Song of Ceylon was commissioned for the short-lived German TV-series Telekritik and broadcasted in 1975. In Telekritik documentary approaches were analysed and made available for a critique of contemporary TV, its aesthetics and modes of production. Other authors for the series include Hartmut Bitomsky, Rainer Gansera and Klaus Wildenhahn.In the 30-minute movie, Farocki shows and comments on excerpts from the film Song of Ceylon by Basil Wright (and a short segment of Eisenstein's Mexico-fragments). Farocki's voice-over describes part of the movie, focussing on details and montage. He also uses didactic and descriptive drawings and intertitles to confront the classic documentary and its stylistic approaches with contemporary TV.
Harun Farocki
Writer, Director
A Plastic Ocean75%
Seduced and Abandoned62%
Being James Bond77%
Directed by John Ford70%
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me84%
John Candy: I Like Me78%
The Class of ‘9271%
Harmontown66%
Black Sheep72%
180° South72%
McQueen74%
Hawking76%
Lionel Messi: Destiny78%
Sherman's March67%
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye71%
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition86%
Spider-Man: All Roads Lead to No Way Home67%
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends71%
Night Will Fall76%
Game of Thrones: The Last Watch70%
