Highriders
(Fliegende Bauten)
Documentary // 2023 // Germany
Director
Johann Schilling
Production
Johann Schilling
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Conchita, Gärtner, Fritzi and Larry:
Four men, one ride.
Title outro
Inserts
Poster
The Outro of Highriders
Highriders has set out to document the hidden world of showmen, who often work in dangerous conditions for little money, and to uncover the secret of their dignity.
Film poster of HighridersAccompanied by their boss and his wife, they travel from carnival to carnival. From fair to fair. They build and dismantle. Turn round after round. Canceling out what seems impossible elsewhere: they make people fly and look down at earth from above. Launching visitors into the night sky and back down to solid ground.
None of the visitors suspect what is happening behind the scenes. Highriders tells the tale of people who need each other and maybe even love each other, but are unable to talk about it.
Conscious observation (even in violent situations) is not only an integral part, but also a basic requirement for a documentary film. What makes Highriders stand out from the sea of documentaries, however, is its ability to discover poetry and beauty even in the bitter world of the showmen; the images shown often convey a devout, almost sacred mood.
Moodboard for Highriders
Approach
The title animation, as seen at the beginning of the film
In order to emphasise the human being as an individual, each protagonist and - in the case of the film title - even the director, Johann Schilling, has immortalised himself with his own handwriting.
The figure of Frank is the principal protagonist of the poster design. The slanted title conveys a sense of unease and instability. Frank is gazing upwards towards the rollercoaster with an almost devout intensity. One is compelled to draw parallels with Moloch from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, as well as depictions of biblical Moses engaged in discourse with the Lord on Mount Sinai.Evolution of the film poster