Empire Me 6

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 2

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 3

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 8

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 7

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 9

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 5

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 1

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 4

© Navigator Film

Empire Me 10

© Navigator Film

Director
Paul Poet
Country
  • AT
  • DE
  • LU
Year
2011
Length
100
Shooting Format
  • 35mm
  • HD-Cam
Aspect Ratio
  • 1:1,78 (16:9)
Sound
  • Stereo
  • Dolby 5.1

EMPIRE ME – New Worlds are Happening!

On the verge of globalization hundreds of Do-It-Yourself-States build up their own little world. Micronations, Eco-Villages and secessionists tread alternative ways of living together. A road movie on land, at sea and in the head.


Don’t we sometimes fancy the idea, to break out from our daily routine, in order to start a new life, beyond all conventions and constraints? The idea of Utopia, of a better life in the earthly paradise, is a dream mankind has imagined in various versions. For example to reign as a king on your own island once in your life-. But: the rigid principles of a globalized world hardly allow alternatives and visions.
A phenomenon finally puts an end to this: the establishing of counter worlds. In search of an ideal lifestyle, hundreds of Do-It-Yourself-states build their own little tentity. Micronations, Eco-Villages and secessionists tread with real territories and communities an alternative way of living together. Over 500 were invented since the late 90ies, some barely bigger than a sheep farm, a sea platform or a laptop.

Numberless free spirits thus battle against the new world order. They annex whole regions and districts. They create their own laws, languages, stamps and banknotes. The populations range from 1 to 500,000 coming from different stratas and ideologies. With EMPIRE ME the author Paul Poet, himself veteran of alternative networks and social experiments, encounters six of these utopian societies. The feature-length film is staged as a road movie going straight to the heart of foreign social structures.
Paul Poet and his team not only explore six visions of the counter worlds and their makers. They in particular look for the common human need, which unites them: the yearning for meaning, recognition and community in an increasingly bewildering world order.
And the spectators realize: In the 21 Century droping out is joining in. The existence of a parallel world today means a life as a potentional “I-corporation”, claiming for high-class socio-political management, global networking, economic sustainability and decentralized alliances. And above all: the constant outsmart of established power systems and authorities, whom one stands in a permanent war with. What at first glance seems colorful, charming and bizarre, turns out to be a congenial on a closer look, an eccentric challenge of ordinary people who feel suppressed by the neo-liberal world. With their pragmatic political Gotham projects they open to the audience and encourage them not to feel like powerless cosg of the post-democracy. True to the motto: You don’t like the world you live in? Go and create your own!