Category Archives: Screenings

War at a Distance and Serious Games: Tribute to Harun Farocki

An introduction to the screening “War at a Distance” and “Serious Games” by Kristin Gissberg

What role do images have in the production, documentation, and understanding of war? How have we become accustomed to war images, and indeed images of war, and to what extent does this familiarity shape our perceptions, including the emotional landscape of warfare’s preparation, reporting, and debriefing?

What is the technology of war today, and from which trajectory has this emerged? In this time of increasingly sophisticated technological iterations, have we lost sight of the thread linking production and destruction? If so, to what extent has the prevalence of images sculpted our myopia, saturated our framing of otherness, influenced our understanding of what’s real and what’s virtual?

Harun Farocki’s investigative politics of images invites us to raise such questions, to sit with them, as it were, via cinematic presentation. Highlighting selections of two of his films – War at a Distance and Serious Games – The Night of Philosophy’s tribute to Farocki’s iconic examination of images of warfare aims to reopen precisely these questions.

Unfolding the link between warfare and images, we will follow Farocki from War at a Distance, beginning with The Gulf War – a war in which, for the first time, as the film claims, warfare and war reporting became one. Transitioning to clips from each of the four installments constituting Serious Games, our discussion will touch upon the ambiguity of image, the stripping away of affectivity in image creation, and the re-production of memory in image production.

Unknown copy 9Kristin Gissberg

Voices of Philosophers. From the French INA Archives

ImprimerScreened at the Malá Dvorana and at the Studio Hrdinů

  • Derrida : on the Train back from Prague (1982), 7:30-7:37 PM/11:00-11:07 PM. Derrida explains how he was detained while going back to France from Prague.
  • Right to Hope or Right to Lose Hope? (1977), 7:38-7:58 PM/11:08-11:28 PM. With Michel Foucault, Maurice Clavel, Christian Jambet and André Glucksmann. About the giving up of Marxism by French intellectuals after the 1956 events in Hungary.
  • In Solidarity with Solidarity (1982), 7:59-8:09 PM/11:29-11:39 PM. With Michel Foucault and Simone Signoret. About the Polish trade union Solidarity.
  • The Cellar Stairs can only be Walked Down (1961), 8:10-8:20 PM/11:40-11:50 PM. With Gaston Bachelard. A portrait of this philosopher.
  • Patočka’s Last Stance (1977), 8:21-8:25 PM/11:51-11:55 PM. With Jan Patočka and Jiří Hájek. About repression against Charter 77 signatories.

A debate around Homecare (2015) by Slávek Horák

A. Mihulová a E. Matalová
A. Mihulová a E. Matalová

The Night of Philosophy is proud to host a very special debate between film director Slávek Horák and philosopher Jaromír Matějek around the 2015 feature film Homecare, Czech submission for 2015 Academy Awards.

They will discuss about ethics, care and compassion.

The debate will follow a screening of an extract of the film!

When: 23:15-00:15 AM
Where: Faculty of Arts, room 300

Pierre Huyghe, Human Mask, 2014

© Pierre Huyghe
© Pierre Huyghe

Pierre Huyghe, (Untitled) Human Mask (Film still), 2014
Film, colour, stereo, sound, 2:66
Running time: 19 minutes
Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, London and Anna Lena Films, Paris

This exceptional artwork will be introduced in English by Adam Budak twice during the Night. Meet him in the Moving Image Department of the Trade Fair Palace at 9:30 PM or at 11:45 PM!

Films and Art Video Screenings

Screenings with introductions and commentaries by our guests

The Trade Fair Palace

  • War at Distance. Tribute to Harun Farocki. Malá Dvorana, 9:15-10 PM (ENG)
  • The Human Mask, Pierre Huyghes (2014) – introduced by Adam Budak (9:30 and 11:45 PM). Moving Image Department, all night long (ENG)
  • Cinema and Eschatology – Images of Apocalypse in contemporary films and TV shows, commented by Michael Foessel. Studio Hrdinů, 1:45-2:45 AM (ENG)

Faculty of Arts

  • The ABC of Gilles Deleuze C like Culture and R like Resistance (1988-1989)  introduced by Pierre Montebello. Aula, 10:45 PM-0:00 AM (CZ/FR)
  • Homecare by Slávek Horák (2015, Czech submission for 2015 Academy Awards) – screening followed by a debate between director Slávek Horák and Jaromír Matějek. Room 300, 11:15 PM-00:15 AM (CZ)
  • Political Ecology in Action – commented by Fabrice Flipo. Room 104, 11:30 PM-00:15 AM (EN)
  • Case for a Rookie Hangman by Pavel Juráček (1969) – introduced by Jan Bierhanzl. Room 217, 11:30 PM-1:30 AM (CZ)
  • The Wound by Nicolas Klotz (2004) – introduced by Étienne Tassin. Room 200, 11:45 PM-3 AM (CZ/FR)
  • The Intruder by Claire Denis (2004) – introduced by Petr Kouba. Kinosál (room 429), 7-9:30 PM (CZ/FR)
  • The Werckmeister Harmonies, Béla Tarr (2000) – introduced by David Lengyel. Kinosál (room 429), 10 PM-0:30 AM (EN)
  • Détruire, dit-elle by Marguerite Duras (1969) – introduced by Benedetta Zaccarello. Kinosál (room 429), 0:45-3 AM (FR/EN)

Other screenings

The Trade Fair Palace

  • Voices of PhilosophersVideo-Archives. Including: Derrida – On the Train Back From Prague in 1982; Jan Patočka’s Last Stance (1977).  Two screenings: Malá Dvorana, 7:30-8:30 PM and Studio Hrdinů, 11:00 PM-0:00 AM (FR/CZ)
  • Serious Games. Tribute to Harun Farocki. Malá Dvorana, 2:15-2:45 AM (EN)

Faculty of Arts

  • War at Distance. Tribute to Harun Farocki. Room 300, 7-8 PM (ENG)