Project UnLonely Films Season 7
The Lonely Orbit
Frederic Siegel & Benjamin Morard
Leaving for his dream job, a satellite technician keeps solitude at bay by constantly texting with his old friends. After neglecting his duties, a satellite leaves its orbit which causes the world’s network to collapse.
Consider This
Watch this video to explore the film’s meaning and major themes a bit more. Talking with others about a shared arts experience can enrich our perspectives. Share your thoughts in the comment section, below!
Meet the Filmmaker
What is their why?
Frederic Siegel is a Swiss animation director, visual artist, and member of the Zurich-based creative collective “Team Tumult”. In addition to expressing his own artistic views in personal short films, illustrations, and music, he’s also teaching animation basics and producing commissioned work and music videos. He graduated in 2015 from the Lucerne School of Art & Design with the film Ruben Leaves, which won several awards, including the Swiss Film Award for the best graduation film.
Benjamin Morard is a Zurich-based director, animator, and story artist. After graduating from the Lucerne School of Art & Design, he co-founded the creative collective “Team Tumult” where he creates commissioned animations and directs short films. His biggest passion, however, is storyboarding for entertaining visual projects.
“The idea for ‘The Lonely Orbit’ developed in my head a few years after I graduated from Lucerne School of Art & Design. I suddenly realized how hard it is to keep friendships alive over a distance. After being together almost every day during our studies, most of our communication now shifted into the digital realm. And somehow this made me feel like a satellite; being constantly connected in a virtual sense but actually separated over a huge distance. I’m floating in an orbit around my friends, who are holding me close with their gravitational pull.”
Join The Conversation
How have you found ways to put down your phone and pay attention to the world around you? What changes has that made in your professional and personal life?
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The personal disconnect is real. I find that attending events gives me a sense of companionship. Just going out and people watching works for the times when everyone is busy or unavailable. There is a YouTuber I follow. She posts her activities and the people she meets along the way. I feel that I know her and enjoy her adventures. So, I think that having a balance between real life experiences and the Internet make a good combination.
The responsibility of keeping satellites up and running, technology functioning requires human support, vigilance and attention. The amount of concentration required must be intense. I don’t think that I really thought about this before. Human connection, communication and sharing are necessary, but may not be skills that are promoted by the people who have to give their full attention to jobs that require complete attention and great understanding of how the technology works and what to do when problems arise. The main character needed a good night’s rest, and there was not a back up for him to keep things functioning smoothly.
Being mindful of the need for connection, belonging and being seen might be a challenge for anyone who has a job that requires these high pressure, critical tasks.