Other Worlds
An ode to the infinity of worlds forever unreachable to us, hidden in the unknown of our galaxy and billions of other galaxies like ours
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Ivan Maria FriedmanDirectorGuardians of Paradise
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Ivan Maria FriedmanWriterGuardians of Paradise
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Ivan Maria FriedmanProducerGuardians of Paradise
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Teun van der ZalmVisual Effects Artist
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Ivan Maria FriedmanVisual Effects - Compositing
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Ivan Maria FriedmanCinematography
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Ivan Maria FriedmanEditor
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Project Type:Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Short, Other
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Genres:Essai, Science-fiction, Experimental, Space Art
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Runtime:12 minutes 40 seconds
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Completion Date:January 20, 2021
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Production Budget:20,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Switzerland
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Country of Filming:Chile
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:RED 6k
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Aspect Ratio:3.6:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Paris Film AwardsParis
France
January 10, 2022
Official Selection -
New York Indipendent Cinema AwardsNew York
United States
December 28, 2021
Official Selection -
ARG international film festivalParis
France
December 29, 2021
Winner Best VFX : Ivan Maria Friedman / Teun van der Zalm -
Texas Film FestivalAustin, Texas
United States
December 26, 2021
Best Short Animation Film
My name is Ivan Maria Friedman. I am a photographer, cinematographer, filmmaker and classical musician.
Since my youngest age, music has been an endless source of satisfaction, and a fuel for my imagination that helps me reinterpret the world in a thousand different ways. As life went on, I discovered that I could also take photographs and shoot and edit films, and I really enjoyed it. I felt enthusiastic about the possibility to combine these different disciplines and apply to each the formal principles that I could observe into the others.
Music gave me a chance to explore the depths of my own mind, to reflect on the meanings of life and death, and taught me to recognize and appreciate harmonic patterns, both in myself and in the rest of the manifested world. Photography and Cinematography gave me a chance to travel and witness the staggering beauty of this world, meet all sorts of interesting people and enjoy moments of peace and wonder in Nature.
In these forms of expressions and their inter-relatedness I see a field of possibilities to celebrate aliveness from a wide variety of perspectives, to develop my own vision, and along with it, my own voice, with which to share with other people what I find beautiful and meaningful in life, and continue to ask myself the most fascinating questions of all: What is it, that which we call life? What is this experience of me, of you, and of the universe ? Where did it all come from? And what is this magnificent cosmic play all about ?
Our most powerful telescopes are now able to see deep into the starry night, revealing millions of exotic astral formations of great beauty and infinite diversity.
We now know that billion other planets, some similar to earth, some radically different, exist out there spread inside our galaxy, and most probably in others galaxies as well.
What these worlds look like? How would we feel if we could stand there for a moment? Does life as we understand it exists on any of these strange worlds? These are questions that have been triggering my imagination for years.
Since 2013 I have been developing a personal approach to near Infra-Red cinematography with the idea that looking at our world under a different light could give us access to other spheres of perceptions. I produced a first work in black and white in 2015 named Wilderness, then a second one - Eclipse in 2018 - with those techniques.
To create OTHER WORLDS, I've travelled to the Atacama desert in Northern Chile in summer 2015 with a Near-Infrared sensitive high resolution camera and shot as much footage as I could during my 3 weeks stay. On the Altiplano, it looked as if time stopped its course a few billions years ago, while the night sky offered to the naked eye an incredibly clear view of our Galaxy. Overall, the feeling of belonging to something much vaster then our Earth can't be but obvious for any visitors.
I kept the footage preciously and worked on it periodically since then, improving the shots and the compositions when I had the time. At the same time I was looking for more material to include in the film. The works on Nebulas are the fruit of a great collaboration between Visual Artist Teun van der Zalm and myself. I also composed shots using the best Nasa photographic material of our solar system I could find and also footage from weather Cinematographers Dustin Farrell and Chad Cowan, and some of my own previous footage.
This short film is certainly a visualisation of far away planets, but like a metaphor, It also wants to be an invitation to explore worlds of our perceptions - our perspective on Men and its place in the Universe -The way we see our planet, the fragile yet violent chemistry that is necessary for life to emerge anywhere in the Universe.