German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film (1944–2014)
Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film.[1]
Early life and education
Farocki was born as Harun El Usman Faroqhi[2] in
Neutitschein, which is now Nový Jičín in the
Czech Republic. His father, Abdul Qudus Faroqui, had immigrated to Germany from
India in the 1920s. His German mother had been evacuated from
Berlin due to the
Allied bombing of Germany.[3][4] He simplified the spelling of his surname as a young man.[2] After
World War II Farocki grew up in India and
Indonesia[3][4] before the family resettled in Hamburg in 1958.
Farocki, who was deeply influenced by
Bertolt Brecht and
Jean-Luc Godard, studied at the
German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) from 1966 to 1968. He began making films – from the very beginning, they were non-narrative essays on the politics of imagery – in the mid-1960s.[2] From 1974 to 1984, when its publication ceased, he edited the magazine Filmkritik.
A first major UK retrospective of his films was held at
Tate Modern in 2009. [10]
The 2011 exhibition "Harun Farocki: Images of War (at a Distance)" at the
Museum of Modern Art was the first comprehensive solo exhibition of Farocki's work in a U.S. museum.[11]
Films (selection)
(D = Director, E = Editor, S = Screenplay, P = Production, A = Actor)
1969: Die Worte des Vorsitzenden - The Words of The Chairman
1969: Nicht löschbares Feuer - Inextinguishable Fire (Short, D)
1970: Die Teilung aller Tage - The Division of All Days (D, E, S)
1971: Eine Sache, die sich versteht (D, S, P)
1975: By Hook or by Crook (S)
1978: Zwischen zwei Kriegen (Between Two Wars) (D, E, S, P) - Himself / narrator
1979: Ich räume auf (A) - Herausgeber
1980: Henry Angst (A)
1981: Etwas wird sichtbar (A)
1981: Etwas wird sichtbar - Before Your Eyes Vietnam (D, S, P)
Images of the world and the inscription of war and Respite were released on
Region 0 DVD on 7 June 2011 by Survivance.[12]
Personal life
Farocki's first wife, Ursula Lefkes, whom he married in 1966, died in 1996. His survivors include his second wife, Antje Ehmann, whom he married in 2001; twin daughters from his first marriage, Annabel Lee and Larissa Lu; and eight grandchildren.[2]