Traceroute is a 2016 Austrian-American documentary film directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The autobiographical documentary and road movie deals with the history, politics and impact of nerd culture. Grenzfurthner calls his film a "personal journey into the uncharted depths of nerd culture, a realm full of dangers, creatures and more or less precarious working conditions", an attempt to "chase the ghosts of nerddom's past, present and future." The film was co-produced by art group monochrom and Reisenbauer Film. It features music by Kasson Crooker, Hans Nieswandt, and many others.
Concept Artist and self-declared nerd Johannes Grenzfurthner is documenting his personal road trip from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States, to introduce the audience to places and people that shaped and inspired his art and politics. Traceroute is a reflection on Grenzfurthner's own roots of nerddom, an "On the road style romp across the United States as he visits icons of the counterculture, the outré, and the generally questionable." Grenzfurthner summarizes the concept in an interview for Boing Boing: "It is a film on biographies and obsessions and spaces of possibility – in other words something between loving embrace and merciless vivisection. Maintaining a critical meta-outlook was just as important to me as abandoning myself to unfathomable stammerings of adoration. And that all works for one simple reason: because I take a step forward, introducing myself and confessing my guilt like in Alcoholics Anonymous, only to then take off and visit the best whiskey distilleries. In my case these destinations are not whiskey makers, but people and places and symbols of a very special pop culture." On Film Threat he adds: "It was important for me to take nerddom apart, not only analyzing it, but also excavating its potential for greatness." The film incorporates art and illustrations by James Brothwell, Bonni Rambatan, Michael Marrak, Karin Frank, Ben Lawson, Michael Zeltner, Josh Ellingson and eSeL in a cinematic collage that draws inspiration from 1990s fanzine and punk aesthetics, BBS culture, ANSI art and fantastic art. UK Film Review's Hannah Sayer summarizes the artistic style of the film in her review: "There is a real sense that this is a collaborative exploration of creativity: of the old and the new, the past and the present, and the traditional and the digital. The use of photography and drawings interspersed between the interviews with various people associated with nerd culture shows an artistic approach to the material and these images act as reflective snapshots of moments in time, reinforcing the importance of looking back to the past as well as looking forward to the future of the digital age."
Cast
Traceroute features interviews with Matt Winston, Sandy Stone, Bruce Sterling, Jason Scott, Christina Agapakis, Trevor Paglen, Ryan Finnigan, Kit Stubbs, V. Vale, Sean Bonner, Allison Cameron, Josh Ellingson, Maggie Mayhem, Paolo Pedercini, Steve Tolin, Dan Wilcox, Jon Lebkowsky, Jan "Varka" Mulders (of Bad Dragon), Adam Flynn, Abie Hadjitarkhani, Kelly Poots, and some special guest appearances (e.g. National Park Service spokesperson Vickie Carson, hacker Nick Farr and cultural curator Scott Beale). Metronaut writes: "Traceroute offers deep insights into the world of nerddom. A woman who creates cheese from bacteria on sweaty feet. A man who wants to construct a giant network of independent Geiger counters. Or a sex worker who identifies as a nerd. The multitude of topics and people shows how being a nerd is not restricted to programming and computers."
Production
Writing Grenzfurthner performed a stand-up show called Schicksalsjahre eines Nerds at Vienna's Rabenhof Theater in 2014. Parts of this show form the basis of Traceroute. The basic script, although many scenes and interviews were improvised, was written by Johannes Grenzfurthner. The film's main language is English but features archival footage in German.
Filming Principal photography commenced on March 5, 2015, and ended March 27, 2015. The film utilized microfilmmaking and guerrilla filmmaking techniques in its production.
Sound design Daniel Hasibar and Christian Staudacher created the sound design and audioscape underlying Grenzfurthner's narration.
Music The film features music by Peter Barnett, Kasson Crooker, Damien Di Fede, Matthew Huffaker, Brady Leo, Vera Lynn, Kevin MacLeod, Hans Nieswandt, Roger Sandega and Eric Skiff, among others.
Distribution The film's world premiere took place at NYC Independent Film Festival on April 28, 2016. The European premiere took place at DOK.fest Munich (Internationales Dokumentarfilmfestival München) on May 13, 2016. The film has been screened at various film festivals and conventions, including Hackers on Planet Earth 2016, Gen Con 2016, the European Media Arts Festival 2016 in Osnabrück, Dutch Design Week 2016, NRW-Forum 2016, Print Screen Festival 2016 in Tel Aviv, FrackFest 2016, Norwich Radical Film Festival, the Chaos Communication Congress 2016 and Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival 2016. The film had a theatrical release in Austria in 2016. Traceroute was digitally released on March 21, 2017.
Reception
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