Waste on the shores, waste on the mountains. On ocean floors and deep down in the earth. MATTER OUT OF PLACE is a film about human-made refuse, which has spread across the world, to the most remote corners of the planet and is surrounding us everywhere.
We have created a monster
The film MATTER OUT OF PLACE by Nikolaus Geyerhalter has had a massive impact on me. In fact to an extent that even a week later I keep catching myself during the day thinking about the absurdity of our waste system. Not because of the facts we all know: we buy too much, we waste too many things including food, we use more resources than our planet can actually provide us with...You name it, we mess it up.
What stops me in my tracks is what comes after the over-consumption: The absurdity of the waste disposal monster we have created.
We know all the products we consume require (waste) resources to be produced. They are then shipped around the globe wasting more resources. We buy them online or on the high street, wasting even more resources. We use them for a while and then sooner or later we chuck whatever we don't need anymore in the bin. Simplified but you get the gist.
Anyway. We put our waste in the bin, calm our conscience with recycling - and even though we are aware that nowhere near as much waste as should gets recycled, the closing of the bin marks the point where the product life cycle ends for us.
Welcome to Absurdistan
Don't be fooled: The monster of exhausting our resources does not conveniently end with the closing of the bin. Oh Gawd. Don't tell me. Yup. Sorry. Instead the whole product life cycle of stuff that nobody needs reaches next level absurdness!
In order to get rid of what we don't want anymore we need more energy, cause more pollution, blast more CO2 into the atmosphere, create health hazards and horrendous working conditions...You watch the film and wonder: "This is really the best we could have come up with to get rid of our rubbish? Seriously? There were humans on the actual moon (apparently) and this is our best technical solution?". [Tumbleweed]
Maybe we are just extremely desperate...
We grow crops on fields that were dumps up until the 1970s - with tires, oil cans and all sorts just underneath a thin layer of humus.
We create car free luxury skiing resorts, only to collect the rubbish in uniformly coloured bin bags which are then collected by a big truck - that in turn is then transported down the mountain by being suspended off the gondola.
Kidding me? Nope.
And these are just two examples of the technically advanced, rich western world we live in. So we shouldn't be surprised when being confronted with the shocking solutions for waste disposal in countries like Nepal - including the dreadful working conditions that come with them.
Go watch this film. And face the monster.
At best, we throw our crap into separate garbage containers and think that's it. In reality, it sets unimaginable machinery in motion, which also leaves behind a massive CO2 footprint. Recycling processes also require immense energy.
Nikolaus Geyerhalter, MATTER OUT OF PLACE Presskit Interview
Short Synopsis
The term “matter out of place” refers to objects in a place they originally do not belong. And there are many such objects in the places Nikolaus Geyrhalter visits for this film. In his unique imagery consisting of minutely composed pictures, the director traces immense amounts of waste across our planet. From the mountain tops of Switzerland to the coasts of Greece and Albania, into an Austrian refuse incinerator and then to Nepal and the Maldives, and finally to the deserts of Nevada.
On his journey, Geyrhalter illustrates the sheer endless struggle of people to gain control over the vast amounts of waste that we produce every single day. Collecting, shredding, burning, burying – a Sisyphean task, which ostensibly solves the global problem of rubbish that is stealthily growing.
MATTER OUT OF PLACE Presskit
