SNAPSHOT
In 1977, Sam Klemke started obsessively documenting his entire life on film. Beginning decades before the modern obsession with selfies and status updates, we see Sam grow from an optimistic teen to a self-important 20 year old, into an obese, self-loathing 30-something and onwards into his philosophical 50s. The same year that Sam began his project, NASA launched the Voyager craft into deep space carrying the Golden Record, a portrait of humanity that would try to explain to extra terrestrials who we are. From director Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure), Sam Klemke’s Time Machine follows two unique self-portraits as they travel in parallel – one hurtling through the infinity of space and the other stuck in the suburbs of Earth – in a freewheeling look at time, memory, mortality and what it means to be human.
Humanity is as diverse as they come.
And yet for all the differences between us, there is a universality that connects every single last one of us regardless of nationality, age, gender, sexuality and a thousand and one other things.
That great unifying thread is the ever-present existential angst that life is quite working out the way we planned. Most of us simply push it away, whether out of necessity or choice, but some people choose to not just stare it straight int he eye but to document their querying with full robust vigour, and in the case of Sam Klemke, with a dedication that will astound you.
Every year since 1977 this remarkably normal man has filmed himself ruminating on life, the universe and everything, in the process being brutally honest about who he is, what he has and hasn’t done and whether that’s good enough.
We may not all admit to the sorts of excoriatingly honest feelings that Klemke admits to, but we can all identify with his musings on time and mortality and the inevitable passing of our hopes and dreams into either fulfillment or more likely, sad though it is to say, into dust.
However your life has played out, or is taking shape, this film is definitely worth a watch if only to be reminded once again that there is more that binds us together than separates us.
You can watch Sam Klemke’s Time Machine on Vimeo now.
Sam Klemke’s Time Machine, A Documentary About a Man Who Has Filmed His Life Yearly Since 1977