Max Hattler

Award-winning experimental film-maker Max Hattler is known for his innovative, sometimes psychedelic short films. Collision, produced in 2005, is kaleidoscopic in its rotation of shapes taken from Islamic patterns, American quilts and the two countries’ flags, set to the sound of machinery and exploding artillery. The result is thought-provoking without being explicit in its meaning, it probes a tense political situation without saying outright how Hattler sees it (although we can probably guess). Short of the Week said “few works so elegantly capture the tensions between America and the Islamic world” while Sci-Fi Dimensions described it as “like watching a fireworks display on acid.” Both are pretty accurate. Collision went on to garner a host of awards; Marin, San Gio and Videologia Festival have all honoured it, as well as London SFF and Darklight FF. Although his projects are short, he uses his time powerfully. His animation Drift uses close-up shots of the body reflected in glowing blue light to suggest a kind of human landscape. Spin is a choreographed parade of toy soldiers set to music, prefaced with the words “When conflict becomes a spectacle, the lines between destruction and entertainment get blurred…” If he is telling a story with his cinema, it’s one which exists outside of conventional narrative boundaries. Abstract patterns, images and sounds suggest ideas without dictating, but are arranged in a meaningful way. Outside of his intriguing films, Hattler has put together concert material for Basement Jaxx and music videos for his father, musician Hellmut Hattler. He currently teaches in London, but as one of Germany’s most noted creatives his works provoke debate at film festivals around the world.