Barcelona’s Filmoteca pays tribute to scriptwriter, photographer and film director Harun Farocki
Two double sessions will complement the exhibition devoted to Farocki at the Tàpies Foundation
On Friday 2 and Saturday 3 September, Barcelona’s Filmoteca de Catalunya is set to pay tribute to Harun Farocki, a photographer, scriptwriter and film director who was born in the Czech Republic in 1944 and died in Berlin two years ago. The tribute will feature the screening of four films by this cult director, divided into two sessions. The first, on 2 September, will feature Peter Lorre - Das doppelte Gesicht (The Double Face of Peter Lorre), a moving feature length film on the life of this iconic actor in exile in California, followed by Jean Marie Straub und Danièle Huillet bei der Arbeit an einem Film nach Franz Kafkas Romanfragment (Marie Straub and Daniéle Huillet at Work on a film based on Franz Kaka's 'Amerika'), a self-portrait and a tribute to Jean-Marie Straub, who was a teacher and icon for Farocki. The second session, on 3 September, sees the screening of Der Geschmack des Lebens (The Taste of Life), in which Farocki captured images of daily life in Berlona while, at the same time, recalling the city of the 1920s as depicted by Walter Ruttmann; followe by Leben – BRD (How to Live in the RFA), a surprising dissection of modern life in the German Federal Republic.
For Harun Farocki – who moved continually between political cinema and video essays, with a critical attitude that had a lot in common with journalism – the image was never innocent, but rather was part of a culture that changed with history, and that is what makes it necessary to construct a way of looking at images. He was obsessed by things like security cameras and the representation of way of working that emerge from traditional models of production and the changes that occur in working processes.
This "mini-cycle" at the Filmoteca also serves to complement the exhibition on Farocki that can be seen at the Tàpies Foundation until 16 October titled Empatia.
Remembering Harun Farocki.
Where: Filmoteca de Catalunya.
When: 2 and 3 September.
Price: From €3.
Additional information is available at the Filmoteca website.