Today brings another no-brainer choice for Music Monday.
Today the video was released I made for the song “1 billion” that the Berlin rap artist sookee wrote for the One Billion Rising* campaign organized by V-Day.
It’s been a great honor and very rewarding to participate in this campaign against violence on women.
I highly recommend watching in 720p
The shoot was very spontaneous and I won’t deny that it was a challenge: one rapper (fortunately very talented, comfortable in front of the camera and knows how to lip-sync), 5 hip hop dancers, about a dozen skateboarders and BMXers and maybe 30 extras – in one big skate hall and with only 4 hours to film. Oh, and besides me there was only one other woman who had real film set experience. But fortunately she was awesome (Thank you, Anna Hong Xian)
But this didn’t mean I made the video alone, of course! Andi Guldner, who is a photographer with a good eye, and Dirk Lamprecht, who does have lots of experience shooting skateboards, worked additional cameras. All together we had 6 cameras, which of course turned into a conversion and editing nightmare. But I disgress.
Other friends and volunteers helped with other important tasks (even if they said, they didn’t help much at all, Hana and Elke, they really did).
At this point I would like to thank Karin Heisecke of V-Day for asking me to make the video and for all the help she provided as the other producer.
Of course, another big thanks goes to sookee, who wrote such an amazing song, also helped produce and was such a pleasure to work with (you make me believe in making music videos again).
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| The camera loves sookee! |
Also I’d like to thank my friends who assisted in any which way during the production: Elke Holzapfel, Hana Hermann, Sophie Euler, Rafi Triebel aka Ralf Zwiebel and Yves Kasten.
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| Stella, Hana and Sophie and more during One Billion Rising shoot |
Last but not least: thank you to everyone who participated in front of and behind the camera and made this run-and-gun production possible, super fun and something to be proud of. You were all amazing!!!
Nika Kramer took amazing photos during the shoot and I hope she doesn’t mind if I post one of myself at work. Thank you for the pictures, Nika!
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| Sookee filmed by me. Anna and Toni on the left. During 1 billion rising shoot. (Photo by Nika Kramer) |
The best moment in all of this arrived when I received a personal email from Eve Ensler thanking me and sookee personally for the the video, which she said she loved. She’s actually a hero of mine, for her amazing activist work, her writing and her film work. While she didn’t direct What I Want My Words To Do You, I have a strong feeling, she was quite influential in it – besides being the inspirational subject together with several women in prison. It’s one of the documentaries that inspires me to do the work I do or would like to do. So, yeah, big day. It certainly made all the nights I worked until morning totally worth it. And who doesn’t love The Vagina Monologues?
Now, listen to the song again and start dancing – and please get out on the street on February 14th and take a stance a dance against violence! Thank you!
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| sookee and One Billion Rising tag |
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*From the One Billion Rising site (http://www.onebillionrising.org):
1 in 3 women on the planet is raped or beaten in her lifetime. That is
ONE BILLION women. On 14 February 2013 V-Day is inviting ONE BILLION
women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an
end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth,
activating women and men across every country. We want the world to see
our collective strength, our numbers and our solidarity across borders.
Tell the world why you’re rising on February 14th, 2013 at
onebillionrising.org. What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February,
it will look like a REVOLUTION.