Harun Farocki (1944-2014), born in Neutitschein (today Nový Jičín, Czech Republic), was a German filmmaker, lecturer and author. During the 1960s, Farocki began making films that questioned the construction and meaning of images in everyday life. Across more than 120 films and installations, Farocki played a pioneering role in exposing the underlying social, political, and technological structures through which images are produced and circulated; therefore, his work remains highly relevant in today’s image-saturated societies.
This collection of films, spanning from the late 60s to the early 2000s, highlights the common thread that runs through Farocki’s entire filmography. How is reality constructed? How does our perception shape our worldview? How is this perception influenced by the constant flow of images? Each film, in its own way, raises these questions in relation to pressing societal issues. From napalm to shopping malls, Farocki consistently challenges assumptions that seem self-evident, deconstructing our perception of everyday life.
How to depict the cruelty of napalm without making the viewer look away? An analytical deconstruction of modern warfare, examining the compartmentalised roles scientists and engineers play in the production of destructive weapons, and exposing the nexus between industry, politics and violence.
Over four days in a Munich studio, a small crew and a model create the cover photograph for Playboy Magazine. A clinical portrait of how an apparently spontaneous fantasy is meticulously constructed.
Through a series of historically charged visuals, including aerial photographs of Auschwitz and archival images from colonial Algeria, this documentary interrogates how seeing, recording, and interpreting images shapes our understanding of the past and the present.
Bucharest, 1989. From the balcony of the People’s House, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu gives his final public speech, before being cut short by a protesting crowd. Executed four days later, his downfall marks the beginning of a new era. An essayistic documentary that examines how a revolution was mediated through images.
From the factory gates in the Lumière brothers’ first moving images to the industrial landscapes of the twentieth century: the factory and its workers have been a recurring subject throughout cinema history. Through a careful montage of images, this essay film reveals the intertwined histories of cinema and industrial capitalism.
With a montage of film extracts, this documentary explores how hands create meaning on screen, betraying emotions and bearing witness.
Shopping malls have become a familiar feature of contemporary life, an almost unavoidable element of the consumer experience. An analytical documentary that examines how these seemingly pleasurable environments are carefully engineered to encourage consumption, through strategic planning, marketing and surveillance.