–Who is Arild Remmereit?

Growing up in Norway, my life has from I was very little been about the Arts; studying piano from age six; having a singing career as a boy soprano; playing the trumpet; performing in children Theatres; being allowed to buy myself an electric guitar at around 12 years old; playing keyboards in rock and jazz bands; studying music, singing, piano, composition…basically everything, also sports; performing in musicals and opera; assisting Leonard Bernstein in Vienna at the very end of his life, where everything he did became a film. I assisted both Lennie and the film Director, Humpfrey Burton on several concert films; participated, acted as an extra, observed during the making of Adrian Flicker’s film, “Halbe Welt” in Vienna, where I lived for 24 years. 

From then on I was fully occupied following a career as a music conductor of orchestras and Opera companies around the world.

Twelve years ago I became father for the first and only time. This changed my life entirely, to the better, of course:) Travelling, which had happened together with my wife, was now on my own. I lost the spirit of pursuing the conductor jet setting life stile, and engaged in my sincere love for film. Over the last decade I made several Documentary films. Over the last six years I have completed my first feature film, COMMONHEART. From a childish mind.

-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

Being passionate about several Art forms, I always had a special love for film. Only during the last decade have I found time to commit myself, engaging more profoundly in the film making process.

-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?

Artistic expression in its deepest and most ideal shape can through the Art form Cinema be immensely powerful.

My artistic goal is always the same, as a musician, composer, conductor or a filmmaker; to create the most profound possible piece of Art that can bring the audience a meaningful experience, ideally to improve their world, our world, the world…

COMMONHEART. From a Childish Mind is a very personal film. Becoming a father is an important aspect of it. Having enjoyed my childhood in and around wild nature it became important for me that our son should be allowed to get a nature bound upbringing too. Then I observed, having returned- much for this purpose- to where I grew up on the Western Norwegian countryside after 36 years away, that children were not using our incredible nature as a playground anymore. It was only my son and I out there. People have in many ways lost their natural bound to nature. 

And here we are at the very essence of the film. There used to be a connection which is so fundamental on a deeper philosophical basis in understanding -or at least feeling- our place as a part of nature, and we seem to be moving away from it…There was a connection which isn’t there anymore. 

The child’s voice at the very beginning of the film says:”There was a time when Mother Earth hummed children to sleep.” and ” There came a time when the people didn’t hear the song anymore”… We have moved away from listening to our planet and what is fundamentally natural. 

The wild nature just outside our door is a perfect set for filmmaking.

-What would you change in the world?

We urgently need to change our habit of destroying the source of life, to start living with nature instead of against it. My film introduces as an example the hope of “animal rights”. This is something existing only on a philosophical level, if at all. When we think about rights for animals, it is only on a religious level, or seen from a perspective of human needs. Never “animal needs”.

-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?

The technical development would lead me to fantasies about images being reproduced in more dimensions. The world as we know it has three dimensions of space—length, width and depth—and one dimension of time, but it seems to be more dimensions out there to discover. String Theory counts so far 10 dimensions in our universe. Anyhow, the need for profound artistic experiences will always- and more and more so- be important.