9/10/2012
Labour in a Single Shot
Beirut, Cairo
Film workshop with Antje Ehmann & Harun Farocki. The workshop outcomes will be presented in a series of exhibitions, ideally in all cities where the films have ensued.
Beirut launches its first season of programs in 2012 with "Labour in a Single Shot," a two-week workshop lead by esteemed filmmaker Harun Farocki and author and film curator Antje Ehmann.
The task of the workshop is to produce short films that consist of one single shot. The subject of investigation is labour: paid and unpaid, material and immaterial, rich in tradition or altogether new. The formal restraint draws on the method and decisiveness of the early 19th century films, for instance the Lumiére brothers' "Workers Leaving the Lumiére Factory" and "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat". This leads right into the formal basics of cinematography and raises essential questions for the filming process itself: How to find a beginning and an end, particularly when dealing with a repetitive process? Should the camera be still or moving? How to capture the choreography of a workflow in a single shot in the best, most interesting way? The early films implied that every detail of the moving world is worth considering and capturing. They had a fixed point of view while the contemporary documentary films nowadays, usually out of indecision, tend to pack sequences of shots one after another resulting in a mixture of cinematic confusion.
With a series of workshops taking place in 15 cities around the world, "Labour in a single shot" further aims to deal with and respond to the specifics of each city and region where the work takes place. It is vital to open one's eyes and set oneself in motion: Where do we see which kind of labour? What happens in the centre of the city, what occurs in its periphery? What is characteristic and what is unusual with regard to this city? What kind of labour processes could be an interesting cinematographic challenge?
The workshop outcomes will be presented in a series of exhibitions, ideally in all cities where the films have ensued. The course of exhibitions is a means of testing out different forms and formats defined by institutional and financial restrictions and possibilites, specific to each location.
Organized in collaboration with the Goethe-Institutes in Cairo and Alexandria, Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) and Cimatheque, with the generous support of Goethe Institut and Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation.
Image: Labour in a Single Shot, factory visit, Alexandria, 2012
Beirut
11 Road 12 / Mahmoud Sedky
Agouza, Il Cairo Egypt
Hours:
Wed/Thu 12-8pm
Sat/Sun 12-8pm
& by appointment