Das Kino und er Wind und der Photographie is also part of a series of films about film which Bitomsky is making for the third German television network (West 3, WDR). Last year during the festival Das Kino und der Tod was screened form the same series. This episode is also arranged as a film essay in progress, a visualised scenario of a film about film. Bitomsky reads sentences such as: ‘And now the camera turns to the monitor’, which the camera then proceeds to do. Bitomsky questions established opinions about film history; alongside the viewer, he tries to look at the film image itself again, without prejudice and conscientiously. He reads and reads again, he looks and looks again, arranges and rearranges as the viewer watches over his shoulder.Based on seven different themes, in this part Bitomsky describes the truth and untruth behind the documentary image. He describes a scene in a film by Robert Frank in which a blind man is interviewed who wants to film the wind. But, says Bitomsky, you can only photograph things that are moved by the wind. The blind man wont’ be able to see the photo of the wind that doesn’t allow itself to be photographed anyway. In Bitomsky’s story, this anecdote acquires the meaning of a metaphor for the realism and pretensions to truth of documentary film. Flaherty and Ivens are two other names included in this episode.
