Karlsruhe, Annual Exhibition
→Stuttgart, GER: Fine Arts Academy, Annual Exhibition
2015→'Graffiti Filming Sucks'
→Karlsruhe, GER: ZKM/HfG, 'Green at Globale'
2015→'Pachinko'
→Karlsruhe, GER: HfG Karlsruhe, 'I would blush if I could'
→Karlsruhe, GER: Schlachthof, 'MAUxHfG Go Public'
CAMERA
(selection)
2023→'Ephemeral Antipodes' - Videoinstallation by Lena Zwerina
2019→'Sensory Airplanes' Opera and Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm - Premiered at Heidelberger Frühling
2019→'Le Pauvre Matelot' Videoinstallation for Kleines Haus Staatsschauspiel Dresden by Lena Zwerina, Matthias Otto & Philipp Eckle2018→'Lybes Dimem - Tachy' Musicvideo
2017→'COLLAB ENSEMBLE' Video of Performances with Jonathan Bepler
2017→'Goudi - High on You' Musicvideo
2015→'IN THINGS OUT DOING OUT DOING IN THINGS = IN THINGS 2(OUT DOING)+ IN THINGS' Video of Performances with Jonathan Bepler
2015→'Pedestrian' Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm
2014→'SF MODE' Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm
2014→Accounting Monument' Multichannel Video-installation by Lukas Rehm
2014→'Nachbar' Short Film by Max Clausen, shot on ArriFlex 16mm
2012→'Der beste Kaugummi ist immer noch der eigene Rotz' Short Film by Max Clausen
COMMERICAL
(selection)
2021→'Luis Ake - Ein schöner Traum'
2020→'Luis Ake - Lilith'
2019→'Leo' for 76666 Apparel
2019→'Choreographic Accessories for Fabia Brüning'
2019→'Luis Ake - Schillerndes Mädchen'
2019→'Luis Ake - Bitte Lass Mich Frei'
2019→'Luis Ake - EGO'
2018→'Luis Ake & Luca Morte - Komm Spiel Den Laufpass Zu Mir'
CONTACT
Disclaimer © Max Viktor Herbert, 2024
↑