T-Mobile’s Manifesto Blends Digital and In-Person Connection

When we think of the technology on our phones, it brings up a mixed bag of digital feelings; how the world went from so big to being conquered and contained within a device we carry round in our pockets. We can now call and connect with loved ones on the other side of the world, we can ‘post’ pictures and videos, which are uploaded to online communities in less than a minute. 

Introducing Caraz, who’s recent film, Manifesto, for T-Mobile explores the wonders and difficulties of connectivity in the digital era, produced by Austrian powerhouse, PPMNEXT. 

Caraz is an international director based in Montreal, renowned for her innovative visual storytelling and exceptional casting skills. She has recently garnered two Gold YDA awards and received acclaim at Young Guns 21, an international contest based in New York, which celebrates the best creative talents based on their portfolios.

Manifesto for T-Mobile is a prime example of her ability to convey the narrative of connection, amongst exquisite visuals. A flash of memories play out before us: a portrait of a family birthday, a ‘phone army’, and someone sprinting through a remote woodland, glancing down to the buzz of his phone; he is reachable in an instant. 

The striking opening scene conveys the absurdity of being constantly connected, yet our desire for connection. We see a woman calmly standing in a lake at dawn, conveying the bizarre paradox of being alone, yet within a constant link to the world. With most of her body submerged, her hands and mobile underwater, we hear the muffled “chimes” and hum of her fingers tapping the screen, reacting with the surface of her phone, forming a message. The light from the screen shines from beneath the water’s surface -it’s a magnetic image- as we hear the words “We are more connected than ever before”. Caraz acknowledges that “we all need a certain level of connection” and as the film goes on, we understand how “digital connection becomes meaningful when, and if, it serves to deepen our irl connection”.

Caraz wanted to see Manifesto’s conversion from script into moving image as an “audiovisual, anthemic poem”, which is key to understanding her work. Her style is distinctly sensorial, highly artistic, often exploring complex narratives or fascinating and rebellious characters. 

Across her reel, she loves to move between creative angles, all wrapped up in a contemporary look and feel. For Manifesto, she opts to play with angles to create a different emotional perspective in her characters, who then come alive in their performance. We observe two girls in a cafe, from behind a fish tank. As we swim past the goldfish, we see how one girl is animated in her telling of a story, meanwhile her friend nods absent mindedly, we notice she is more interested by the incoming notification on her phone, we hear the voice over dial in with “We nod more - and listen less”.

Caraz then takes us through a “crescendo of real happy moments”, moments of true human connection and joy; this includes a couple’s wedding, confetti flickering around the wife’s magenta dress (A playful nod to T-Mobile’s Austrian company name, Magenta), the memory of the day is documented and played back to us on a tablet, a new moment where one character, phone in hand, realises all his friends have turned up to the party he invited them to, the girl from the cafe looks up from her phone to her friend and laughs at her joke, they smile at each other and feel a connection, a queer teenager breaking into a celebration of vogueing after scoring the goal of a lifetime, the palpable pause before an embrace between two friends. Caraz successfully links the theme of connectivity across multiple locations and cast, within a brilliant narrative for T-Mobile.

Something that always strikes me about Caraz’s work as a whole is she doesn’t seek for the safety of ‘timeless’ work, she wants it to feel like we are in the now, in the contemporary moment, in this time. For example, T-Mobile, revolves around the contemporary experience of being online, of being on our phones, connectivity within modernity. Her short film, ‘Do Caterpillars Remember Being Butterflies’ is all about living in the now and questioning whether we ever remembered the past. Looking at her spot for GORE-TEX, ‘Our Work is Never Done’; it’s all about this journey through time, but what this leads us to, is creating products for the now and also, for the future - the final line being “Going further, together”. 

In final reflections, Caraz has delivered a brilliantly sensorial story of interconnectedness and modern life in the digital era for T-Mobile. She has a promising future of creative work ahead of her, we are very excited to see what she makes next!