An eyesore or a sight for sore eyes? The Underworld and the Overworld is an exploration of the abandoned Yates Building on the corner of Albert Street and Wolfe Street in Auckland City. Once the home of a seed business, and credited as being the city’s first steel-reinforced structure, the building is now covered, inside and out, with graffiti. There is a certain beauty in its abandonment, and the film moves from its mysterious, grotto-like basement to the fourth floor, which has been taken over by a colony of pigeons. The final pan from the fourth floor window is ironic: on the opposite side of the street is Quay West, a five star hotel. From time to time a guest must stand on the balcony of his or her luxury suite and puzzle at the decrepit edifice just across the road.
The Underworld and the Overworld (2011)
Other works by Richard von Sturmer
Richard von Sturmer
Tanka Films (2007)
The first of twenty-six Tanka Films—a tanka is an unrhymed Japanese verse form of five lines.
Richard von Sturmer
The Stone Angel Dreams of Headstones (2011)
A brief, poetic film using words found on headstones in cemeteries in Auckland.
Richard von Sturmer
Eye/Planet/Curtain (2012)
The first in a series of brief films which explore correspondences between inner and outer worlds.
Richard von Sturmer / Derek Ward and Charlotte Wrightson
The Search for Otto (1986)
A surreal urban travelogue following a solitary figure through a series of city locations.