Videogramme einer Revolution
Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica / DE, 1992 / 106 min.
Homage to influential German filmmaker Harun Farocki who died, aged 70, on 30 July 2014. In 1992 he made a cinematic video essay about the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. The film is accompanied by an excerpt from Peter Delpeut's documentary De tijdmachine (The Time Machine).
On 21 December 1989, Romanian TV broadcast Nicolae Ceaușescu's last speech. Five days later, the 'Genius of the Carpathians' and his wife Elena came to an ignominious end in front of an impromptu firing squad. The Romanians thereby freed themselves from a dictatorship that managed to stay in control thanks to the carefully directed disinformation disseminated by state television.Filmmakers Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica compiled a three-hour, philosophical film essay from over 125 hours of video recordings that illustrates the chronology of the revolution. An image essay on images, an electromagnetic report on a revolution put into motion by the non-stop broadcasts after the civilian takeover of state TV.According to the filmmakers, the Romanian revolution's success was 'entirely attributable to the video cameras' and this makes it a truly televised revolution.The screening is accompanied by an excerpt from Peter Delpeut's TV documentary De tijdmachine (1996), which discusses the influence of images on (the course of) history.A collaboration with Impakt Festival which dedicated a programme to the German director in October of this year.
Details
Director
Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica
Production year
1992
Country
DE
Original title
Videogramme einer Revolution
Length
106 min.
Subtitles
ENG
Format
16mm
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