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- Fynn Stoldt
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- Luca Paul Modersohn
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- Casper von Bรผlow
The six-minute film #nycย consists of small vignettes that are windows into six lives, fragmented scenes โ all set in New York City.
We meet the characters in places of transition and loneliness: a mall, the hallway of an apartment building, a rooftop parking lot, an elevator, an empty gun range, a late-night afterparty in a particularly modern and unfurnished apartment.
For an instant, we are allowed to intimately take part in the lives of six people. In their voice-overs, we hear expressions of fear, regret, loneliness, love, and anger. Into the vast and invisible cellular network, they shoot texts to no one in particular. The other end of the line remains unknown to the viewer, transforming the viewer into the actual recipient of these messages. The people in the film end a relationship, talk about a new crush, or confess their despair. All the small things that might just have happened to you too โ at some point or another.
The dialogue was appropriated from the 2020 original photo book #nyc by photographer Jeff Mermelstein. The book consists of hundreds of real text messages Mermelstein secretly captured on the phones of anonymous New Yorkers in public. โAt Some Point Or Another (WT)โ blurs the line between documentary and fiction by creating fictitious characters and scenarios around documented โ real โ dialogue. The viewer is invited to form their own stories from these fragments โ wondering who these people are, what happened to them before, and how their stories continue. In doing so, they may even find echoes of themselves in the characters and situations presented.
The locations were central to the projectโs development. We were drawn to spaces of transition, so-called non-places. Obsessed with their cold, lost, and banal atmosphere, which has become an ever-present part of modern life, we turned them into the supporting characters of this film, exploring the modern Americana through its architecture. These spaces all seem to lack something, resembling the emotional state of our characters.
The film was shot and conceptualized at a rapid pace over only a few days in New York in 2023. Often scouting locations and casting on the same day as shooting, this guerrilla type of filmmaking helped us to achieve the dirty and documentary-like aesthetic of the film. Our varied backgrounds in art, film, fashion, photography, styling, and acting helped us to manage the chaos.
After letting the material sit for a while, we resumed work on it in 2025 and see the fact that the work still inspires and moves us as a testament to its quality.