Traceroute (film)

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Movie
Original title Traceroute
Traceroute (2016) - movie poster.png
Country of production Austria ,
USA
original language English
Publishing year 2018
length 120 minutes
Rod
Director Johannes Grenzfurthner
script Johannes Grenzfurthner
production Johannes Grenzfurthner,
Andreas Reisenbauer,
Heather Kelley,
Günther Friesinger
( monochrome ),
Reisenbauer Film
music Daniel Hasibar et al. a.
camera Eddie Codel
cut Johannes Grenzfurthner

Traceroute is an Austrian-American documentary by Johannes Grenzfurthner from 2016. The autobiographical, essayistic road movie deals with the history, politics and the effects of nerd culture. Grenzfurthner calls his film a "personal journey into the unexplored depths of nerd culture, a realm full of dangers, creatures and more or less precarious working conditions", an attempt to "trace the ghosts of the past, present and future of nerdism."

The film was co-produced by the artist group monochrom and Reisenbauer Film .

It contains music by Kasson Crooker, Hans Nieswandt and many others.

concept

The artist and self-proclaimed nerd Johannes Grenzfurthner documents his personal journey from the west coast to the east coast of the United States in order to introduce the audience to the places and people who have shaped and inspired his art and politics. Traceroute is a reflection on Grenzfurthner's own roots as a nerd and on the road style romping around the United States while visiting icons of counterculture , outré and the generally questionable ". Grenzfurthner summarized the concept in an interview for Boing Boing :

“It's a film about biographies and obsessions and spaces of possibility - something between a loving hug and rock-hard vivisection. A critical meta-attitude was just as important to me as bottomless stammering of love. And I think that only works because I just take a step forward, introduce myself, almost like with Alcoholics Anonymous, confess guilty, only to visit the best distilleries. In my case, it's not brandy manufacturers, but places and people and symbols of a very special pop culture. "

On Film Threat he adds: "It was important to me to take the nerddom apart, not only to analyze it, but also to realize its potential for greatness."

aesthetics

The film combines art and illustrations by James Brothwell, Bonni Rambatan, Michael Marrak , Karin Frank, Ben Lawson, Michael Zeltner, Josh Ellingson and eSeL in a cinematic collage that reflects the fanzine and punk aesthetics of the 90s, BBS culture, inspired by ANSI art and fantastic art. Hannah Sayer from UK Film Review sums up the film's artistic style in her review:

“There is a real feeling that this is a collaborative exploration of creativity : the old and the new, the past and the present, the traditional and the digital. The use of photographs and drawings stored between interviews with various people associated with nerd culture shows an artistic approach to the material, and these images act as reflective snapshots of moments in time, what emphasizes the importance of looking back at the past and looking ahead to the future of the digital age. "

Interviews

Traceroute features interviews with Matt Winston , Sandy Stone , Bruce Sterling , Jason Scott, Christina Agapakis, Trevor Paglen , Ryan Finnigan, Kit Stubbs, V. Vale, Sean Bonner, Allison Cameron, Josh Ellingson, Maggie Mayhem, Paolo Pedercini, Steve Tolin, Dan Wilcox, Jon Lebkowsky, Jan "Varka" Mulders (from Bad Dragon ), Adam Flynn, Abie Hadjitarkhani, Kelly Poots and some special guest appearances (e.g. National Park Service spokeswoman Vickie Carson, hacker Nick Farr and cultural curator Scott Beale) .

Metronaut writes: “Traceroute gives an insight into the world of nerds. A woman who compares bacterial strains from sweaty feet with well-ripened cheese - and finds similarities. A person who wants to install a huge independent network of Geiger counters . Or the story of a sex worker who calls herself a nerd. The variety of topics and people interviewed shows that being a nerd doesn't necessarily have to have to do with computers and programming. "

production

Traceroute: Johannes Grenzfurthner and Matt Winston talk about Stan Winston and special effects.

script

In 2014 Grenzfurthner performed a stand-up show at the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna entitled Fateful Years of a Nerd . Parts of this show form the basis of Traceroute . The script, although many scenes and interviews were improvised, was written by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The main language of the film is English, but the archive material is in German.

Filming

Filming began on March 5, 2015 and ended on March 27, 2015. The film can be viewed as micro filmmaking and guerrilla filmmaking due to its small budget .

Sound design

Daniel Hasibar and Christian Staudacher created the sound design and the audio landscape on which Grenzfurthner's story is based.

music

The film's soundtrack includes music by Peter Barnett, Kasson Crooker, Damien Di Fede, Matthew Huffaker, Brady Leo, Vera Lynn , Kevin MacLeod , Hans Nieswandt, Roger Sandega, Eric Skiff, and others. a.

distribution

The film's world premiere took place on April 28, 2016 at the NYC Independent Film Festival . The European premiere took place on May 13, 2016 as part of DOK.fest Munich . Various film festivals and congresses (such as Hackers on Planet Earth 2016, Gen Con 2016, the European Media Arts Festival 2016 [13] in Osnabrück , the Dutch Design Week 2016, the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf 2016, the Print Screen Festival 2016 [14] in Tel Aviv , FrackFest 2016, Norwich Radical Film Festival , Chaos Communication Congress 2016, Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival 2016) showed the film.

The film had a theatrical release in Austria in 2016.

Traceroute was released digitally on March 21, 2017.

criticism

“Traceroute is the funniest movie I've ever seen. If you're a nerd (and you are) this is the road trip you've always wanted to do with your smartest, geekiest friend. You won't want to come home. It is our cosmos . It's DragonCon on wheels. It is your favorite sex fantasy. It's an alcohol-soaked, non-violent, subversive protest mobile with Wi-Fi. It's On The Road updated with technology, science, pseudoscience, sex, and fandom. "

- Film Threat

“Traceroute is game, challenge, encyclopedia and sentimental journey at the same time. Is constructed extremely well as documentation. And extremely compatible as a narration. This film will win the hearts of avowed nerds as they drive by. And touch all those who still need a little explanation. "

“For me it's the best nerd documentary I've seen so far. Just because she doesn't take herself as seriously as all the others. Grenzfurthner is also a nerd critic, a neo-Marxist and artist: he cannot take everything uncritically, whatever makes up this scene. And that is perhaps the greatest achievement of Traceroute: that it deals with a very old nerd term, namely one that is never compatible with Fintech , Unicorn and iGod. "

- Engadget Germany

“[The film Traceroute] is a challenge. It is a food for thought. He's remarkably honest. It's well researched. If you expect nothing more than your usual nerd documentary with cosmopolitan cuteness and anti-social gamers, you will not only be disappointed, but probably traumatized. Grenzfurthner is clearly ready to question culture, stereotypes, accepted thoughts, and just about anything else. There's a healthy dose of sexuality in Traceroute, which can be expected, but Grenzfurthner also delves into politics, activism, and social debates. Refreshingly devoid of the arrogance so often found in real intellectual films, Traceroute is a pretty wonderful personal journey and an extremely satisfying cinematic experience at the same time. "

- The Independent Critic

continuation

In an interview with Chris Gore from Film Threat in 2016, Johannes Grenzfurthner discussed the possibility of a sequel, a trip to destinations in Eastern Europe with the aim of driving from Vienna to the Baikonur cosmodrome . Grenzfurthner changed the concept and created the film Glossary of Broken Dreams (2018), which he considers a loose sequel or successor.

Awards (selection)

  • Award of Merit, Accolade Global Film Competition , 2016
  • Best Documentary Feature Film, Subversive Film Awards ( Los Angeles ), 2016
  • Best Feature Documentary, DITR Film Festival ( Cupertino ), 2016
  • Best Documentary, Celludroid Film Festival ( Cape Town ) 2016

Web links

Commons : Traceroute  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Documentary "Traceroute" from Austria: Cheers for nerd culture - derStandard.at. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (Austrian German).
  2. Peter Mühlbauer: About space in time . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  3. ^ 'Traceroute', A Nerd's Eye View of a Fascinating Road Trip Across the United States . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  4. ^ Traceroute, A Documentary about Nerds and Annihilation. May 1, 2016, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  5. Review in Furtherfield; March 11, 2016 . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  6. The story of Traceroute, about a Leitnerd's quest . April 14, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  7. ^ Johannes Grenzfurthner is Kinda Nerdy - Film Threat . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  8. Review in “Press Play” by Marco Rauch, March 14, 2016
  9. ^ Review of Traceroute in UK Film Review, May 9, 2016
  10. Peter Mühlbauer: About space in time. Retrieved March 3, 2019 .
  11. Traceroute: From nerd to nerd - Metronaut.de . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  12. Dorian Waller: Porn and dead chickens . In: derStandard.at .
  13. Traceroute . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  14. ^ NYC Independent Film Festival Sessions . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  15. TRACER ROUTE. Retrieved March 3, 2019 .
  16. List of screenings on the Traceroute homepage
  17. Watch Traceroute Online - Vimeo On Demand . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  18. Award-winning nerd documentary "Traceroute" published digitally . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  19. Bradley Gibson: Glossary of Broken Dreams - in: Film Threat, February 28, 2017
  20. Thomas Kaestle: story of Traceroute, about a Leitnerd's quest - in: Boing Boing from April 14, 2016
  21. Felix Knoke: Nerd documentary comes to Germany - in: Engadget Germany from March 23, 2016
  22. ^ Richard Propes: "Traceroute" Set for World Premiere on April 28th at NYC Independent Film Festival - in: The Independent Critic on April 10, 2016
  23. ^ Johannes Grenzfurthner is Kinda Nerdy - Film Threat . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  24. Zebra Butter: "The film Glossary of Broken Dreams or: At the Abattoir At the Golden Calf"; April 25, 2018 . Retrieved March 3, 2019.