Open­ing Program

This split-screen work begins with total views as if from Mars, approach­ing the ground simul­ta­ne­ous­ly or alter­nate­ly from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives. Many people are build­ing a coun­try road with painstak­ing manual labor. We are in Myan­mar. Women knock stones small, carry them to the cur­rent con­struc­tion sec­tion, a fore­woman scat­ters them evenly. Men boil tar in rusty bar­rels and spread it on the stone pave­ment with water­ing cans. Late in the evening, the work­ers cast long shad­ows again, and from a bird’s eye view, an abstract paint­ing in rusty earth tones emerges. One day, a short stretch of road for a road that once will con­nect dif­fer­ent ter­ri­to­ries in the civil war-torn country.

Max Kerk­hoff, born in Aus­tria to an Amer­i­can mother and a German father. He first stud­ied Eth­nol­o­gy, Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Media&Communication Stud­ies (MA), then con­tin­ued with Film edit­ing at Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg Konrad Wolf (Diplom). Since 2010 he has been making films and been select­ed for numer­ous pro­grams, fes­ti­vals and grants. Also he works as free­lance editor and gives work­shops. Based in Berlin, he is a member of Ate­lier­haus Mengerzeile, a non-profit and self-admin­is­tered art space. In 2008 his mid-length doc­u­men­tary WO LANG? BERLIN,
MÄRKISCHES VIERTEL, about desil­lu­sioned teenagers in Berlin’s out­skirts, has screened at fes­ti­vals worldwide.

Direc­tor, edit­ing: Max Kerkhoff
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Till Girke
Addi­tion­al drone pho­tog­ra­phy: Paul Glodek
Com­pos­er: Franziska May, Isacco Chiaf
Con­tact: post@maxkerkhoff.at