"Let’s not think about the “ugly” world we live in but the beauty of what it can be. And within a bigger group, a community, much bigger stones can be moved. The more people that are pulling on the other side of the rope, the higher the chances of winning the tug of war against negative causes." Hey Moritz and welcome to A Good Community! Out of curiosity, where in the world can we find you right now? I'm currently in Venice, Los Angeles. Did you grow up there? No, I actually moved here to continue my journey towards becoming a director. What drew me to the place is solely my choice of career within audiovisual media. Apart from Los Angeles being THE place to be for anything regarding films (with Hollywood situated here for example), I found great support here and hope to make of it, what I dream of making of it. That sounds like a beautiful plan. Where does your passion for directing and audiovisual media come from? Well, I was all about starting my studies in Medicine after I finished school but I didn’t really seem to find anything that made me 100% happy. Not until my parents made me realise, that there was one thing that was always present and always had my attention more than anything; filmmaking and photography. In general everything about audiovisual media. Little did I now that as soon as I started studying it, I started giving 200% and completely exaggerated the amount of projects I did at a time. That’s when I found out that something I don’t mind spending 200% of my time on, is something I am absolutely passionate about. We know you like to use that passion to communicate through your art and dream of directing projects that reach a great amount of people, which issues do you believe need to be highlighted through this art form? The best thing about directing or about the creation of media in general is the possibility to not only steer your project in one single direction. You can shape every single project in a manner specific to who you want to reach, what you want to say and which topic you want to cover. This enables me to choose. I can either shoot a commercial for cat food if I feel it’s a life changing product or I can shoot a documentary about how refugees are treated at border crossings – the latter a much more important topic in my eyes (and hopefully everyone else's). It’s the individuality I love about it and the opportunity to communicate what I want and how I want it. Personally, I believe there is a never-ending list of issues that need to be addressed and highlighted. They reach from climate change, over poverty, corruption, criminality, misinformation all the way to the appreciation of heart warming projects and nature itself. At the moment, climate change & human trafficking is what hits me the most. I don’t spend a single day without knowingly trying to reduce my own impact on the environment. It just has to reach more people, somehow. That’s where the art of reaching the right people gives me hope to lift these issues further. As a person who values connections with people all around the world, what do you believe are some of the ways we can build a stronger global community to address the challenges we are facing? Most people think and say, “Even if I act differently it won’t make any real difference”. But you have to see the big picture. Every step an individual takes is seen, is recognised, is talked about. The same way other people may talk about your new shoes being ugly or different, they talk about decisions you make. Even if you’re negatively judged for switching to public transport for example, it’s being talked about and seen. And it being seen and talked about is a 100% better step towards a better future than nothing being done in the first place. Even if you’re judged for consuming less meat or using less single use plastic, I promise that after a while people around you will start doing the same. With or without even realising. And at the very least you’ve made an impact. We’re all in this together. Let’s not think about the “ugly” world we live in but the beauty of what it can be. And within a bigger group, a community, much bigger stones can be moved. The more people that are pulling on the other side of the rope, the higher the chances of winning the tug of war against negative causes. Have you seen any climate-related impacts on nature in California, where you live? Yes. The weather is being pushed into the extremes more and more. Here in LA a few months ago the fires went crazy burning down acres of land and having such a great number of people evacuated. It spread to places it has never spread to before. How does that make you feel? What sort of action does that make you want to take? I feel frustrated. There are so many people affected by climate change. So much impact from climate change all over the world and you can read about it across all media. Let alone the devastating number of animals that have died in Australia with the bush fires taking on dimensions we have never seen before. It’s not like there’s no-one telling the people that climate change is real, climate change is happening and that it’s happening at an ever increasing rate most scientist could not even predict. It’s just that either the people don’t believe what they are being told and what they are seeing or the information is never even reaching the right people in the right way. What I strive to achieve is a vast improvement on the latter point. I want to reach the right people and reach them fast. If we all hop on the boat and contribute in ways insignificantly small to us as individuals, we can stop it from sinking. As a company working towards ending mindless consumption, we often ask our guests what their personal view is on the behavioural pattern of today's consumers. What's your take? Today’s consumption is out of control. The problem is just that the act of consuming is made way to simple for too many people by the industries. And it’s not only that, but the prices to do so are getting cheaper and cheaper day by day to the point it’s sad watching what is happening. It’s cheaper to fly than to take the train for example or every company is giving away free returns etc. etc. although we all know what’s worse for the environment. I think the best way to work together and make a change is to keep doing what we’re already doing, which is to inform people about what and how and when until we really reach every single person and show every single person what really is happening to make them believe. What we’re completely missing out on is not the fact of showing how little things can make a difference but to enforce those little things, literally making everyone comply with rules and regulations in support of the environment. So the audience we have to reach is the industries that are now in complete control of what steps we take. Or we make the politicians enforce those changes on the industries. But these are way to big steps to be taken and no-one feels responsible to do so. The best thing we can do as a community is to keep raising awareness and give 110% working towards A Good World. The goal is to show people the priority of what change has to come and the comfort one can reach in their own mind, knowing the impact every little action has on not only the environment, but on the people around us. As a growing community we can multiply the speed of change more than any individual ever could do alone. Those are powerful words indeed! We want to thank you for being part of A Good Community (again). Any final thoughts on what you appreciate with being part of this particular community? Knowing there’s a community behind everything good one does encourages the amount of good done in total, exponentially! If you want to stay updated with Moritz' work and progress with reaching as many audiences as he can with his powerful message, you can follow his photography account on instagram.