Sixth Continent

Sixth Continent

Feature films & TV 2016

Sinopsis

Documentary about the Haus der Solidarität ("House of Solidarity") on the outskirts of Brixen in South Tyrol — a self-organised refuge for roughly 50 stranded people from more than 20 nations. Residents are the homeless, the unemployed, refugees, former convicts and people fleeing addiction or abuse, who pay no rent but instead cook, clean, shop and tend the garden as part of a self-managed community supported only by donations and a handful of social workers and volunteers. One resident calls it his "sixth continent". Over the course of several months, the film captures the utopian moment of this fragile communal experiment — until the missionary order that owns the house wants the building back, and the social microcosm starts to come apart, leaving the future of the residents and the project open.

Rol

VFX vendor · Service

Alcance del trabajo

Development of graphic concept (filmed social house as floorplan) · compositing · integration of all residents in graphics · rotoscoping · color correction · set reconstruction

Socios de producción

elemag Pictures

Cliente

elemag Pictures

Director

Andreas Pichler

Guionistas

Andreas Pichler (concept and screenplay)

Productor

Producers: Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer, Valerio B. Moser, Borislav Chouchkov, Andreas Pichler. Associate producer: Martin Rattini. Co-producers: Miramonte Film (Bozen), Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF Wien), Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI Bozen / RAI Südtirol).

Equipo Clave

Director of photography: Susanne Schüle, Martin Rattini. Second camera unit: Daniel Mahlknecht, Jonathan Rinn. Editing: Cornelia "Nela" Märki, Florian Miosge. Sound: Stefano Bernardi, Dominik Rogan. Music: Jan Tilman Schade.

Financiación

Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH (MDM, Leipzig); Bundesbeauftragter für Kultur und Medien — Filmförderung (BKM, Berlin); Eurimages (Strasbourg); Business Location Südtirol — Alto Adige (Bozen); Amt für Film und Medien Südtirol; Kulturelle Filmförderung Sachsen (Dresden).

Distribución

Original distributor (Germany): Real Fiction Filmverleih (Cologne). International festival sales and TV partners include ORF and RAI Südtirol.

Temas

solidarity and self-organised community · homelessness and migration · refugee experience · addiction and trauma · South Tyrol social geography · utopia under threat (planned relocation) · dignity in precarity

Notas de Producción

Pixable Studios' contribution centred on the visual conceit that frames the film: the Haus der Solidarität visualised as a graphic floor plan with all of its residents integrated into it, plus the rotoscoping, compositing, colour correction and set reconstruction work that supports the observational footage. The film was shot under the working title "Portus Mundi" before being released internationally as "The Sixth Continent" / "Der sechste Kontinent".