Harun Farocki | 1990 | Germany | 83’ | EN subtitles

German filmmaker Harun Farocki began making films in the late 1960s, consistently addressing two main themes: the practices of labor and the production of images. In sharp contrast to the strong authorial voice of the essay film, Farocki uses direct cinema, a kind of filmmaking in which the maker’s point of view is rarely revealed. Many of his direct-cinema works unobtrusively observe media productions, training sessions, and product demonstrations. In this film, Farocki assembles a genre picture of the then contemporary FRG with shots of scenes where life is rehearsed, ability/durability is tested. Wherever one looks, people appear as actors playing themselves; they take on roles. A play in the theater of life made up of training courses, fitness tests for things and people. Everywhere the incessant effort to be prepared for the emergency of "reality" can be felt.

In the month of April and May, Cavia in partnership with the Goethe Institute will screen three of Harun Farocki’s films as part of our ‘40 chairs, 40 films, 40 years’, Filmhuis Cavia’s 40th-anniversary program held throughout 2023 and 2024, rewiring and re-reeling images from our past, projecting new ones towards our future.