- ISSUE NO. 2
- Collaborations
- Imprint
- ISSUE No.1
In the beginning the idea was to create a print magazine with an accompanying DVD. The articles would be enhanced with videos, songs could be listened to instantly and trailers could be watched. We asked ourselves: How wonderful would it be to tell a story not only with words, but also with pictures, music and film? We decided to find an answer this question and in our free time we developed a concept, sought out and collected stories and brought them to life using all of these media. Without the help of friends old and new this endeavor would have been impossible to undertake. And then we stumbled upon the iPad and it was immediately clear to us that this medium was perfect for Astronaut. An app is accessible anywhere and anytime even without an internet connection or a DVD player. Whether on a plane, on a train, or on the beach, Astronaut and its amazing cast of characters is always there for you at the touch of a button.
Filmmaker Eran Hilleli is the winner of the Best Animation Award at Vimeo's first film festival 2011 with the outstanding Between Bears, which has been seen by almost 600 000 vimeo users so far. But there is more to discover: Great and simple music videos of talented songwriters playing heartful songs.
The start of a new category is A Day with Nalden. Normally you spend an hour with the person you want to interview and then you quickly shoot some footage and that's it. You drive back to the office to edit it, choose some music and you're done. The thing about not spending a lot of time with the person of interest is a lack of knowledge who the person really is and what might be interesting to talk about, topics you could not read about in other interviews or press mailings already published. So we decided to spend a weekend in Amsterdam and to visit Nalden, to first talk and have lunch together, before starting to shoot. It was a great sunny day in Amsterdam with the founder of nalden.net and one of the smart people behind WeTransfer: Nalden!
After having heard the new songs at the Erased Tapes Label Night, an evening showing an impressively self-confident Nils Frahm, who between songs improvises with long-time friend Peter Broderick, we asked if the Astronaut Crew could spend an afternoon with him in his studio, which is also his bedroom. We talked about his expectations and his plans. Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths, who was mixing another new ETR record, was quickly integrated. And lucky for us, Nils played a song the way he recorded his album. This has really been a great afternoon. And yes, the coffee was good, too.
After leaving their home in Bosnia because of the Yugoslavian war in the beginning of the 90's, Abdulah Kadenic and his wife Sehaveta ended up in Norway. They lived there for 12 years until Sehavata got so ill that she had to be put in a nursing home. Due to not understanding the language very well and because they never really felt at home in Norway they decided to move back to Bosnia. Abdulah now lives in Sarajevo while Sehaveta stays at a nursing home 90 kilometers from there in the city of Travnik. Every week he visits her.
The story begins in the mind of Cashril Plus, a twelve-year-old animator and son of graffiti artist Faith47. Through Cashril's eyes, we see his mother paint the streets and forgotten townships haloing Cape Town. Weaving through the lives of Faith47, Warongx (afro-blues), Emile (hip hop), Sweat.X (glam rap), Blaq Pearl (spoken word) and Mthetho (opera), the film culminates in an intertwined story. Born in separate areas of a formerly-segregated South Africa, the artists recraft history -- and the impacts of apartheid -- in their own artistic languages. The lens reveals the impulse behind the artists' social consciousness, the individuals' eccentricities, and each creator's unique form of expression. Diving into the current of subversive art which fuels South Africa's many clashing and merging cultures, The Creators brings into focus the invisible connections among strangers' disparate lives -- and the creative expression used to traverse the divide.
