Reading the Water

Reading the Water is a high-definition experimental “home video” and personal-poetic essay that mobilizes the coast of Maine--the playground of filmmaker Niklas Sven Vollmer’s youth and the area of expertise of his marine biologist and naturalist father--as a metaphor for exploring the depths of masculine relationships and family ecosystem sustainability across three generations. The title of the film employs the idea of “reading” the surface of water--akin to unpacking the meaning of a photograph--as a means to navigate what is below; it “reads” the water both in content and form and utilizes playfully reflexive editing techniques and wry cinematic disruptions to unveil the complex and fragile dynamics of the family ecosystem vis-à-vis a behind-the-scene reveal of the videotape’s construction. Vollmer also harnesses on-screen text to incorporate his (then) 3-year-old son’s well-expressed need for emotional presence from his biological “fathers”--a strategy that also gives voice to the filmmaker’s own buried, yet still present, need for his own dad. The work also acts as a love letter to his son and father.

Trailer

Credits

Director/Cinematographer/Editor: Niklas Sven Vollmer
Total Running Time: 40 min.

About The Filmmaker

NIKLAS SVEN VOLLMER is an interdisciplinary artist and mediamaker who teaches film and video production. He received a master’s degree in visual art from the University of California, San Diego; he has been nominated for a Rockefeller Multimedia/Film/Video Fellowship; and his most recent documentary, Environmental Champions, screened at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Additional experimental and documentary work has screened in the US, Canada, Europe, South America and Asia; and at American Film Institute (AFI), the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, California Museum of Photography and the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

Past distinctions include Best Sports Documentary and the Original Vision Award at the International Documentary Challenge, which premiered at Hot Docs in Toronto; an Experimental Faculty Juror Award from the University Film and Video Association; Best Short from United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival; Best Experimental at the San Diego Film & Video Makers Showcase; Finalist at the USA Film Festival; and 2nd Place Experimental at AFI's Vision of US Competition.

Vollmer has served as a board member of the University Film & Video Association. Before academia, he was an editor in public television.

Awards

Indie Grits Film Festival: Audience Award
Southern Fried Film Festival: Best Documentary