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(ENG) About this video
Passionate following sounds fairly harmless, but is it really?
Before I explain my video to you you should know, I am not a filmmaker in the traditional sense; I am a visual artist who has used video as a medium.
With this video I trie to get into the merits of the contemporary and social phenomenon of following. I explored the vague boundaries between enthusiastic support and fanatical, blind support.
We more or less all follow and imitate, constantly, consciously, unconsciously and since the dawn of time.
Seen with eyes of today, Jezus Christ was probably one of the first influencers. He mobilized many people, and his personality was crucial in this regard; he was glorified, worshipped but also deeply hated.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Following, anno now, engages masses of people on all kinds of different levels, it ignites online before it hits the streets. Because of its enormous social, commercial and economic impact, it raised this philosophical question; are we gradually losing our autonomy to an algorithmic system that thrives on followers and those who are being followed and what will the consequences be?
I created this video in 2022, now 2026 we experience some of the consequences real time.
To follow is inherent to us as humans. Without role models, we feel free but rudderless.
Communities all over the world are what they are today because of endless replication and continuation. Each age and culture seeks and recognizes its own heroes. It is never clear-cut. One man’s hero is another man’s nemesis.
A fanatical follower more or less surrenders his uniqueness and literally hands over his individuality and power. What implications this may have thereafter depends entirely on the followed, to which this authority is granted to. That makes it truly vulnerable.
I tried to make this paradox insightful in an artistic way. I have created a compilation of video, sound and music fragments in which I have swept all types of dedicated followers together. My focus is on the follower not the followed. By means of some famous historical images drawn from the internet like for instance: the 2nd World War, the Cultural Revolution and snippets from videos of influencers, fans of pop idols and some fragments from famous movies such as 1984 also found on the internet. I filmed the screen and re-recorded it with my Sony CX 5000 camera. This was the base, the raw material that I chopped into pieces, shuffled and manipulated into some kind of a video clip. Same goes for the soundtrack. You will and must recognize sound and image. It is intent to make the viewer relate. A familiarity with the films, whose images and quotes I used, certainly helps in understanding my message. Irony and brutal reality, fiction and non-fiction alternate. Image and sound tell a conflicting story.
Credits: My short film, entitled Dedicated Follower, contains images of: Christ, Bhagwan, but also Mussolini, Hitler, and Trump, fans of Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and The Beatles, among others, but also of contemporary influencers. I take you through extracts from various cult films containing more or less the same message as my artwork, such as: 1984 by Orson Welles, Life Of Brian by Monty Python, Perfume by Tom Tykwer, the films Apocalypto and Passion Of The Christ, both directed by Mel Gibson, Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and own footage. The soundtrack is a mix of: Factory by audiopapkin (Tribe of Noise), 5th by Beethoven, Life of Brian Speech (by Brian), Big Brother speech from 1984, Gospel by Arvid Haggstrom, Great Dictator speech (Chaplin), Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, hand clapping by hcp- menegass (Free Sound) and marching boots also found on Free Sound. Image, sound mix, image editing, and concept were created by me.
Image and sound create a confusing mix. A mix that, if all goes well, will also make you think.
