After his secret photo and film shoots in Moria and other refugee camps in autumn 2020, the photographer and filmmaker Bastian Schertel, 27, from the Eglharting district of Kirchseeon, is now working for a start-up to combine technology and healthy food. Or as it is called in the scene: Food-Tec.
SZ: Mr. Schertel, where can we reach you right now?
Bastian Schertel: In my home office in Eglharting.
We would have expected you to be on board a lifeboat – you had that plan, didn’t you?
The plan still stands. However, due to the corona pandemic, I had to adjust my plans. I’ve now arrived at Organic Garden and I’m doing my best to make the world a little better here too.
And what exactly are you doing there, planting tomatoes?
(laughs) If it matters, that too. No, seriously: I’m responsible for all the digital content.
Did you get the job because you can show proof of a cooking apprenticeship?
It sure did help. I was lucky in my situation that a food tech start-up from Munich was looking for a trained chef who is also a content creator. So I can contribute something to the topics of media, marketing and also from a culinary point of view.
What exactly does your new employer do?
Organic Garden has one mission: to inspire people with great-tasting nutrition that is also healthy for people and the environment. To do this, we think of the food chain from start to finish and, among other things, build our own high-tech farms. We then sell the products created here in our market halls, the online shop, our own eateries, schools, canteens and care facilities.
What exactly is your job?
At the moment, for example, I am creating product stories from selected ingredients on which the recipes of Holger Stromberg, one of our founders, are based. To ensure that these remain traceable from start to finish, we follow everything down to the last detail – for example from the farmer’s farm on the island of Reichenau, where our ginger comes from, to the finished “Juicy Ginger” juices.
Pretty stark difference between having vegetables, mushrooms and algae in front of the lens and pointing the camera at injured and traumatized people in pathetic tent cities.
Yes and no. It also depends on the idea behind it. I want to make the world a little bit better. And nutrition is an incredibly big part of our lives. Those who have access to healthy food are automatically healthier and can lead a better lifestyle. That’s why for me the possibility of being able to feed myself without pesticides and factory farming is part of the basic security. Like the roof over your head.
Crowdfunding is currently planned.
Yes, because we kept getting inquiries about how to participate in our vision. And now it is possible.
What will the money finance?
We are currently building a production facility in Pastetten, which requires equipment, personnel and logistics.
When does the fundraiser start?
On March 22nd on the Econeers platform. My promotional film should show what is important to us: regionality and sustainability. And that we are not a boring banker start-up, but a young, refreshing, do-it-yourself team of future farmers with a good mission and vision.
But quite different from your film project about the misery of the refugees. Has the documentary been shown at festivals and in cinemas as planned?
Corona put a spoke in our wheel. The participating musicians from Athens had to give up their studio completely. That means: The idea is still there, but when the film will be finished is not yet certain.
So your career as a documentary filmmaker has also been put on hold for the time being?
They probably don’t exist like they used to. Corona has shown me that I need a second source of income where I am not dependent on external influences. That’s why, with a heavy heart, I gave up the idea of earning my money with films. Or maybe even win an Oscar one day (laughs). On my vacation, however, I want to go out again. Maybe even at sea or in the “jungle” to the refugees who live in the forest along the Balkan route. Because I care about the good cause. Nothing changed about that.