Farocki keeps distance from his films' characters

John Badalu, Contributor, Jakarta

Speaking to German filmmaker Harun Farocki is easy. Despite his status as one of the pioneers in the art of documentary filmmaking in his country, he is down-to-earth. There are hints of his impressive intellect in his conversation, but he is far from pretentious.

For a moment, he reminisced about the five years he spent in Indonesia as a child, especially in the capital.

"I still remember what the streets looked like, how people moved and the smell of the city," said the Czech-born director, whose father is Indian and mother German.

Farocki was here recently to give a seminar for young Indonesian documentary filmmakers, an event that was sponsored by Goethe-Institut and the Masyarakat Mandiri Foundation.

"I realize that a lot of Indonesians don't understand my films. I guess this is due to the lack of knowledge of the films. It's a matter of time and technology, but they will catch up in the near future," said Farocki, who declined to give his age.

Farocki has an arbitrary approach to filmmaking, as seen in 1988's The Images of the World and the Inscription of War, where he put together dozens of aerial photos from World War II.

The indistinct photos merge to become images that are open to different interpretations by different audiences.

With 88 films to his credit, Farocki focuses on social and political issues from a subjective point of view. Such an approach to filmmaking does not offer any solutions, but it is morally challenging and evokes questions within the audience.

This unusual approach results in difficulties in financing his films and distributing them, earning him the title of "guerrilla filmmaker".

Farocki chose to study filmmaking when the film academy in Berlin had just opened and most young Germans wanted fast feedback. Only a few of his 88 works are features, and the rest are documentaries.

"I chose documentary because I can express myself more through this medium. Maybe I will make feature films, but I think I will collaborate with other (filmmakers)," he said.

According to Farocki, some 20 years ago in Germany there was an abundance of money, talent and resources in the film industry. But in the past 10 years, it has gotten harder and harder to raise funds.

"The TV industry has become very commercial and sucked all (the money) up. With less resources, the filmmakers have to find a way out. At the same time, the art field is expanding. Now cinemas are not the only place where you can watch films. Museums and other arts spaces are opening their doors for film screenings, underground cinema clubs are mushrooming in every corner of cities," he said.

Filmmaking in Germany, he added, is also developing toward a new form, as the intellectual atmosphere is becoming more charged and a cross-knowledge with other arts is happening.

"The field of arts is also becoming more and more heterogeneous with different groups of interest. Some art forms are blending nicely. A more advanced theory about urbanism is acknowledged by young filmmakers. It's an amazing process to watch all this happening," said Farocki, who has also been a regular guest lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley in the United States for the past 10 years.

Farocki's style is now becoming more unique, as he reads footage in a different way and moves into extremes. He always tries to keep a distance from the characters in his films.

He is influenced in a number of ways by Goddard's films, which he finds to have a great deal of cinematographic beauty.

Right now he is preparing a new film about smart weapons, which is a continuation of his latest film Eye/Machine screened at the recent Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest).

The film is about Farocki's prediction that technology will continue to move toward what he calls "dimassivication".

"Dimassivication means reducing massive products into more custom-made ones. In America, the marginality of culture is getting bigger and bigger, so it creates huge subcultures. These subcultures are becoming the main culture of America. I'm sure that many products will be adjusted and have to become custom- made to meet each subculture's needs," he said.

With an Indian father and German mother, and having lived abroad for much of his life, Farocki is rich in cross-cultural understanding.

This is the first time he has returned to Indonesia and he is determined to relearn the cultural aspects of the country. He is reading a book by Pramoedya Ananta Toer and is looking for Max Havelaar's Saidjah and Adinda.

Farocki also was here to offer and propose different approaches that will lead to new forms of expression. How this works in the lab environment is to throw ideas out and make sketches of them in an arbitrary way.

Although he is very positive about the seminar, he thinks the exoticism in the themes of local films here is a bit too much.

"Most of these young filmmakers want to make a film about some strange tribes on remote islands and places, but actually simple daily lives can be a strong topic too. So many things in daily life are not studied in detail here," Farocki said.

We can only hope his presence will enrich young Indonesian documentary filmmakers and help them make quality films.