What a television critic has always wished to see and never got to see: the continual flow of images just occasionally being stopped, so as to examine them more closely, to discuss them, to analyze them, look at them again; to see through the images to the reality of which they tell.
Kamera und Wirklichkeit, Rumänien 1989 is the title of a three-hour documentary by Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica and is one of the most exciting productions to be screened in recent months. Farocki and Ujica assembled material from over 120 live broadcasts by Rumanian television from the days of revolution in December 1989 as well as a similar amount of amateur video and material shot by cinematographers from Rumanian state film studios, so as to produce a chronicle of events, subdivided into chapters and captioned.
The media theorists brought together to discuss the sequences in the studio (Friedrich Kittler, Bochum; Andrei Plesu, Bukarest; Manfred Schneider, Essen; Peter M. Spangenberg, Mannheim) do so in detail, thoroughly and on occasion with the concentrated vanity of the professionally far-sighted.
(Fritz Wolf)
Original title Kamera und Wirklichkeit Director, scriptwriter, commentary Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica On the podium Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica, Andrei Plesu, Friedrich Kittler, Manfred Schneider, Peter M. Spangenberg Production SWF, Baden-Baden, in collaboration with Harun Farocki Filmproduktion, Berlin, for arte, Straßburg Producer Harun Farocki TV-producer Ebbo Demant Format video-BetaSp, col.,1:1,37 Length 120 min. (SWF-version); 186 min. (arte-version) First broadcast 07.12.1992, SWF 3; 22.12.1992, arte
All Works of this Decade:
Words and GamesThe Chief Executive OfficerThe Advertisement InfoThe Expression of HandsStill LifeThe InterviewThe Ad GuyThe AppearanceThe Theater of the RetrainingKitchen HelpersWorkers Leaving the FactoryThe Leading RoleRetrainingA Day in the Life of a ConsumerShort Films by Peter WeissBefore your Eyes VietnamView of the City