Experiencing Interruptions?

Drew Nikonowicz - Notes From Anywhere

Drew Nikonowicz (b. 1993) is a photographer from Saint Louis, Missouri. He has been awarded the Aperture Portfolio Prize and the Lenscratch Student Prize. His work investigates the role of the 21st century explorer through a combination of analog photography and computer simulations.
In 2016, Nikonowicz participated in a year-long residency at Fabrica Research Centre in Treviso, Italy. This was the first time he had gone overseas. This documentary follows Nikonowicz through his year in Italy as he creates a new chapter to his award-winning project This World and Others Like It. It also serves as an invitation to explore and overcome your own limits.

  • Mattia Mura
    Director
    ChromoSkopje
  • Drew Nikonowicz
    Key Cast
  • Antti L.S. Ikonen
    Composer & Sound Designer
  • Roberta Donatini
    Graphic Designer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 20, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • LIDF2017 - London International Documentary Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    November 26, 2017
    World Premiere, European Premiere, UK Premiere
    Finalist
  • The Quarantine Film Festival
    Varna
    Bulgaria
    July 10, 2018
    Bulgarian Premiere
    Special Mention
  • Copper Coast International Film Festival
    Swansea
    United Kingdom
    January 22, 2018
    Welsh Premiere
    Semifinalist - Top40
  • Copper Coast International Film Festival
    Swansea
    United Kingdom
    January 23, 2018
    Finalist - Top20
  • U.F.O. - Short Film Festival
    Leipzig
    Germany
    January 27, 2018
    German Premiere
  • Al-Nahj International Film Festival
    Karbala
    Iraq
    April 5, 2018
    Category: Integrity
  • Corti a Palazzo 2018
    Verona
    Italy
    March 24, 2018
    Italian Premiere
  • Cefalù Film Festival
    Cefalù
    Italy
    May 1, 2018
    Sicilian Premiere
  • Lago Film Festival
    Revine Lago
    Italy
    July 20, 2018
  • Diecixdieci Photography Festival 5th Edition
    Gonzaga, Mantova
    Italy
    September 27, 2019
    Lombardy Premiere
Director Biography - Mattia Mura

Mattia Mura was born in Cecina, Tuscany, in 1992.

He began his artistic career at a very young age as a writer. His fantasy novel, "Liberando Lastlend", written when he was only 13 years old, was published in 2006 and won the 1st ACSI Club Award for writers under 20 in 2009.

From 2009 to 2013 he is the screenwriter, director and editor of every production (short movies and documentaries) made by Helix Pictures, a cultural association which promotes Tuscany through Indipendent Films.

In the same years he made video installations in many cities of Tuscany, including "Kinesbanon", a site specific video installation, for the International Biennial of Contemporary Art "M'Arte", where he explored the construction and deconstruction of the relationship between cinema and theater; he directed an experimental webserie titled "Dama: di amici, morte, amore" and he was awarded the "Premio Europa - VI Edizione" for emerging directors by the Cinema and Tourism Association of the town of Cecina, for "the development of the cinema culture".

In 2014 he graduated with 110 cum laude at the University La Sapienza of Rome. In 2015 he was awarded a scholarship and residency at Fabrica Research Centre. He is currently completing this residency.

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Director Statement

I met Drew at Fabrica during 2016. He was an American, talented photographer for the first time abroad. I became familiar with his practice during a journey in Tuscany. He asked me to be his guide, and we traveled through Florence, Pisa, Livorno and Elba Island. His work is fascinating, not only for his practice but also for the worldview behind it. I started thinking that telling his process could have been an interesting opportunity to understand how technology can shape a different mindset, and what are the thoughts of a young artist discovering a new world.

Doing that, I wanted to be faithful to the title of his photographic experience in Italy, "Notes from Anywhere". As you can do through links on internet, the story jumps from a picture to a place, from reality to a representation of it and so on. I also chose to shoot in some of the less classic italian locations and I didn't write where those locations are, in order to stress the feeling of being anywhere. I filmed this hard process of development that turns out in a 13 minutes documentary. The whole experience became a shift for Drew and a confirmation of his theories, it increased his consciousness of reality.