16mm film transferred to video (black and white, sound)
Not on view
Like many of Farocki's films, Inextinguishable Fire adheres to a short experimental documentary format and an essayistic style combining text, narration, and images collected from the mass communications industry. Made early in the prolific artist's nearly fifty-year career, the film is a critique of the Vietnam War and the role of industry in the production of chemical weapons. It begins with the following narration: "When we show you pictures of napalm victims, you'll shut your eyes. You'll close your eyes to the pictures. Then you'll close them to the memory. And then you'll close your eyes to the facts." In analyzing the production, dissemination, and consumption of images, he revealed the inextricable links between media culture, politics, technology, and violence.
From the Collection: 1960-69, March 26, 2016 - March 12, 2017.
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Harun Farocki
German, 1944–2014 43 works onlineGerman filmmaker Harun Farocki began making films in the late 1960s amid a highly politicized cultural milieu. Citing the influence of such Marxist cultural practitioners as theater director Bertolt Brecht, philosopher Theodor Adorno, and film director Jean-Luc Godard , Farocki consistently addressed two principal subjects: the practices of labor and the production of images.
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