Over the past year, Stefan Matis, founder of Plia Film Productions, and Chris Germana, owner of Motor Werke, have worked together to create a documentary titled, The Curators.
The short documentary highlights five vintage car enthusiasts showing how the vehicles they love embody memories, nostalgia, and eras gone by. The Curators is about “the idea of taking something that is on its way out and resurrecting it. It is really cool and really gratifying for us as a team, a shop, a business and watching what [the film] does for the owners of the cars,” said Germana.
“At Motor Werke vehicles are more than just A to B cars. People are passionate about their vehicles because they represent something more. They represent history, they represent memories, they represent innovation and fun. Those are the feelings we wanted to imbue the film with,” said Matis.
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Together, Stefan and the car enthusiasts explore questions around restoration, self-driving cars and the analog experience. Filming was both fun and challenging for filmmaker Stefan Matis,”to film the cars we had to be patient. Some of the cars were at Motor Werke being restored, so filming them was tricky.”
Regardless of the challenges faced, it was rewarding for everyone when the film was completed in May. Soon after the official release, The Curators was showcased at Motor Werke at their Customer Appreciation event. With such a fantastic response from the individuals featured in the film to the general audience, Stefan and Chris decided that they wanted to share this empowering story with others through film festivals such as The International Motor Film Awards (IMFA).
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The IMFA (previously known as London Motor Film Festival) is a prestigious festival that recognizes and showcases filmmakers from Netflix, Top Gear, students and independent productions.
“I think both myself and Stefan were really surprised and happy about the nomination at the International Motor Film Awards to have that kind of exposure and recognition on that level,” said Chris.
“This is a great affirmation of the quality of work we do,” said Matis.
Winners of each category will be announced Sept. 6.
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