Funkstörung

The Backstory

I had arrived early to the !K7 party at CMJ, and Princess Superstar was the warmup DJ. There weren't many people there, so I struck up a conversation with a guy at the bar. We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common and he was so excited to hear I'd made Tiga's marionette video.

He said I should direct a video for his band too. "Sure," I said, "what's your band's name?" When he answered "I'm Michael Fakesch from Funkstörung," I thought he was messing with me. You don't randomly meet a god of electronic music sitting in a half-empty bar in Alphabet City. Or maybe you do? Lucky me.

A few months later, when "The Return To The Acid Planet" was finished, Michael and Chris sent me a copy. Any track we wanted to make a video for was ours. The only catch? A $0 budget... literally. My partner Tatiana and I thought it would be a fun challenge, so we jumped right in.

We pulled a couple of cans of leftover Super 16mm film from our freezer and hired our buddies Kambui Olujimi as DP and Eric Papa as producer. Then we put an ad on Craigslist asking people to show up outside Tatiana's art gallery in Williamsburg and take part in the largest Nipple Twist ever.

The shoot was as ridiculous as it looks and we got some great local cameos too, including Jaleel Bunton of TV on the Radio, who just happened to be walking by while we were shooting.

The Backstory

I had arrived early to the !K7 party at CMJ, and Princess Superstar was the warmup DJ. There weren't many people there, so I struck up a conversation with a guy at the bar. We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common and he was so excited to hear I'd made Tiga's marionette video.

He said I should direct a video for his band too. "Sure," I said, "what's your band's name?" When he answered "I'm Michael Fakesch from Funkstörung," I thought he was messing with me. You don't randomly meet a god of electronic music sitting in a half-empty bar in Alphabet City. Or maybe you do? Lucky me.

A few months later, when "The Return To The Acid Planet" was finished, Michael and Chris sent me a copy. Any track we wanted to make a video for was ours. The only catch? A $0 budget... literally. My partner Tatiana and I thought it would be a fun challenge, so we jumped right in.

We pulled a couple of cans of leftover Super 16mm film from our freezer and hired our buddies Kambui Olujimi as DP and Eric Papa as producer. Then we put an ad on Craigslist asking people to show up outside Tatiana's art gallery in Williamsburg and take part in the largest Nipple Twist ever.

The shoot was as ridiculous as it looks and we got some great local cameos too, including Jaleel Bunton of TV on the Radio, who just happened to be walking by while we were shooting.

The Backstory

I had arrived early to the !K7 party at CMJ, and Princess Superstar was the warmup DJ. There weren't many people there, so I struck up a conversation with a guy at the bar. We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common and he was so excited to hear I'd made Tiga's marionette video.

He said I should direct a video for his band too. "Sure," I said, "what's your band's name?" When he answered "I'm Michael Fakesch from Funkstörung," I thought he was messing with me. You don't randomly meet a god of electronic music sitting in a half-empty bar in Alphabet City. Or maybe you do? Lucky me.

A few months later, when "The Return To The Acid Planet" was finished, Michael and Chris sent me a copy. Any track we wanted to make a video for was ours. The only catch? A $0 budget... literally. My partner Tatiana and I thought it would be a fun challenge, so we jumped right in.

We pulled a couple of cans of leftover Super 16mm film from our freezer and hired our buddies Kambui Olujimi as DP and Eric Papa as producer. Then we put an ad on Craigslist asking people to show up outside Tatiana's art gallery in Williamsburg and take part in the largest Nipple Twist ever.

The shoot was as ridiculous as it looks and we got some great local cameos too, including Jaleel Bunton of TV on the Radio, who just happened to be walking by while we were shooting.