As of: March 2, 2024, 8:00 a.m
By: Armin Forster
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While filming with Joko Winterscheidt in San Diego (left), controlling the drone on a snowmobile in Siberia (middle) or having a refreshment while filming in South Africa: Filmmaker Max Neumeier has traveled a lot in the world and experienced a lot.
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Filmmaker Max Neumeier is nominated for the Grimme Prize with a prominent climate documentary.
The Moosburg native had to endure a dilemma.
Moosburg
– BMW, Lufthansa, Porsche, the Japanese tourism authority, Red Bull: many in the advertising film industry would probably be licking their fingers for these customers.
At Max Neumeier, these sizes and a few others are included in the references.
As an editor and sound designer, he has been working in this league for years.
He is often behind the camera himself.
His film assignments have taken the 33-year-old, who comes from Moosburg and now lives in Hamburg and Munich, halfway around the world and into many extreme situations.
And they have won him several awards.
Now the Grimme Prize could also be added for a current documentary series on Amazon Prime.
We talked to Max Neumeier about the price, wild experiences and contradictions in his work.
From a teenager who shoots videos of friends skating to a multi-award-winning filmmaker: Would you have ever dreamed of this career, Mr. Neumeier?
Of course not.
I started when people didn't just film something - no one always had a camera with them like they do today.
You had to get one first and needed a reason to do so.
That's why there are so many people who got into filmmaking through snowboarding and skating.
I was the worst skater in our group, so I had to make myself useful in other ways (
laughs
).
When did you know that this would become your career?
I was a mediocre student, but I had the blind belief that school wasn't important to me and that I would find something I liked.
I was always computer-savvy, which is why I studied media informatics.
And through editing and filming on the side and doing some internships during the semester breaks, it turned into a career.
Since then you have worked on film projects in Ethiopia, Japan, Iceland, Russia and Hong Kong.
Do you still have an overview of how many countries you have been to?
I actually have an app to track it.
But since I haven't traveled that much in Europe and have never been to South America, there aren't as many as you might think: 40 in total.
Max Neumeier filming in Iceland.
© private
That's quite a lot.
Is there a country that is still on the wish list?
I really want to go to Taiwan.
In Hong Kong I saw how the culture suffered under Chinese influence.
Before something like that happens in Taiwan, I would like to see it happen.
Otherwise, I now try to avoid air travel as much as possible.
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You were in Russia several times for “In Russia”, a highly acclaimed travel film that you produced with a team without a commission, and experienced the country and its people there.
Meanwhile, the nation is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine.
How do you look back on Russia?
We were there four times, always for two weeks.
We wanted to do it in one trip, but the country is so huge, that's impossible.
Once we had a domestic flight that lasted nine hours.
That's only possible in Russia (
laughs
).
We met a lot of nice people.
Back then, I also tried to find out from some people what their relationship to Ukraine was like.
At that time Crimea was already occupied.
A Russian told me: “It is true that there is no reason or worth starting a war.
Because if we have enough of one thing, it’s land.” But that was also a difficult topic that many people didn’t want to talk about.
Most of the people we met were used to working with film productions, spoke English and had already been to other countries.
That's rare there: Many people don't have a passport and have never been anywhere else.
It's not that easy for them to get abroad, outside of the military.
“In Russia” came out in 2020.
What were you thinking about the 2022 invasion of Ukraine?
We thought: Shit, what about it now, have we done propaganda?
Of course we portrayed a lot of beautiful things in the film.
But we also criticized it a bit if you take a closer look.
For example with the homage to the kissing police officers.
Since homosexuality is forbidden in Russia, we only hinted at it in the scene.
We didn't want anything to happen to our actors.
The thing is: a war doesn't necessarily represent what a country wants, but what the government wants.
There is a much greater discrepancy in Russia than elsewhere.
And if you're fishing in Kamchatka, a nine-hour flight away, you don't care what they decide in Moscow.
So my attitude towards Russia hasn't changed, but towards the government it has.
But it wasn't good before either.
You and your companions produced a podcast about the experiences, the “Wodcast”.
It sounds like you're not just colleagues, but friends.
How much do personal relationships influence your work?
I'm friends with Vincent and Tim, yes.
The podcast was definitely funny.
You can't listen to it anymore because someone probably forgot to pay the Spotify fees (
laughs
).
In our industry it is more normal for colleagues to also have personal relationships.
This has advantages and disadvantages.
Unfortunately, when all your friends work in the same industry, most of the talk in private is about work.
But it makes a lot of things easier when you work together: there is a lot of trust and you don't have to communicate so much.
When I ask Vincent how he imagines the cut, he often simply says “Do it cool!” (
laughs
).
Especially on shoots like “In Russia,” where there is no client behind it, a good relationship helps – because you sometimes have to sleep in the same bed.
They have already filmed rooftoppers unsecured on skyscrapers, trudged through the Siberian icy cold and hoped not to be kidnapped in 47 degrees Celsius in the Ethiopian salt desert.
Do you love the thrill, or is it just the need for spectacular shots?
Secretly it's the thrill: I actually enjoy being in these places more than having the pictures afterwards.
I just like new impressions.
The thing with the rooftoppers happened like this: I had just slipped into this standard commercial film bubble and I was a bit bored.
Then I saw on Instagram that one of those notorious rooftoppers was from Starnberg (
laughs
).
I wrote to him and he said he would be starting again soon and would I like to come along.
We met briefly in Munich and then we went to Hong Kong.
After landing we went straight up to various skyscrapers.
Neumeier portrayed the rooftopper Andrej Ciesielski (seen in the picture) on skyscrapers - and ended up in a prison cell in Shanghai for it.
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Rooftoppers generally operate illegally.
Have you ever been caught?
More often.
Once we were in Shanghai and we accidentally climbed up a government building.
Like “accidentally”?
As an outsider, you always think that these rooftoppers have crazy plans about which buildings they choose and how they get in there.
But they're just crazy: They walk around, look to see if any doors open, and then say: Aha, let's go up there!
So when we got into this building, a lot of people suddenly came along.
Shortly afterwards we were sitting in a barred police van and then in a cell.
We had to wait forever, couldn't speak a word of Mandarin - and the police couldn't speak any English.
That was difficult (
laughs
).
After a few hours I thought to myself: I would really rather be in prison in Germany, at least then I know what is happening to me.
What happened next?
We were then questioned and asked to delete our material.
But we didn't do that (
laughs
).
Then we had to replace the lock, which we had to pick to get on the roof.
And then we were allowed to leave.
Your documentary series “The World's Most Dangerous Show” with Joko Winterscheidt received not only praise, but also criticism: your team flew around the world for a show that was about climate change;
The documentary is being shown by the major CO2 emitter Amazon and Joko used to be an advertising figure for McDonalds.
How do you deal with this dilemma?
It wasn't that we didn't care.
But it was a unique opportunity to reach such a large audience with this topic.
It's also not a documentary for people who know everything about climate change.
That's why Joko is the right presenter: not a scientist, but someone who reaches people without pointing fingers.
And we address the dilemma right at the beginning and deal with it openly.
I think most of the criticism came from people who didn't even see the documentary.
One criticism was that it was greenwashing for Amazon - which it is.
We still hoped that the positives would outweigh the negatives in the end, even if it started with a big handicap.
Of course it brings in a lot of money for the company, but you can still get people to think more about the topic or change their minds.
That's why it was so important to us to make it entertaining: to appeal to people who otherwise wouldn't watch a climate documentary.
The criticism is definitely justified.
I also boycott Amazon myself and don't have Amazon Prime.
So I can't watch my own documentary (laughs).
What was the other feedback?
With short films you get feedback relatively quickly.
That wasn't the case with the documentary, you can't watch it so quickly.
When she was finished, you didn't hear anything at all.
But then I was sent a video in which Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future says that they have received a lot more requests for membership since the documentary and that people have been inspired by it.
That was cool that it made a difference.
That you can change something, even if you get involved with the devil a little.
You spent a lot of time with Joko while filming.
Who did you know him as?
I hadn't seen that much of him before, so I didn't have high expectations.
But of course, it's different when you do a project with someone who is in the spotlight.
He was funny, maybe a little edgy, but surprisingly grounded.
We quickly had a normal relationship and I think he felt comfortable too.
The first shoots were crazy: We spent four weeks in Africa in very remote places in extremely limited accommodation - and shortly afterwards five weeks in California.
He didn't have anyone from his crew with him and he only met us all there.
He showed us a lot of trust.
When Amazon told him, “Hey, we want to do a project with you, you can choose what you want to do,” he could have done something in the TV studio again and would have gotten the same money.
But I do believe that the issue is close to his heart and he wants to change something.
Max Neumeier (from right; here in Los Angeles) produced the climate documentary series “The World's Most Dangerous Show” with Joko Winterscheidt and director Vincent Urban.
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What is your own insight from the documentary?
The biggest problem is that many people think that it is more important to preserve the economy than our planet.
It is absurd that we believe that we are better off when we have a lot of money than when the earth is doing well.
There are many solutions, but they almost always fail due to politics and old structures, such as the influence of the oil industry.
That was the most depressing factor.
What fulfills you about your work?
I get a lot of insights into other lives and cultures.
It's valuable to learn a lot from other people.
I actually want to move away from advertising a bit and go more into the documentary direction, because there's more going on and you get an honest impression.
It’s not just about: “How can I market this so that we make more money?”
The 33-year-old spends a large part of his working time in the office editing and sound design.
He has already received several awards for his works.
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Among other things, you received the German Advertising Film Prize for the best editing.
Now your “World's Most Dangerous Show” has been nominated for the Grimme Prize – one of the most important awards for TV productions in German-speaking countries.
How do you assess your chances?
Difficult to judge.
I know the international film and advertising world, but I don't have much idea what German television likes.
Our entertaining format certainly helped us get nominated because they know it is relevant.
But will you really receive a Grimme Prize for this?
Of course it would be cool and an honor if people thought it was worth it.
And above all, it would be an award for editorial performance.
I definitely hope that Pumuckl wins (
laughs
).
It's in a different category, so it's not a competition for us.