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415 Pages·2004·2.73 MB·English

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For more than thirty years Harun Farocki has been active
as a filmmaker, documentarist, film-essayist and installa-
tion artist. What he makes us see are images from life,
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and even more so: the life of images, as they surround us
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in the newspapers, the cinema, in history books, user CCUULLTTUURREE R CCUULLTTUURREE
manuals, on posters and in advertising. U
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His vast oeuvre of over seventy titles includes feature

films (Zwischen den Kriegen/Between the Wars, Etwas IN TRANSITION F IN TRANSITION
A
wird sichtbar/In Your Eyes: Vietnam), internationally- R
acclaimed essay films (e.g. Images of the World and O
C
Inscription of War, Videograms of a Revolu-
K
tion), critical media-pieces, experimental I

work, children’s features for television,

film-historical film-essays (e.g. on Peter T
H
Lorre, Workers leaving the Factory), ‘lear-
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ning-films’ in the tradition of Brecht and
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installation pieces (e.g. Still Life, exhibited A
at the Documenta X, Kassel and I Thought S

I was Seeing Convicts). E
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In this monograph – the first critical
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publication on Farocki in English – leading A
scholars from the United States, France E
S
and Germany assess his work from differ- S
ing perspectives, bringing to bear a range E
R
of theoretical and political concerns as well

as reflecting on his exemplary biography [E
D
as a film director, artist and media theorist.
.
]
The analytical essays are complemented by inter-
Harun
views, a selection of writings by Farocki himself and an
extensive filmography.
Farocki
“With a penetrating and critical intelligence Farocki probes ambiguities as well as
deceptions, revealing both actions taken and the way actions are pre-determined
by social practices. If you are looking for a model for a radical documentary practice,
pass by the television smart talk … and engage with the powerful and
demanding work of Harun Farocki.”
Working on the
– Tom Gunning, University of Chicago –
ISBN90-5356-635-X Sight-Lines
EDITED BY
THOMAS ELSAESSER
9 789053 56635X
AAmmsstteerrddaamm UUnniivveerrssiittyy PPrreessss
Amsterdam University Press
WWW.AUP.NL
Harun Farocki

Harun Farocki
Working on the Sightlines
Edited by Thomas Elsaesser
Amsterdam University Press
Front cover illustration:Schnittstelle, © Harun Farocki
Back cover illustration:Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges,
© Harun Farocki
Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam
Lay-out:japes, Amsterdam
isbn90 5356 636 8(hardcover)
isbn90 5356 635x(paperback)
nur674
© Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam,2004
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above,nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoa
retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans(electronic,me-
chanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise)withoutthewrittenpermis-
sion of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Contents
Introduction
Harun Farocki: Filmmaker, Artist, Media Theorist 11
Thomas Elsaesser
Image In(ter)ventions
Painting Pavements 43
Volker Siebel
Images and Thoughts, People and Things, Materials and Methods 55
Jörg Becker
Incisive Divides and Revolving Images: On the Installation
schnittstelle 61
Christa Blümlinger
Filming as Writing, Writing as Filming, Staking
One's Life
Passage along the Shadow-Line: Feeling One’s Way Towards the
Filmkritik-Style 69
Olaf Möller
The Green of the Grass: Harun Farocki in Filmkritik 77
edited by Rainer Knepperges
Staking One's Life: Images of Holger Meins 83
Harun Farocki
Between Wars, Between Images
Working at the Margins: Film as a Form of Intelligence 95
Thomas Elsaesser
Dog from the Freeway 109
Harun Farocki
6 Harun Farocki
Political Filmmaking after Brecht: Farocki, for Example 133
Thomas Elsaesser
Documenting the Life of Ideas? – Farocki and the
'Essay Film'
The Road Not Taken: Films by Harun Farocki 157
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Slowly Forming a Thought While Working on Images 163
Christa Blümlinger
Making the World Superfluous: An Interview with Harun Farocki 177
Thomas Elsaesser
Images of the World and the Inscription of War
Reality Would Have to Begin 193
Harun Farocki
Light Weapons 203
Tom Keenan
The Political Im/perceptible: images of the world... 211
Nora Alter
Film: Media: Work: Archive
Workers Leaving the Factory 237
Harun Farocki
On Media and Democratic Politics: videograms of a
revolution 245
Benjamin Young
Towards an Archive for Visual Concepts 261
Wolfgang Ernst and Harun Farocki
Contents 7
From the Surveillance Society to the Control
Society
Controlling Observation 289
Harun Farocki
Nine Minutes in the Yard: A Conversation with Harun Farocki 297
Rembert Hüser
Harun Farocki: Critical Strategies 315
Christa Blümlinger
Acknowledgement 323
Farocki: A Filmography 325
Notes on Contributors 363
Index of Names 367
Index of Film Titles / Subjects 375

Introduction