We 14 Oct 09
IDFA Film
Repetition and Optical Vacuum
The IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) is the world's biggest festival for film documentaries. At the request of the IABR, the IDFA compiled a special series of film documentaries about the city, which will be shown at the Biennale.
On October 14th: Repetition (2002, 78 min), by director Artur Zmijewski.
Repetition is a documentary about the re-enactment of professor Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment - a famous psychological experiment studying human behaviour in prison conditions.
Repetition is a documentary about the re-enactment of the Stanford Prison Experiment - a famous psychological experiment studying human behaviour in prison conditions, conducted in 1971 by Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in California. In early 2005 the artistic radical Artur Zmijewski took the risk of reconstructing Professor Zimbardo's experiment in Warsaw. He tried to recreate precisely the architecture of the simulated prison and its rules. Seven "prisoners" and nine "guards" were selected in a procedure aimed at eliminating mentally unstable candidates. They were offered $40 a day for their role in the experiment. The rooms were equipped with one-way mirrors, and the course of the experiment was filmed by five man-operated cameras and several night vision-enabled industrial TV cameras. In the process, Zmijewski pierces through societal masks and travels to the heart of mankind, where it is still dark.
Title: Optical Vacuum (2008, 55 min)
Director: Dariusz Kowalski
Optical Vacuum is a cinematographic essay about voyeurism, surveillance and the now voluntary urge to be watched.
Webcams have made it possible for the Internet "to have eyes", reflecting society from a subjectless and anonymous perspective. Over the past years, Dariusz Kowalski has downloaded surveillance sequences from various public and semi-public locations which in fact were not intended to be used. Work places, conference rooms or even laundromats are the starting point for Optical Vacuum. These are images that were not intended for private experience. The soundtrack consists of personal, almost intimate diary-like commentary which also seems to be not intended for the public. A film about voyeurism, surveillance and voluntary self-exposure * three aspects of the internet that are dependent on each other.
What & where
Location: The Hood, NAI
Date & time: 14 October, 3:00 pm
and 18 October, 12 noon
Information: +31 10 4401342
entrance with day ticket/PP
