Here are 20 significant items from my first month as a Farocki resident that I wanted to blog about but have not, at least not yet. (Requests are welcome as to what to write about first.)
- What it feels like to live a few blocks from where David Bowie lived 40 years ago, and to read about his years of self-reinvention in Berlin.
- The utterly therapeutic satisfaction of living among the small streets and shops of Schöneberg, in an apartment with less than half the possessions I had back in the States.
- What Harun Farocki was up to 40 or so years ago, and its relevance to the Harun Farocki Institut and Residency.
- My Residency introduction dinner and screening, hosted by HaFI co-director Doreen Mende, where I introduced video essays to a small gathering of noted artists, scholars and intellectuals.
- Feature article on video essays published in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by Phillip Boverman, with a cover image that became absurdly obsolete just two days later.
- The debacle with Fandor that led to over 200 of my videos to be removed from the internet, and my subsequent resignation from the company after six years of service.
- Reflections on the archival process, as I upload and migrate my entire career output to my personal Vimeo account, in conjunction with the Fandor takedowns and the relaunch of my personal website.
- Research on ISIS videos, my major project during the Residency. I’ll be presenting on it February 6 with my collaborator Chloé Galibert-Laîné at the Frei Universitat Berlin. Details here.
- My presentation at the Goethe Universitat in Frankfurt, delivered a couple hours after I resigned from Fandor.
- My live desktop video essay performance with a screening of Ernst Lubitsch’s The Oyster Princess at the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt.
- The Theodor Adorno Tour of Frankfurt led generously by Rembert Heuser, chair of the Department of Media Studies at Goethe Universitat.
- My “performative light typing” introduction of my work at silent green.
- Enjoyable conversations with many friends in Berlin: Volker and Stefanie Schlüter at their home and at an amazing cafeteria in Kreuzberg, Elsa de Seynes at silent green and the Deutsche Post, everyone at Doreen’s gathering, Michael Baute over Chinese dinner, Tom Holert, Jasmina Metwaly and others at silent green, Christoph Dreher at Cafe Einstein, Ming Wong and Stefan Pethke at my birthday party, and many others I’m forgetting.
- Not to forget also: Rembert, Kalani, Verena, Marc and Kerim at Goethe University; Urs Spörri at Uwe Oberg at the Deutsches Filmmuseum Lubitsch screening; the random student who talked with Chloé and me in the Goethe Media Lounge.
- Jury duty with Olaf Stüber and Sanja Grbin, a clandestine birthday celebration with Jessie McGoff and Daniel Mcilwraith, screening program of video essays, and excessive encounters with maltaschen at the Stuttgart Filmwinter.
“King of the Video-Essay” @alsolikelife über eine neue Form der #Filmkritik #Filmanalyse – mein Beitrag @DLF #Corso: https://t.co/iBWPgvBN5Z
— Julian Ignatowitsch (@julianignato) January 25, 2017
- Interview in a radio report on video essays by Julian Ignatowisch for Deutschefunk.
- Joint birthday celebration with Volker that yielded a most welcome surprise gift: an extended conversation with Robert Beavers.
- Being gradually absorbed into Black Mirror and Westworld.
- Not making the “Who Should Win the Oscars?” video essay series after five consecutive years.
My first video essay of the T—p era, “Not Another Camelot,” will premiere before the screening of JACKIE at the 2017 @IFFR pic.twitter.com/RgYVWBJQgc
— Kevin B Lee (@alsolikelife) January 25, 2017
- My first video essay of 2017, a new desktop documentary, “Not Another Camelot,” to premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam to introduce festival screenings of the film Jackie. It premieres a day from today (but if you’ve made it this far, then you’d might as well watch it here).