The Globe Collector

Collectors and collections are something that have interested me since a young age. My grandmother has several collections: dolls, cows and photographs of Princess Dianna. When I was a kid I attempted several collections of my own, admiring my grandma’s devotion and adoration of inanimate (and somewhat pointless) objects. I attempted stamps, flags, stickers and pins, but generally my collection never grew far beyond three or four items before I got bored.  It made me wonder, what is it that drives a person’s obsession toward a certain object and the need to obtain it?In 2011, during a Google pursuit to learn more about collectors, I stumbled upon Andrew Pullen’s name. Andrew collects light globes. He has over 10,000 in his collection. I wanted to explore my interest in collecting and learn more about the psychology behind those who collect. I knew that all this – combined with the naturally beautiful imagery of globes – would make a great subject for a documentary.   As we began exchanging emails it was revealed that Andrew has Asperger’s Syndrome, which, at least in his case, gave me the answer as to what might drive a person to collect. Through many lengthy, complexly factual emails, I realised that Andrew’s obsession greatly surpassed my Grandma’s album full of Princess Di clippings cut from the pages of Woman’s Day. But it wasn’t until we went into production that I discovered that behind Andrew’s eccentricities, there was an intense passion for preservation and history. As we filmed Andrew, I began to share his infectious love of globes. His collection is truly amazing – some of his globes are one of a kind and the oldest in Australia. I set out to make a film about what drives obsession. Instead, I found a story about a man dealing with the complexities of Asperger’s Syndrome, the supreme intelligence that can come with it, and just how devastatingly useless that intelligence can seem due to the social limitations that come with suffering from this “disorder”.