The cruise ship as a symbol for western consumer culture - overwhelmed by a massive, almost limitless oversupply - which threatens to drown in abundance. The constant compulsion to decide between a variety of options: What should I eat today? Asian, pizza or in the "vegan heaven"? And how many gears? After all, you want to be at least a little hungry when the bombastic midnight buffet opens. And what do I choose when salsa dance classes, flight simulation, 3D cinema and hot stone massage are all tempting at the same time, but I just don't have enough time for everything? The luxury of unlimited choice always seems to come with the risk of missing out. The hustle and bustle on the ship seems particularly absurd in view of the refugee boats, which are themselves more than overcrowded and are trying to cross the sea from the opposite coast. The following applies to both: there are always more. Both the number of refugees and the number of cruise tourists have increased steadily in recent years.
While the observing camera gradually provides insights into various scenarios on the ship, the commenting voice from the off guides us through what is happening on board. It remains to be seen whether the voice is aimed at the tourists or at the refugees. The commentary level, cut together from individual words and sentences, comes from the former German entertainment program "Go all out".
Audio source: Youtube
BUKAREST
EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY / 2011 / 12´18´´/ CH-D, RO, UT Engl.
Direction , camera, editing: Kathrin Schmid
The occasion is a Swiss-Romanian wedding, during which we accompany the Swiss wedding party on a city tour of Bucharest. The documentary essay tells of the clichéd ideas of Western tourists in relation to the former Eastern Bloc and how they are served by the organized tourism structures. On the one hand, the interview scenes - mainly with the father - conducted in an intimate setting and on the other hand the off-screen dialogues designed as a language course, result in an experimental travel reportage laden with East-West stereotypes in addition to the family portrait. An attempt at an amoral social criticism.
GEZI
EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY / 2016 / 5´55´´/ D, Turkish
Direction , camera, editing: Kathrin Schmid
It is about traveling and the question of whether it is ethically correct to attend an exceptional political situation - in this specific case the Gezi protests in Istanbul in the summer of 2013 - purely for the purpose of adventure. While we are being led through nocturnal Istanbul on the shaky, subjective mobile phone recordings of two tourists in the midst of the protest march, old Super-8 holiday recordings from the 70s and 80s appear like a “window on the past”, as supposedly “everything (or at least that travel) was better". A heated and highly moral debate about the pros and cons of such trips takes place off screen. The discussion is reminiscent of classic political talk shows such as "Hart aber Fair" or "Anne Will" - those rhetorical arenas in which self-portrayal and meaningless rhetoric seem to have replaced constructive discussions. The discussion, cut together from individual words and sentences, is also largely taken from such broadcasts.