Dinner with Hopptornet (Ten Meter Tower)

Interview with Maximilien van Aertryck and Axel Danielson, directors of Hopptornet (Ten Meter Tower)

 How did you get the inspiration for Hopptornet and how did you make it possible technically?
Our challenge and desire when working on “Ten Meter Tower” has been to capture precise images of people in a vulnerable state, a situation strong enough that it could work without a classical story frame. Through an online advertisement, we found 67 people who had never been on a 10-meter diving tower before, and had never jumped from that high. We filmed it all with six cameras and several microphones. It was important for us not to conceal the fact that this was an arranged situation, and thus we chose to show the microphones within the frame.

 What were you saying to the participants before they climb the ladder?
That we were as interested in the people who decided to climb back down as the ones jumping!

 The jump is a real step to take, why did you want to work on the moment before?
Our objective in making this film was something of a psychology experiment: we sought to capture people facing a difficult situation, to make a portrait of humans in doubt. We’ve all seen actors playing doubt in fiction films, but we have few true images of the feeling in documentaries. Ultimately, about 70 percent of those who climbed did jump. We noticed that the presence of the camera as well as the social pressure (from those awaiting their turn beside the pool) pushed some of the participants to jump, which made their behavior even more interesting.

 Hopptornet also asks the question of trust, in yourself, in your relatives, in the diving board risk managers… Why did you choose this topic and do you think you will deal with it again in your upcoming films?

In our films, which we often call studies, we want to portray human behavior, rather than tell our own stories about it. We hope the result is a series of meaningful references, in the form of moving images. “Ten Meter Tower” may take place in Sweden, but we think it elucidates something essentially human, that transcends culture and origins. Overcoming our most cautious impulses with bravery unites all humankind. It’s something that has shaped us through the ages. We’ll definitely come back to this topic in our future projects.

 What were the films that have inspired you the most this past year?
Safari by Ulrich Seidl, The Stopover by Delphine and Muriel Coulin, Fire at Sea by Gianfranco Rosi.

Hopptornet is being shown in Lab Competition L5.