Synopsis

Free admission!

Videograms of a Revolution by Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica examines the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 in Bucharest through archival footage, amateur recordings, and television broadcasts. The film highlights how demonstrators occupied the state television station, broadcasting for 120 hours and establishing it as a central site of the revolution. Spanning December 21, 1989—Ceaușescu’s final speech—to December 26, 1989, when his trial and execution were televised, the film captures key events almost in their entirety. Farocki and Ujica’s work integrates footage from amateur videographers and state archives, showcasing how the videocamera’s mobility and recording capacity made it a key tool in documenting the revolution in real-time.

This screening is part of SCREEN TO SCREEN, shown in conjunction with the exhibition Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World

“Screen” can be defined as a flat surface, a verb, a barrier, a pseudonym, a cover, or a tool. The films in this series are, in general, unified by their inventive and prescient explorations of technology, and by the screen in particular. These films examine and imagine what changes in human relationships are a result of technology’s position within them. The screen is now where life often takes place—films that explore this condition constitute their own genre. Each screening will be introduced by organizer and PhD candidate Sarah Grace Faulk, and a discussion will be moderated afterward for select screenings. This screening is supported by UC Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Science (CHASS) Dean’s Office and the Center for Ideas and Society. Additional support is provided by Department of the History of Art at UC Riverside.

Photo: “Videograms of a Revolution” © Harun Farocki/Andrei Ujica 1992

Trailer

Film Details

Director: Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica
Running Time: 106 minutes
Country: Germany
Release Year: 1992
Rated: Unrated

Reviews

“The determining medium of an era has always marked history, quite unambiguously so in that of modern Europe. It was influenced by theater, from Shakespeare to Schiller, and later on by literature, until Tolstoy. As we know, the 20th century is filmic. But only the videocamera, with its heightened possibilities in terms of recording time and mobility, can bring the process of filming history to completion. Provided, of course, that there is history”. (Andrei Ujica)