My friends in the United States of America are celebrating their Independence Day today. As a reminder that independence from oppression of any kind is a very fragile condition that needs to be fought for constantly, and in honor of Edward Snowden, I am putting “Every Step You Take” online for free as of today.

Enjoy.

And please share away!

A little background on “Every Step You Take” (2007):

When I was still studying film, I spent one semester in England and started my work on a documentary about the omnipresent video surveillance in the United Kingdom. I teamed up with fellow exchange students from Spain and Austria and we started doing a lot of research on the matter – after all, we were surprised that the British public did not at all see video surveillance as an invasion of their privacy. And that despite the fact that the United Kingdom is the most pried-on country in the world, with millions of cameras in public and private spaces.

No one had done a critical documentary on the subject before in the UK – which surprised me enormously. The question that loomed over my head: How can a people that is so fiercely against the introduction of something as simple as identity cards be totally okay with surveillance cameras following their every step in public?

We finished a 15-minute version by the end of the semester – it already contained some unbelievably eye-opening material, much of which is included in the final version. However, after returning to Austria, I couldn’t let the matter rest. I went back to the UK one year later, made this my diploma project, shot a whole range of new interviews and b-roll with a new team, and edited a 1-hour version of the film over the course of several months. At the same time I wrote my diploma thesis of almost 200 pages on “Video Surveillance in the United Kingdom” (in German) – so you could say I am an expert on that subject. Click here to read the entire thesis (in German) if you are interested.

This film took the majority of my time in 2006 and was finished in early 2007. However, I think it is more relevant today than it was ever before and I am still very, very proud of this film. Working on this has really sparked my interest in my favourite film genre, documentary filmmaking.

Over the past few years, “Every Step You Take” made its rounds on countless film festivals around the world (I went to Brazil, England, Germany and many other countries with it), it was nominated and awarded with a range of prizes and also bought broadcast by TV channels in Canada, Hong Kong, Austria and elsewhere. To find out more about all the festivals and to see a lot of interviews with me about the film and the subject matter, head over to the dedicated blog site I set up for “Every Step You Take” by clicking here.

When you watch this film, please keep in mind that it was still shot on MiniDV (on one of my all-time favourite cameras, the Pansonic DVX100A). So of course this is far from the look we have quickly gotten used to over the past few years – but it was the first MiniDV camera that was able to shoot in real 24/25p and we considered that alone very “filmic” at the time. Technologically, we have come a very long way since then, but in the end it’s still all about the content (that of course says the director in me, not the DP).

FULL CREDITS:

INTERVIEWEES
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

Professor Clive Norris
University of Sheffiield

Barry Hugill
Liberty Civil Rights Group

Andy Trotter
British Transport Police

Professor Clive Bloom
Middlesex University

Dr. Lars Mosesson
Solent University

Mark Smith
Southampton CCTV Manager

Dr. Hans Zeger
ARGE Daten

Robert Rotifer
Musician / Journalist

Paul Smith
Safe Speed Campaign

Mike Beeman
Student

James Morris
Shoreditch Digital Bridge

Noreen Leigh
Shopkeeper in Southampton

Robert Gifford
Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety

PERFORMERS
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

BIG BROTHER INTRO SEQUENCE 

Girl with teddy: Dorothea Koniszewski
Jade: Katharina Dietl