Keys Island Runners Nr#1 from STUDIO KIPPENBERGER on Vimeo.

 The name of the game is 'anything goes' when you're on the open water. Any logic or reason deployed is quickly dismantled by one simple fact — nothing except for sheer power makes sense out here. It's Machiavellian. Ruthless. They do what they need to do to get ahead, because nothing's in their way.

These are the Keys Island Runners, "the rawest crew in South Florida," a cutthroat boat gang whose members won't even think twice about putting anyone who so much as calls their boats slow back in their place. They're brute geniuses whose bloodlines run thick. Spiritual descendants of the prohibiton-era rum runners and those that succeeded them, the Island Runners build their own boats and they build them fast — not for the thrill of it, but out of necessity. It's a survival tactic.

Protective of their ranks, the Keys Island Runners have operated on an insular, self-preserving basis. Christopher Kippenberger is the first to be given access to their inner workings, embedding himself amongst the Keys' most notorious organization for an all-in deep-dive. This collaboration unfolds over two months to shape an immersive investigation of pervasive tropic malaise, infamous figures, the tools of the trade, and a society that spares no one.

Copy by Stuart Dillinger

Keys Island Runners Nr#2 from STUDIO KIPPENBERGER on Vimeo.