Unsere Afrikareise (1966) - Peter Kubelka 

Certain films are a lot more difficult to see than others on this list as I approach the final 20. Kubelka has long been one of those strange men who believes that it is some sort of crime to view films of any kind on a television screen and although there isn't a particularly large market for his films anyway, they certainly aren't coming to DVD any time soon. Thanks to the University of Chicago I was able to spend a night watching 6 of his 7 films and the highlight was no doubt Unsere. Kubelka's films are all varied in length and form. Mosaik im Vertrauen (1955) was a unique combination of found footage, new shots and a uniquely disjointed narrative. Certainly a fine debut. Adebar and Schwechater were apparently commercials and hard to see if he helped sell any beer with them. In fact its even more amazing to think someone would approach him to sell a product. Adebar is simply people dancing as the image ranges from positive to negative over exposure, although no one and nothing in the film is ever in enough detail to distinguish people, just outlines. Schwechater is an early entry into the "seizure school" as a group of rather posh night club dwellers drink the title beer as the image flickers white, black, and a splash of red. Arnulf Rainer is his most simple and radical in form. Simply a white background that goes black then white then black in radically flickering speeds and is apt to cause convulsions and seizures. Unsere Afrikareise seemed therefore like a wonderful combination of sorts. The editing is extremely quick and like Mosaik there are flashes of single frame edits that are nearly impossible to register on one viewing. Here the subject is whites in Africa hunting. The images are cruel and you get the sensation that there is something horrible false about these men on safari interspersed with rather photogenic natives. All his films seem to be about conflict and contrast and here it takes on a more epic scale, mixing color and black and white, Europeans and Africans, even the very contrast of certain animals like zebras. In 12 minutes Kubelka says about as much of the African condition as all the films of Jean Roach and Edgar Morin seem to. The final film of the night, Pause starred the title character from Arnulf and basically is just radical breathing techniques. Can be hard to sit through and seems rather without a point, but nearly anything might seem a let down after Unsere.