Georg Csarmann

While not the most exemplary short film in its cinematic qualities, Inventor Portrait: Ralph Baer is one of the most inspiring short documentaries I’ve ever seen. It is a great example of the increasingly predominant breed of short films on the web, incredibly short profiles by photographers acting as directors. The improvement of DSLR cameras created a new generation of wanna-be-filmmakers with easy to afford equipment, so it only makes sense that traditional photographers take to making short films about the subjects they point their lens at for still images – adding their trained point of view to moving images.

Such is the case with David Friedman’s Inventor Portrait web series, in which he captures several inventors of different scale regarding the impact of their inventions. For me the most fascinating protagonist of this series is Ralph Baer, usually known as the inventor of video games. At 90 years old, he still follows his passion of inventing and developing games, looking for a challenge.

The simplicity and the film’s touching and inspiring protagonist’s story, paired with the short running time, is another reason why I wanted to single out this special episode: Like a song you listen to many times, I tend to watch Inventor Portrait: Ralph Baer every now and then to motivate myself in finding a fullfilling life-goal worth pursuing.