Cleaning & Cleansing

synopsis

Static shots, mostly long and extreme long shots, and not much seems to happen in them. As if someone often turned the camera on only after the important thing had already been done – in moments when cleaning crews and almost always invisible women with dusters, mops and buckets arrive. When is it necessary to prepare everything for the next round of operation and use under conditions that we have come to perceive as healthy. The minimalist observational documentary lets us glimpse the different forms of how human culture gets rid of dirt and other deposits. Starting with hand washing in healthcare, through various manifestations of mental hygiene and sacred rituals, to cleaning in Holocaust memorials, it is always the same cyclical process. It is the necessity and self-evident nature of the actions accompanying purification that make them a social force of fundamental importance. Above the associative sequence of slow images of cleaned places and washed people, we can reflect on the symbolic and pragmatic meanings of everyday rituals, without which our civilization would collapse.

“In my opinion, the current effort is mainly to achieve efficiency and productivity in the neoliberal sense of the word. After that, however, any colour and variety disappears.”

Quote source: International Film Festival Bratislava

biography

Thomas Fürhapter (1971) is an Austrian filmmaker, photographer and journalist. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna. He worked as an artistic assistant for video production at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The audience in Jihlava has already had the opportunity to view his documentary film Michael Berger – A Hysteria (2010).

more about film

director:	Thomas Fürhapter
producer:	Weina Zhao
script:	Thomas Fürhapter
photography:	Judith Benedikt, Manuel Zauner, Thomas Fürhapter
editing:	Thomas Fürhapter
sound:	Joseph Nikolussi, Andreas Hamza
sound design:	Joseph Nikolussi, Lenja Gathmann
production manager:	Leonie Weidel, Judith Tieber-Gibbs

contact

Thomas Fürhapter / Electric Shadows Laufbilderzeugungsanstalt office@electricshadowsfilms.com