2007 | Germany | Experimental

The Memoirs of a Madman

  • 7 mins
  • Director | Michael John Whelan

This film is currently not available.   

hand marked 16mm film transferred to video, colour, silent

This 16mm film work is made up of fragments of appropriated German educational films about volcanic activity from the 1960s. Once edited together into a new linear sequence, the entire length of film was inscribed with the text 'The Memoirs of a Madman' (1884) by Leo Tolstoy. The text is written longitudinally along the film. When projected, the effect is such that the short piece of writing becomes completely impossible to decipher, only visible as random and organic forms overlaid on the fragmented moving image.

volcano lava educational volcanic organic