The Clock, or: 89 Minutes of “Free Time”

A program curated by Alexander Horwath.

This program is a somewhat surreal — or childlike — attempt at telling a story of the 20th century. In a more serious vein, it relates to three different notions of cinematic temporality: it talks about leisure or “free” time (a realm of life usually regarded as the province of movie-going); it addresses “the time of film” (a past era that also produced new concepts of history and memory, both of which are now becoming more tenuous by the nanosec - ond); and it celebrates our imprisonment in “film time” when experiencing a theatrical projection — the distinct duration of a film, its irrevocable passing at a specific pace of X frames-per-second.

Film is a clockwork, a metaphor that was given some publicity by the most talked-about non-film of the last dec - ade, Christian Marclay’s The Clock (2011). As opposed to the latter, however, the works in this program have some rela - tion to life: they end. Before doing so, they exude madness, mystery and joy at a rate of 16, or 18, or 24 times per second. Another way of looking at this film selection is through the eyes of Amos Vogel, born in Vienna in 1921, who passed away in New York in 2012. I hope that the program can also serve as a tribute to Amos. Among his many achievements in film culture was a new approach towards placing films with each other in an evening’s program, freed from their traditional grouping according to era, genre, aesthetic, etc. In addition, the Vienna amateur film shown here — Ha.Wei. March 14, 1938 — is a document of the historical moment that turned 17-year old Amos Vogelbaum into an exile. (Alexander Horwath)

In the presence of Alexander Horwath

Supported by Österreichisches Kulturforum Brüssel
Special thanks to Austrian Film Museum