Description
The art of disappearing and starting over. This portrait of a life reimagined is a meditation on identity, happiness and the balance between freedom and conformity. Read more on Aeon: https://aeon.co/videos/in-the-american-west-a-man-named-hat-sets-out-to-leave-no-trace
Director: Jesper Wachtmeister (https://www.solarisfilm.se/)
Cinematographer and colour grader: Kenneth Ishii (https://kennethishii.com/)
Producers: Jesper Wachtmeister, Jonas Kellagher
Editor: Philip Bergström
Composer: BJ Nilsen
Mixer: Jakob Oldenburg
Graphic designer: Sophie Månsson
What does it mean to live an authentic life? This is a question that a man who goes by the name of Hat has had plenty of time to contemplate, since he left his previous identity and a comfortable yet, to him, stifling life behind. After years of a nomadic and occasionally unhoused existence, the short documentary Reset: Hat finds him in a remote stretch of the American West, where he’s built a humble home and settled into a life ‘off the official grid’, severing the cord between his past and present. As it relates to Hat himself, the Swedish filmmaker Jesper Wachtmeister’s short perhaps raises more questions than it answers. Through his subject, however, Wachtmeister crafts a thoughtful meditation on identity, happiness and the balance between freedom and conformity.
Reset: Hat is part of Wachtmeister’s film project to document stories about ‘the art of disappearing and the consequences of starting over’, which includes the instalments Reset: Bennie and Reset: Lucy.
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