Kultur Speziell

The Kultur Speziell team from Austrian Television (ORF) visited the 1973 Avant-Garde Film Festival at the National Film Theatre and other venues in London. Unlike the British media who took no interest at all in the event, the Austrian team spent several days at the Festival, filming some of the events and performances, and interviewing various of the attendees. They approached me for an interview and I suggested that I could instead, using their crew and equipment, make the film that would respond to a question. The performance commenced with me switching on the camera, the program host asking the question "Why did you want to make this film?". As I zoomed into the words Picture and Sound on the editing machine against which the interview leaned, I spoke about the process of making a film, before zooming and out, walking round in front of the camera and then leaning into shot to switch it off. The program that was later broadcast in Austria included the piece uncut and concluded as half-hour report that was unpatronising and positive. In the late 1990s Peter Mudie recovered the program from ORF from which these stills and the extract were taken. (More in Reviews and Citations)