W O W (Kodak)

"Five... four... three... two... one," chants an older man into the microphone. He replaces the obligatory unspoken "zero" of the countdown with a dynamic backward twist of his upper body. The point of his finger, which twists backward with him, provokes a change in the shot to reveal the view of a bulging baroque dust cloud being sucked inside a building by a nearly unstoppable force, from which, in a din, an imposing structure in its entire, undamaged splendor emerges. This process occurs five times altogether from various perspectives and distances. One seems reminded of the legendary explosion at the end of Michelangelo Antonioni´s Zabriskie Point, but with a decisive difference: Viktoria Schmid re-demolishes. Her working material comprises private recordings from viewers who witnessed the demolition of the building parts of the Eastman Kodak company complex in Rochester and published their self-filmed documentary clips onto YouTube. Many of them had worked in the factory, which makes them witnesses to the destruction of their former workplace. Viktoria Schmid compiled the clips and played them backwards. In the regenerative movement, the implosion turns into an act of constituting. And thus, the reducing to rubbles of the building parts becomes a spectacular reconstruction, accompanied by the amazed shouts of the audience ("WOW" is the palindrome of the moment!). In this way, using digital means, a party-like tribute is paid to the glorious resurrection of the factory for color-sensitive analogue film. (Melanie Letschnig)

Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt

Orig. Title
W O W (Kodak)
Year
2018
Country
Austria
Duration
2 min
Director
Viktoria Schmid
Category
Experimental
Orig. Language
English
Downloads
W O W (Kodak) (Image)
W O W (Kodak) (Image)
W O W (Kodak) (Image)
Credits
Director
Viktoria Schmid
Concept & Realization
Viktoria Schmid
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat
Aspect Ratio
1:1,37
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
Color Format
colour
35 mm
Aspect Ratio
1:1,37
Sound Format
Dolby stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Festivals (Selection)
2019
Belgrade - Alternative Film/Video Festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Dortmund / Köln - Internationales Frauenfilmfestival
Linz - Crossing Europe Film Festival
2020
Stuttgart - Filmwinter, Expanded Media Festival