The Bundesverband Mineralische Rohstoffe e. V. has produced a short film that jokingly tries to convey where and how we use and need stones in our everyday lives Advertorial Article Parallax Article
The Bundesverband Mineralische Rohstoffe e. V. has produced a short film that attempts to jokingly convey where and how we use and need stones in our everyday lives
How much stone do we need per day? This question formed the, well, foundation stone for a film that was screened for four weeks in summer 2019 at the Cineplex cinema in Baden-Baden and was produced by the Bundesverband Mineralische Rohstoffe e. V. (MIRO). In the eight-minute film, which was shown in Baden-Baden in a streamlined one-minute version in addition to the original, Cologne-based director Søren Eiko Mielke explains to his viewers that statistically, every citizen uses exactly 1 kilogram of stones per hour on average – usually without being aware of it.
“1 kilogram of stones per hour” is also the title of the film, which, admittedly, is not impressively creative. In fact, it even contradicts the visual and conceptual style chosen by the filmmakers. It could be described as decidedly shrewd, as there is a self-promoting director wearing “Splitt happens” and “Kies Richard” T-shirts as he guides us through the scenery, from the Elbphilharmonie concert hall with its 63,000 cubic meters of concrete to Cologne Cathedral and the children’s choir based there, which rewrites Martin Gotthard Schneider’s church classic “Danke für diesen guten Morgen” into “Danke für diese guten Steine” – which makes the film a little too missionary in its already rather preachy approach. Mielke talks to passers-by on the street and explains to a group of tourists in Berlin that you need stones even when you brush your teeth in the morning (because toothpaste actually contains traces of limestone!). And if the railroad junction for the Stuttgart 21 project is ever completed, 270,000 cubic meters of ballast will be used here in the end.
Mineral raw materials accompany our everyday lives and our work, according to the thesis that runs through a film for which the term “reportage” is more appropriate. It takes 35,000 tons of ballast to build one kilometer of track, says the voiceover, while the camera captures the sleeping director in the ICE compartment. Despite a few awkward interludes, such as the construction workers playing music in their yellow helmets and orange high-visibility vests in the gravel pit, this short film is a charming idea to give people access to a topic that they are hardly aware of in their everyday lives, but which is so essential to their lifestyle.
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