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Against War: Farocki’s Activist Legacy from Vietnam to Today

Still from Faroqhi dreht, directed by Irena Vrkljan, 1966.

Against War: Farocki’s Activist Legacy from Vietnam to Today

Admission starts at $5

Date
November 7, 2024, 7pm

172 Classon Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
USA

Join us at e-flux Screening Room on Thursday, November 7 at 7 pm for Against War: Farocki’s Activist Legacy from Vietnam to Today, a curated selection of films that engage critically with the themes of war, militarization, and the power of moving images in shaping public discourse. This screening spotlights works by artists and filmmakers who extend and reinterpret Harun Farocki’s activist approach, using the film medium to question the politics of representation and the ethics of visualizing violence. The films address conflicts from the Vietnam War to contemporary crises, exploring the legacy of Farocki’s unique methods in critiquing war and its machine through the language of cinema.

This screening includes moving-image works by Jill Godmilow, Harun Farocki, Irena Vrkljan, Miranda Pennell, Forensic Architecture, Thomson & Craighead, and Total Refusal. Together, these works challenge the viewer to consider how images of war are constructed, disseminated, and understood in a media-saturated world, while pushing forward Farocki’s commitment to exposing the hidden origins and unseen consequences of conflicts.

This screening is the first part of Harun Farocki: 10 Years in Memoriam, a three-part series consisting of two screenings and one symposium, curated by Zachary B. Feldman and co-presented by Goethe-Institut New York and e-flux Screening Room. The event commemorates a decade since Farocki’s passing by showing and discussing his works together with those of contemporary artists and filmmakers who continue to reflect on Farocki’s legacy of anti-war activism and critical engagement with media. Click here to learn more about the second screening and the symposium that will take place at the Goethe-Institut New York on November 9.

Films

Jill Godmilow, What Farocki Taught (1998, 30 minutes)
This film is a shot-for-shot, color remake of Harun Farocki’s Inextinguishable Fire (1969). Godmilow uses this recreation to reflect on Farocki’s critique of the Vietnam War and the ethics of representing violence. It questions documentary conventions and engages with Farocki’s method of exposing the political implications of media imagery.

Harun Farocki, The Campaign Volunteer [Der Wahlhelfer] (1967, 8 minutes)
This early documentary by Harun Farocki examines the political engagement of a young Free Democratic Party (FDP) supporter, Harald Loch, during a German election campaign. It reflects Farocki’s interest in how personal political consciousness can develop rapidly in response to broader societal movements.

Irena Vrkljan, Faroqhi Shoots [Faroqhi dreht] (1966, 15 minutes)
This rare film offers a behind-the-scenes view of Harun Farocki filming The Campaign Volunteer. It captures Farocki’s early filmmaking process, providing insight into his creative style during this formative period.

Miranda Pennell, Man Number 4 (2024, 10 minutes)
The work examines the interplay of personal memory and historical conflict, presenting a fresh perspective on how war narratives are constructed and remembered.

Forensic Architecture, ‘No Traces of Life’: Israel’s Ecocide in Gaza 2023-2024 (2024, 7 minutes)
Forensic Architecture investigates the environmental devastation caused by military operations in Gaza. Using advanced visual and architectural analysis, the film documents the ecological impact of war, revealing the extent of the environmental destruction inflicted during the ongoing conflict.

Thomson & Craighead, A Short Film About War (2010, 10 minutes)
A virtual journey through global war zones, this film uses found digital imagery and text to explore how war is represented online. It reflects on the ways in which digital platforms mediate public understandings of modern warfare.

Harun Farocki, Serious Games I: Watson is Down [Ernste Spiele I: Watson ist hin] (2010, 8 minutes)
Part of Farocki’s Serious Games series, this film critiques military training simulations. It explores how the line between virtual and real-world violence is blurred, raising questions about the psychological impact of digital war games on soldiers.

Total Refusal, How to Disappear (2020, 21 minutes)
This film critiques the portrayal of war in video games, exploring non-violent spaces within these digital environments. It asks how players can resist the inherent violence of such games by opting out of conflict altogether.

For more information, contact program [at] e-flux.com.

Accessibility
– Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
– For elevator access, please RSVP to program [at] e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.
– e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the Screening Room and this bathroom.

Subject

Experimental Film, Art Activism, Media Critique, Ethics

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Zachary B. Feldman is a curator, writer, and scholar of media art and is currently the Curator of Visual Arts and Programs at Goethe-Institut New York. He holds a joint-Ph.D. in Comparative Media and German Studies from Vanderbilt University and was a Helena Rubenstein Fellow in Curatorial Studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program from 2022-23. He has guest curated exhibitions and screenings at e-flux Screening Room (New York), Artists Space (New York), the National Gallery of Art (D.C.), and more.

Harun Farocki (1944–2014) was born in German-annexed Czechoslovakia. From 1966 to 1968, he attended the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB). In addition to teaching posts in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Manila, Munich, and Stuttgart, he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Farocki made close to 120 short and feature-length films for television and cinema, mostly documentaries and essay films that analyzed social realities, with a precise use of moving images and focus on the political and sociological context involved in the creation of imagery. He also worked in collaboration with other filmmakers as a scriptwriter, actor, and producer. In 1976, he staged Heiner Müller’s plays The Battle and Tractor together with Hanns Zischler in Basel, Switzerland. Between 1974 to 1984, he was editor and contributing author of the magazine Filmkritik (München). His work has been shown in many exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide. From 2000 to 2004 Farocki taught in Berlin at his former school DFFB and at the University of the Arts. In 2004 Farocki first became a visiting professor and then in 2006 a full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. As a teacher Harun Farocki had a significant cinematic and intellectual influence on the development of the acclaimed Berlin School film movement.

As a producer/director, Jill Godmilow has earned a substantial reputation during more than four decades of film and video making. Considered one of the primary theoreticians/practitioners in the American non-fiction genre, she has been interviewed in American Film, Afterimage, In These Times, The Independent, History and Theory, Text Performance Quarterly and featured in international festivals since 1973.

Irena Vrkljan began studying at the newly founded German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB) in 1966 as one of only three women in the first class. She previously worked for Yugoslavian television. After graduating from the DFFB, she worked as a writer and translator. She died in 2021 at the age of 90.

Miranda Pennell is a London-based artist-filmmaker whose work often uses images from British state archives to reflect on the relationship between past, present, and future. Her films emphasize the role of the imagination in the interpretation of historical documents, most recently drawing on genre-fiction as a way of engaging with troubled histories. Her award-winning films have been screened internationally in cinemas, galleries, and on broadcast TV. Her recent work has screened at major international film festivals that include London, Rotterdam, Berlin, New York, and Vienna.

Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. FA’s mandate is to develop, employ, and disseminate new techniques, methods, and concepts for investigating state and corporate violence. FA’s team includes architects, software developers, filmmakers, investigative journalists, scientists, and lawyers.

Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead both studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee and have been working together since 1993. Using sound, video, installations and online space, their recent work explores how globalization and global communication networks are re-shaping the way we perceive the world around us. In particular they have been looking at how the digital world is ever more closely connected to the physical world becoming a geographical layer in our collective sensorium. As Thomson & Craighead, they have exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Their work features in private and public collections, including the Imperial War Museum, Museum of London, Arts Council Collection, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Total Refusal is a pseudo-marxist media guerilla focused on the artistic intervention and appropriation of mainstream video games. They upcycle video games in order to reveal the political apparatus beyond the glossy and hyperreal textures of this media.

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Against War: Farocki’s Activist Legacy from Vietnam to Today

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