My film As You See is an action-filled feature film. It reflects upon girls in porn magazines to whom names are ascribed and about the nameless dead in mass graves, upon machines that are so ugly that coverings have to be used to protect the workers' eyes, upon engines that are too beautiful to be hidden under the hoods of cars, upon labor techniques that either cling to the notion of the hand and the brain working together or want to do away with it.
My film As You See is an essay film. The contemporary opinion industry is like a huge mouth, or maybe a paper shredder. I compose a new text out of these scraps and thus stage a paper-chase. My film is made up of many details and creates a lot of image-image and word-image and word-word relationships among them. So there's a lot to chew on. I searched for and found a form in which once can make a little money go a long way.
(Harun Farocki)
Original title Wie man sieht Director, scriptwriter, commentary, interview Harun Farocki Assistant director Michael Pehlke Cinematographer Ingo Kratisch, Ronny Tanner Editor Rosa Mercedes Negative cut Elke Granke Sound Manfred Blank, Klaus Klingler Mixing Gerhard Jensen Researcher Michael Pehlke Narrator Corinna Belz Production Harun Farocki Filmproduktion, Berlin-West, with financial support from Hamburger Filmbüro Producer Harun Farocki, Ulrich Ströhle Format 16mm, b/w and Eastmancolor, 1:1,37 Length 72 min. First screening: 08.06.86, Berlin-West (Kinofest '86) Austrian premiere 03.04. 1987, Vienna (Stadtkino) First release 28.05. 1987, Cologne Distributor Basis First broadcast 9.03.1990, West 3
All Works of this Decade:
Image and Sales or: How to Depict a ShoeCine City ParisImages of the World and the Inscription of WarGeorg K. Glaser – Writer and SmithImages-WarDie Menschen stehen vorwärts in den StraßenFilmtip: Death of EmpedoclesIndoctrinationFilmbooksFilmtip: Kuhle WampeCatch Phrases – Catch Images. A Conversation with Vilém FlusserAs You SeeFilmtip: Tea in the HaremBetrayedThe Double Face of Peter Lorre'L'Argent' by BressonInterview: Heiner MüllerMarie Straub and Daniéle Huillet at Work on a film based on Franz Kaka's 'Amerika'An ImageShort Films by Peter WeissBefore your Eyes VietnamView of the City