Inextinguishable Fire (1969)
Harun Farocki
Inextinguishable Fire, Harun Farocki, Germany, 16mm > digital, 25 min, 1969
Farocki’s lifelong project was one of pedagogical clarity by way of a methodology of comparison in which the viewer is able to understand the relation between images and between those images and the actual world … carefully attending to his teachings, even his didacticism, seems particularly urgent in a moment in which mediated genocide unfolds before our eyes. To understand how we become inured to atrocity, how we become blind to the ways in which we are complicit in violence, and how violence and destruction are intertwined with our own labor and production.—Leo Goldsmith
Inextinguishable Fire adheres to a short experimental documentary format and an essayistic style combining text, narration, and images collected from the mass communications industry. Made early in the prolific artist’s nearly fifty-year career, the film is a critique of the Vietnam War and the role of industry in the production of chemical weapons. It begins with the following narration: “When we show you pictures of napalm victims, you’ll shut your eyes. You’ll close your eyes to the pictures. Then you’ll close them to the memory. And then you’ll close your eyes to the facts.” In analyzing the production, dissemination, and consumption of images, Farocki reveals the inextricable links between media culture, politics, technology, and violence.—The Museum of Modern Art
The restoration of this film is provided by Harun Farocki GbR and Deutsche Kinemathek.
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with Deutsche Kinemathek and Harun Farocki GbR.
Image credits: all artworks and stills courtesy Harun Farocki GbR and Deutsche Kinemathek © Harun Farocki GbR, estate of Harun Farocki. Portrait courtesy © Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul.
About the artist
Harun Farocki (Germany) was a filmmaker, artist, and writer born in Nový Jicin, Czech Republic (then Neutitschein, Reichsgau Sudetenland), in 1944. He is one of the most significant artists and theorists to have worked with the moving image; his extensive body of work and theoretical writing continue to exert an enormous influence on contemporary culture. Farocki’s films, often combining found and original footage, confront issues such as the intersections between war and technology and the role of labour in capitalist society. He joined the inaugural class of the German Film and Television Academy in 1966, but was expelled in 1968 for his political activities and obtained no diploma. He went on to create more than 120 films, artworks, and media installations which have been exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries around the world, including ZKM Karlsruhe, Institute of Contemporary Art London, The Museum of Modern Art, Museum Ludwig, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, and Beirut Art Center. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including three German Film Critics Awards (1969, 1989, 1991), an Adolf Grimmer Prize (1995), a Peter Weiss Prize (2002), and a Golden Leopard from Locarno Film Festival (2007). He frequently contributed film criticism to Trafic and numerous other publications, was editor of Filmkritik from 1974–84, and taught at University of California, Berkeley, and the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, among other institutions. Harun Farocki passed away unexpectedly in 2014 near Berlin. He was and remains a commanding figure of contemporary culture. The Harun Farocki GbR was established in 2015 to archive and promote his work to future generations.