A viral clip produced for The European Entrepreneurship.
Introducing a tiny egg called Eggmont who wants to be free and makes his way as an innovative entrepreneur.
Viral clip by Tino Schwanemann for the European Entrepreneurship. Background voices and additional 2D facial animation by Stefanie Paul.
From now on, our Africa Light / Gray Zone DVD is available as a festival preview copy in PAL and NTSC formats (Region Code 0 / none) for public festival screenings.
Available copy formats for screening and exhibition purposes are Digital Betacam (PAL /NTSC), Beta SP (PAL / NTSC), DVCAM (PAL / NTSC), miniDV (PAL), HDCAM (PAL) and progressive HD file (mpg, 1080-25p).
Attention: Non-commercial! For cultural venues or festival purposes only! DVDs and other copy formats are not for sale!
Distribution, Publishing & Festival Contact: einscommanull, Mrs Stefanie Paul, office phone +49 .30. 27 59 25 23, email: info@einscommanull.com
Namibia, die einstige deutsche Kolonie, glänzt in der Außenwahrnehmung meist als vergleichsweise demokratisches, friedliches und weit entwickeltes Naturparadies: “Africa Light”. Der deutsche Regisseur Tino Schwanemann hat seinen eigenen Erkenntnisprozess von der ersten Blendung zum genaueren Blick in einem Kurzfilm verarbeitet. Fernlokal hat mit ihm über die Produktion von “Africa light – Gray zone” gesprochen.
“Africa light – Gray zone” zeigt in 13 Minuten die gleichzeitigen Realitäten in dem südafrikanischen Land: Faszinierende Safari-Bilder und eine von Touristen überfahrene Giraffe, afrikanische Moderne und Armut, Stammes-Traditionen als Inszenierungen für Touristen oder Kolmannskuppe, die im Sand versinkende Stadt der Diamantensucher. Der Film sei eine „subjektive Bestandsaufnahme von Namibia, die durch sämtliche Gefühle hindurchgeht, die Faszination zeigt, aber auch das, was an Kontrasten und Ungereimtheiten vorhanden ist“. Dabei wolle der junge Regisseur nicht Fragen beantworten, sondern Fragen aufwerfen: „Mit dem Film möchte ich dazu ermutigen, sich kein einseitiges Bild zu machen, sondern das Panorama wahrzunehmen“. 
Namibia ist ein Land mit höchster Ungleichheit von Besitz und Einkommensverteilung: Das durchschnittliche Pro-Kopf-Einkommen von 5.155 US-Dollar sagt wenig über die tatsächlichen Einkommens-Diskrepanzen und unterschiedlichen Lebensbedingungen aus. Von den 1,9 Millionen Einwohnern leben über zwei Drittel unter der Armutsgrenze. Die “horrende Armut” in manchen Regionen oder Stadtteilen wie Katatura hatte der Regisseur nicht erwartet. Auch dass Namibia zu den fünf der weltweit am stärksten von AIDS betroffenen Ländern zählt, wusste Tino Schwanemann vor seiner Reise nicht.
ÉCU: Why did you choose to make a film about democracy?
It was a personal challenge for me. In the last year, The U.S. State Department announced a contest to get various views on current democracy. Most of the entry films were like ‘Democracy is the most beautiful thing on earth’. I simply couldn’t stand it! It was the typical ignorance that I have often been confronted with in the USA: just to concentrate on the beauty of life and ignoring its authenticity. I wanted to provoke them. I wanted to show that there is not only Black and White. Of course, my film was denied as an entry although getting most of the votes by the audience. The State Department’s reaction was: “Tino’s film takes a hard look at what he sees as the negative sides of American democracy –do you think the positives of the freedoms that come with democracy outweigh the negatives? (We do!)”. These circumstances showed to me, there isn’t everything alright, especially about American democracy. I must have found a sore point.Anyway, the contest is being repeated this year.
ÉCU: What inspired you to interrogate the subject of democracy in this way?
I admire Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio. And I have read some interesting essays of them. For me, the best inventory of today’s America is Jean Baudrillard’s book “America”. It is written in a wonderful, visual language focusing on various aspects of American politics, society and economy. During my travels through the U.S., I felt the same way, so this book was my main inspiration to look behind the surface.
ÉCU: Why did you decide to shoot in black and white?
It was the best way to express that democracy is NOT just black and white. It is NOT a stereotype. But in order to demonstrate it, the optimal way was to leave any color. Black and white also forces an audience to concentrate more on important, subtle details. When you add color, you express much more. I want the audience to add some colors in their mind when they need it, whether red, green, blue or whatever.
ÉCU: What was the significance of setting the film in New York?
New York is one of my favorite cities on earth. I love its creativity, its diversity and its speed. But it is a city of contradictions, too. There are just some hundred streets from Manhattan to Harlem, and to the Bronx. And Manhattan seems to be like a facade. Its intention is to transmit a NYC image that doesn’t exist in the reality. Reality can be found somewhere between a point A and B, in the middle of two sides. For me, New York has its attraction in the opposite of those two: it is high and low, fast and slow, modern and primitive, clean and dirty, intelligent and dumb, expensive and cheap, and all of this at the same time.
NYC on the first sight is like a gorgeous, pretty lady. In the late night, she removes her make-up and looks like a nasty bitch. Then she grabs for your jacket and steals all your money for gambling. NYC is like a melting pot of our society in all its diverse, sometimes shocking facets. If you just visit this city from north to south, it tells a lot about the American Way of Life, and a lot about the American definition of democracy. This is so fascinating about this city. At all, in many ways, it is kind of a representative of other U.S. cities like Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles etc.
ÉCU: The film has a documentary-like quality. Were any of the people featured in the film acting or did you film what you saw on the streets?
Both. I think, a filmmaker’s task is to find and to react on sujets. In many cases, I just needed to watch. But there are also moments, when people recognized me while I filmed them. Then, I needed to talk to them in order to behave naturally. I didn’t want anyone to act superficially like in a Hollywood movie. For this film, I was interested in reality.
ÉCU: The images are accompanied by comic-book style captions. Why did you choose these over, say, a voiceover?
The message of this film is “Democracy is an image”. The meaning of image can be defined in various ways. On the one hand, it is a picture of a scenery, which is a view from outside, on the other hand, it means to express or even to proclaim a special personal state of mind, which is a view from inside. While the film plays with those definitions and views, it was necessary for me to use it like a cartoon. Cartoons do both: they are images trying to explain the character’s personal situation.
ÉCU: Did you encounter any difficulties while filming?
There have been some situations, when the police or company’s security wanted me to stop filming. But I could handle that. And there have surely been some critical moments while I was filming in the Bronx. I needed to prepare carefully and ask for the help of people, who know those districts well. The most important thing was just to avoid any gang colors. The people in the Bronx, however, are not different from those in Manhattan. Most of the times, they have been even friendlier. Of course, they were always asking me about my intentions for this film. Then, it’s just up to yourself, whether you are open-minded to talk to them or to leave immediately. I decided to explain my point of interest. Finally, they were fascinated about my knowledge of Jay-Z lyrics with a German accent. In the beginning, there is always the word…
ÉCU: What do you want people to take away from your film?
Democracy is a process. I want to make people think about it, whether they agree to the film or not. I am sure, when people stop thinking about its development, democracy won’t be improved. Politicians are like puppets on the string of a majority. With a major population longing for more liberty, more equality and further improvement, politicians are forced to make proposals to fight discrepancies. Finally, I want to make people think about the access on democracy. Is it only for those who can afford it, or can anyone take part of it? When you don’t have any money for internet or a newspaper, is it possible to be part of that process? If you can’t afford to go to school, can you imagine the consequences of non-participation?
ÉCU: Tell me about your next project?
I am currently finishing a short film as a mixture of documentary, experimental and narrative called “Africa Light / Gray Zone”. With this film, I want to extend the film genres. Together with widely spread creatives like Steffen Greisiger, who composed an unique music theme together with the renowned German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, conducted by a German legend like Bernd Wefelmeyer, I want to proof, that it is possible to make a modern film dealing with social, economical and political issues in a symbolic way for a target group of young people. This film looks like a beautiful commercial first, but reveals a deeper story about the current development in Africa later on. It’s just a story as an uncensored view on The 1st World in the 3rd World. You can find further information and some promotional videos on http://www.africa-light.com.
Furthermore, I am preparing a global feature film. But this is still top secret.
Director's Statement by Tino Schwanemann about AFRICA LIGHT / GRAY ZONE
Lately, there have been many questions about the film. Why is such a dramatic story like this being told in such beautiful pictures? How does my desired target group look like? Is the film only aligned to intellectuals? Are only representatives of film studies allowed to understand it? How could the film be available for a wide audience? Interested parties contacted me to get my opinion on political issues in Africa and my personal intention of the film. The following lines should be kind of a summary.
For me, the audience often seems to be underestimated. Films like "2001: A Space Odyssey" (director: Stanley Kubrick), "Koyaanisqatsi" (directed by Godfrey Reggio), "Waltz with Bashir" (directed by Ari Folman) and "The Fall" (directed by Tarsem Singh) show that viewers are able to combine pictures, to put them into context with each other or to interpret, without a need for endless dialogues, or without conjuring up any big emotional drama. So, AFRICA LIGHT / GRAY ZONE is a silent film without any spoken dialogues.
I am annoyed when I watch films such as "Africa: My Home" or similar romantic trash. Stories that do not understand to give a realistic impression of the country Namibia on the one side, and simply do not show the true reality of the continent of Africa on the other side as well. They show the same stereotypes on and on. AFRICA LIGHT / GRAY ZONE is the proof that it’s possible to give a realistic impression with small means. This film’s intention is not to establish a stamped, personal narration either, or to slip into an often unattractive documentary direction. It commutes between those two genres and shows big pictures extended with many symbolic details.
We all know the pictures from Ethiopia, Angola and Rwanda. But it is shameful that many people are stapling the topic of the Third World on their forehead in order to be respected by the press. Alleged celebrities go into poor areas to crush a few tears and want to open an orphanage, but ultimately they only give off a check, while 60% of the money seeps in administration and bureaucracy. But no one seems to have a personal opinion about the real general situation. And they do not seem to care about any investigation. The cameras are gone, the celebrity, too. The recent case of Haiti demonstrates that media coverage is somehow responsible for endless calls for donations and the local appearance of bizarre activism organizations, such as Scientology or others, while nobody had been interested in Haiti in the last years before. In the same way pictures of poverty in Africa flicker annually on TV right before Christmas. A pressure on the lacrimal as a placebo for a guilty conscience?
The ignorance of reality is still continuing. In the same way of the statement of George W. Bush: "Africa is a beautiful country," I experience the dealing with many clichés. There are stereotypical platitudes such as "The white farmers teach black people how to work because they are not intelligent to cultivate their own land ..." or "The whites are only exploiting native Africans". And so on. Certainly, there is always a spark of reality in these statements, but the truth can mostly be found in the middle, like it has been wisely said by the German newspaper publisher Axel Springer.
Especially during the preparations of the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, I would like to establish this film as a counterweight, which thus tries to put the one-sidedness in the middle. With this film, I want to encourage visitors to explore Southern Africa closely scrutinized, and not to make just a one-sided picture only. Above all, the film’s target group are tourists who turn their eyes only on the flora and fauna. Who are hypnotized in such a way that they glorify anything or ignore everything. The film represents Africa in the kind of aesthetics of a commercial: first, just to dazzle people with beautiful pictures, then to motivate them to capture a sense. In South Africa, the reality show is looming somewhere around the beaches, stadiums and hotels. So, my message is: a good image on your own can be made if you combine black and white into a whole or even enhance color.
This is up to others whose job it is. I just want to raise questions skillfully! And the most important issues for me had always been the reasons for riots, poverty and the conflicts of the continent? Above all, the influence of the so-called First World on the Third World was my main focus. This influence had been almost omnipresent, especially in Namibia, when I saw the wrecks of cars in the desert, the predominance of beer advertising in the slums with the phrase "You've earned it!", a giraffe driven over by tourists in the national parks, abandoned buildings in the diamond prospectors’ area, the seepage of rails in the sand, or tourist staged native communities. The gods must be crazy! Instead of Coca Cola, there was the Pepsi ad on the corrugated steel sheets in Kattatura. These symbols could barely express more accurately. But I will leave the concrete articulation to the audience. For me, a film works best if you do not deliver everything on the tray, so you can encourage your audience to create an own individual opinion. Only thus someone is motivated to deal with the issues. My aim is to entice the audience and not to leave them alone in their comfortable popcorn armchair lethargy. Besides: I like to provoke!
It is a place where Angelina Jolie relaxes on the beach, and Britney Spears thought to bear a child. But where the scenery is so gorgeous, there is also a counterpart for everything. Although hidden. Christoph Schlingensief once said that Namibia is the boring part of Africa, because everything seems so arranged and artificial. Somehow correct. But there is more than this behind its cover. „An image is an image is an image…“. And an image is always the sum of an internal und external perception. So it was the right time for me to make a film about the African cliché world that has not been there before yet. “Africa Light / Gray Zone” is my external view as an image. The internal one is omnipresent, especially at the moment, while the Soccer World Cup is being prepared.
It also shows my personal, categorized development, while I had been in Southern Africa: First being dazzled and packed with clichés and pseudo-romantic imagination, then noting that not everything shines like gold, then doing more and more research and being curious, finally being angry about the lack of empathy and tact, as well as about the low First World understanding for the essences of the Third World’s problems. As one of the First World’s protagonists, somehow, this was also a personal point.
Last but not least, the music, produced by Steffen Greisiger with the Film Orchestra Babelsberg, follows this intention. In Hollywood movie style, it starts with everything an orchestra is able to offer. But the hubris is followed soon by the catharsis.
 La Vida Loca (OmU) Spanien, Mexiko, Frankreich 2008 Regie: Christian Poveda, FSK 16 täglich 21:30 mit Vorfilm "Democracy is.." von Tino Schwanemann Doku über die Geschichte der Straßengang MARA 18 in El Salvador von Christian Poveda. Der Regisseur und Fotojournalist wurde im vergangenen September bei einem erneuten Besuch in El Salvador von Gangmitgliedern erschossen. website mit trailer  Democracy is... ein Film von Tino Schwanemann |
– by ALLISON HIGGINBOTHAM –
The trailer below for “Africa Light / Gray Zone” looks beautiful. That’s probably because I’m just used to seeing a lot of dust and beige when looking at footage taken from Africa. The trailer below, however, is sharp with rich colors. But all the beauty in Africa cannot distract from the problem of industrialization.
For Africa, industrialization means getting new technology: trains, paved roads, and barbed wire fences. The technological advances have a downside, however. With more technology, the African culture is becoming diminished. Old customs stop being practiced and traditions start vanishing.