Learning Farocki

IFFR 2020

Five decades of Harun Farocki's film and video material transformed into an audiovisual vocabulary, teaching key Farockian concepts from A to Z.

Deep Focus

Regained

Harun Farocki: Lexicon

Point of departure is an unfinished script for a never-realised play, written by Bertolt Brecht during his exile in Stockholm 1939-40.

Image Missing

This desktop investigation asks: how can one begin to learn about Farocki? A naive search for his name online is already revealing.

Harun Farocki: The Counter-Image

A journey through the life and work of Jan Švankmajer, last remaining hero of surrealism, who occupies a unique place in the history of cinema.

Over a period of three years, the directors followed the life of Jan Švankmajer, shedding light on his creative principles, as well as his collaboration with old friend and producer Jaromír Kallista. The film is also haunted by the memory of Eva Švankmajerová, his wife and creative partner, muse and inseparable other half.

Athanor – The Alchemical Furnace

Using found web fragments and images of young Tsahal soldiers enjoying trance music, a Palestinian teenager searches for her identity.

The White Elephant

Zwei Wegeis a description of an oil painting. Farocki uses the camera in effect to dissect a religious allegory.

<strong>Zwei Wege</strong> is a description of an oil painting. Farocki uses the camera in effect to dissect a religious allegory.

Zwei Wege

James Ballard's near-fatal car accident gives rise to extreme desires. Cult film by Cronenberg in which car fetishists go to extremes to satisfy their passion.

Following an almost fatal car accident, James Ballard becomes obsessed by wild, dangerous sex. He soon meets a bunch of like-minded people: car fetishists who re-enact famous fatal crashes, like James Dean's. Controversial, award-winning cult film in which Cronenberg uncompromisingly brings technology crashing into the human psyche.

Crash

Harun Farocki appears in 24 of his own films. His time on screen totals 2 hours and 21 minutes, enough to form a movie in itself.

What can be learned from watching only the moments when an artist appears in his own work? Harun Farocki appears in 24 of his own films; his time on screen totals 2 hours and 21 minutes: enough to form a movie in itself. The footage reveals a remarkable, evolving relationship between a man and his own images.