DOC - Heart of Neon
Documentary Feature
Title: Heart of Neon
TRT: 01:50:39
Project Status: In Postproduction
Logline
Jeff Minter, an unconventional independent video game designer, has struggled for decades against the mainstream that values profit over idiosyncrasy. He perfected his art despite industry indifference because he is compelled to manifest a childhood vision of joy, a vision that draws like-minded people to his cause, and attracts unexpected aid when he needs it most.
Synopsis
Jeff Minter was one of the first to embrace video game design as his chosen form of expression. He is the last of the truly independent game developers that emerged in the 1980s. He discovered in high school that not only did he have an aptitude for speaking to machines, but that programming encompassed both a scientific side and a creative side that he found uniquely satisfying. He started out like other hobbyists, honing his skills by emulating his favorite video games by companies like Atari and Williams. Like-minded people in the world enjoyed what he made, and Jeff's name quickly became synonymous with high-octane arcade-style games that were challenging and of extremely high quality.
The thirty years that follow are a testimony to his persistence as an artist. The cottage industry of the 80s evolves into a corporate environment of jealousy guarded intellectual properties and ever-changing technologies, and the audience explodes with people hungry for ever more online 3-d environments in which to shoot each other. Regardless, Jeff has plowed a different furrow with extraordinary results, serving an audience of fiercely loyal fans bound together by their collective love of his work. Jeff is considered by some to be an industry institution, but he's been largely ignored by the mainstream. Why does he persist? Jeff has a vision that drives him, a childhood dream of creating a machine of lights that makes people dance. With a little help from his friends, he makes that happen...
Almost.
Additional Project Information
Artist Statement: I’m not trying to subvert the documentary form. I’m trying to fix it. Human stories aren't just facts and events but are also the inarticulate inner experience of a person that begs to be expressed. Through my experiments in the documentary film form, I invite the audience to experience these human stories intuitively as well as literally, by opening up the narrative film space to visual abstractions and subliminal associations.
I am compelled by stories about artists’ journeys. Art is a calling. What is lost when art is also your means of subsistence? The struggle with compromise is an internal experience. I strive to create a narrative space where the viewer can feel these emotions: experience loss when an artist makes a sacrifice, experience the joy when an artist elates an audience. An artist’s journey is one of becoming, and so my work is also a journey for the viewer, from naiveté to knowledge.
I believe that the medium of film is ideal for relating these kinds of stories. The medium provides a unique interface to engage the audience on an unconscious level, with the power of a vivid dream that can better illuminate the inscape of the artist. I love learning about artists and their worlds, and I want to impart that love to other people. By weaving carefully selected music and pictures and words, a documentary can transcend traditional storytelling and become an intricate tapestry of human experience.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/806008843
password: festival
Team
Writer/Director/Editor: Paul Docherty, Music by Tony Longworth
Seeking
Finishing Funds, Producing Partner, Distribution
Project Website
Contact
Paul Martin Docherty