OUR STORY
Merel noticed she spends an unhealthy amount of time on her phone. Only recently she realized how serious of an addiction this actually is and how it changes her behavior. She misses the moments that actually matter, being in the present. People use their phones for almost everything. For school, for work, to keep in contact with friends and to travel around. Is our current generation able to travel without a smartphone, based on how much we use it nowadays?That's something Merel would like to figure out: what will be the outcome of traveling without a smartphone for three weeks? Will she be more at ease with simply being bored? Will she feel more connected with herself? What kind of adventures will she come across during the journey?
WHY SWEDEN
The plan to go to Sweden started when we were thinking about driving to someplace remote. We both agreed that it would be too easy if we would travel through Central Europe, thus why we thought of Nothern Europe. We then came to know about Patrik's internet ER room (go to ''Cast & Crew'' for more information). We then agreed that Sweden would make a great fit for our documentary. Especially because there are still some Sámi (indigenous people from Lapland) that live isolated that we'd like to meet along the way. We plan to do this by driving past Jokkmokk, which is the cultural hub of Sámi.
WHY WE NEED YOU
We are extremely eager to tell this story, but we do want to do it the right way. There are a lot of costs involved in this project. We don't want any technical faults to distract from the story we are trying to tell. This means that we not only need to rent gear for during our production (let's avoid the common phrase 'let's fix it in post'), but as you can imagine, we'll need to pay for petrol and accommodation too.On top of that, we would like to make this documentary as visually pleasing as possible. This means that we'll need Sound Design and Colorgrading as a final touch.
Any kind of donation would be extremely helpful for us. If you do have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact either of us.
Thank you!
CAST & CREW
Merel Saarloos
Merel is a filmmaker with fantastic organizational skills. She's a talented editor and a skilled producer. Originally Dutch, but has experience in productions in Australia. She is eager to apply her prior knowledge to this project.
Luke Murphy
From Dublin, Ireland, Luke is a writer and director trying to tell new stories. With experience in film in both Ireland and the U.S., Luke is quickly building an impressive portfolio with very diverse pieces of work.
Patrik Wincent
Patrik is a licensed therapist and founder of the internet ER based in Stockholm. In 2014 he opened Sweden's first internet ER room and hopes to treat this strange, yet very true and realistic, addiction. Before setting up this room, he spent a decade helping video-game addicts break free from their controllers. Having stood in their shoes as well, we believe that Patrik will be a valuable addition to our documentary.
Josh Jonas
Currently Josh is a Director at The Village Institute for Psychotherapy in New York City. He's also practices as a psychotherapist treating different patients. However, his main focus is to make mental health and psychotherapy a pillar in the American healthcare. We are convinced that Josh will be a great addition to our documentary about technology addiction.
more to come..
Dear supporters,
We’d like to thank you all for believing in our documentary! Unfortunately we didn’t reach 100%, but because we got above 80% we still have a chance to make this documentary come to life. This gives you the option to either withdraw your donation or leave it with us (which means we can continue making this documentary).
Thanks again!