|
FILM
NATIONAL FEELING, IDENTITY AND HOME AS UNIQUE SELLING
POINTS (USPs)
Com&Com / Johannes
M. Hedinger
August 30th - September 19th
UNITED COLOURS OF GERMANY. AN ADVERT FOR
GERMANY.
Com&Com are experts at artistically stylising publicly-accepted
identity traps (like national values, national anthems and masculine
mythologies). The group works directly on the surface of the media,
polishing it as much as it can bear. New adverts, film trailers
and music clips are created. A whole community even became a media
format in one of their recent projects. Com&Com invented an
urban legend called "Mocmoc" for the small town of Romanshorm
and built a fitting monument for it. "We were invited to
take part in the competition just under two years ago and soon
recognised what was missing in the town. It wasn't so much art
that the town was lacking but rather an identity and a history
of its own." The Mocmoc then arrived - a cross between a
unicorn and a fish, in a Pokemon style suitable for children.
For the people who ordered a figure that the town could identify
with, it is seen as a fake. Since the erection of the monument
in Romanshorn, there has been bitter fighting about the value
of staging a legend.
In Berlin, Com&Com are going to produce an advertisement for
Germany. It will be made from the point of view of both German
and international students and will incorporate their different
attitudes towards their own national feeling. Over a period of
three weeks, five small groups will each develop, film, soundtrack
and edit an advertising clip or image films. The starting point
for this process will be local research, analysis and theoretical
discussions inspired by work demonstrations and presentations
by various guests. The result will be a DVD sampler, which will
be shown to the public at the end of the course.
Harun
Farocki and Hartmut
Bitomsky
September 3rd / September 4th
The Folklore of Poverty. A Two-Day Film
Analysis in the Cutting Room
Today, the ghetto is a cultural model that affects the whole
world. Pop culture is not the only realm in which African-Americans
from US ghettos are seen as heroes and fashion heroes. Tattoos
and piercings originated in prisons and have reached social acceptance;
the trend in sports clothing comes from pimp culture. People from
the ghetto always seem constantly innovative and trendy - the
ideal economic subject. It is as if they have internalised the
demands of hypercapitalism.
Two films will be analysed in detail to reflect critically on
this poverty folklore.
Course participants should have basic knowledge
of camera work and/or editing, direction or scriptwriting.
|
