pocket cinema an attempt at endless repetition in life and in film november 6, 1997

Gustav Deutsch, 1995, Austria; 100 minutes The Taschenkino "screening" provides seats for 100 participants Thursday, November 6: 8 pm calendar The Taschenkino project must certainly be one of the most charming, original and fun screenings to be organized as part of the centenary celebrations of film. Several years ago Gustav Deutsch was given a little film viewer as a present. In this micro-viewer was an 8mm sex-film loop, depicting an eternal copulation--a commercial variation on the avant-garde genre of the loop. Deutsch bought several more viewers in a Hamburg sex shop and prepared some of his own films for the mini-cinema. He then managed with great difficulty to trace the Chinese producer and imported several hundred viewers. Then he made 100 super-short films showings as many variations on the themes of repetition, rhythm and movement. The result is a project in which the fun element is combined with a fundamental inquiry into the characteristics of the film medium and the essence of repetition in life. Each visitor is given a viewer and the projection of white light on the screen is the necessary source of light. Each visitor is given one minute to admire his film and then pass it on to the person beside him or her, so that after 100 minutes, each visitor has seen all the films. --Rotterdam Film Festival Program, 1996