In person: Jay Cassidy.

A visionary work of essay filmmaking, Images of the World and the Inscription of War is a defining and revelatory cinematic investigation by one of the medium’s most inspiring practitioners, Harun Farocki (1944–2014). As the film unfolds with increasing complexity and insight, Farocki spins his initial point of inquiry—the phenomenon of uninterpreted “blind spots” in Allied aerial photographs during World War II—into a much larger consideration of the interdependent relationship between war and photography. Far from representing true factual evidence, photographic records are often both a reflection of and an influence on the biases and identities of those behind and in front of the camera. In wartime, these deviations from objectivity can have powerful and far-reaching consequences, and Farocki explores his thesis with nuance, clarity, and poetic humanity in this riveting classic.

We are pleased to present Farocki’s masterpiece in a recent digital restoration by the Harun Farocki Institute produced from the original 16mm film elements. Preceding the film will be Academy Award–nominated film editor Jay Cassidy’s chilling short protest film, The Best of May, 1968 (1972), in which liberated US bombing footage and home movies filmed in Vietnam were appropriated by the filmmaker to confront audiences with a photographic record of the war that was otherwise kept hidden.

Programmed and notes by Academy Film Archive Senior Film Preservationist Mark Toscano

The Best of May, 1968
DIRECTOR: Jay Cassidy. 1972. 3 min. USA. Color. Silent. DCP. Restored by and courtesy of the Academy Film Archive and Jay Cassidy.

Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges (Images of the World and the Inscription of War)
DIRECTOR: Harun Farocki. 1988. 75 min. Germany. B&W and Color. German (English subtitles). DCP. Courtesy of the Deutsche Kinemathek.

All film screenings in the Available Space series are available here. 

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.