Timo Novotny labels his new project an experimental music documentary film, in a remix of the celebrated film Megacities (1997), a visually refined essay on the hidden faces of several world "megacities" by leading Austrian documentarist Michael Glawogger. Novotny complements 30 % of material taken straight from the film (and re-edited) with 70 % as yet unseen footage in which he blends original shots unused by Glawogger with his own sequences (shot by Megacities cameraman Wolfgang Thaler) from Tokyo. Alongside the Japanese metropolis, Life in Loops takes us right into the atmosphere of Mexico City, New York, Moscow and Bombay.
Life in loops, a journey to see life with psychedelia
In 1998, Austrian Michael Glagower presented his well-known documentary Megacities, which shows a compendium of characters from the social margin in the harsh urban environment of the largest cities in the world.
Twelve years later, his compatriot Timo Novotni retakes the images from this documentary and makes Life in Loops, a kind of psychedelic musical journey through an interpretation of the frames of its mother film.
In Life in Loops we feel like aboard an invisible ship that runs through the streets of New York, Mumbai, Mexico City or Moscow in search of the pieces of characters in their struggle to survive.
The images are empowered by an audacious soundtrack performed by the renowned Austrian band Sofa Surfers, who makes a versatile repertoire of experimental sounds that navigate between alternative rock and electronic mixes.
The premise of having a sample of life slid in front of our eyes is just a starting point to live a sensory experience. At the cinematographic level, the documentary is an exemplary exercise of a creative process from archive material.
It is a metalinguistic dialogue between the frames of a film that are reinterpreted to make their form live another life.