Ken A. Meyer started working at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Ore. in 2002, two years after being identified with systemic scleroderma, a life threatening autoimmune dysfunction that thickens and hardens the pores and skin and inside organs. 10 years in the past, he requested the company to assist him make a movie about his expertise and the way he’s discovered consolation within the works of Paul Klee, a Swiss-German painter who had the identical illness.

The result’s Angel Applicant, a 74-minute documentary that made its world premiere at South by Southwest on Monday and was awarded the competition’s Documentary Characteristic Jury Award. It’s written, directed and edited by Meyer, who’s presently on medical go away, with Jason Roark, one other former W+Ok worker, serving as director of pictures and a producer.

“Dan (Wieden) and David (Kennedy) didn’t begin an promoting company—they based a spot that might champion the artistic initiatives of our folks —whether or not on behalf of a model or just for the world to see,” W+Ok artistic chief and Angel Applicant government producer Susan Hoffman tells Adweek.

A grasp of the fashionable artwork motion, Klee fled Germany in 1933 when he was branded a “degenerate artist” by the Nazi Get together. He started affected by a mysterious ailment whereas in Switzerland that originally stopped his work, however then he turned much more prolific, portray deeply private items that chronicled his experiences with titles corresponding to “Concern of the Mirror,” “Immediately Inflexible” and “Storm within the Physique.” Photos of the work are interspersed all through the movie as Meyer describes how systemic scleroderma has modified his personal life and the best way he connects to Klee’s story.

“I’m eternally grateful to Wieden+Kennedy for enjoying such a pivotal position within the creation of this movie,” Meyer tells Adweek. “W+Ok is such a particular and beneficiant place that really invests in its folks and their concepts to assist change the world by way of creativity.”