Low Definition Control - Malfunctions #0

Regardless of where we walk or where we stand, we’re being watched: In a society in which the public space is primarily regarded a source of risks, nearly everything depends on constant surveillance. And so the most banal of activities (such as eating a sandwich or carrying a suitcase), when performed in inner cities of the developed world, are filmed and decoded by grid programs.
The fact that security and risk prevention now represent “political superglue” prompted Michael Palm to reflect on the implications of the growing mechanization of perception, in both the public space and the field of medicine. The method Palm chose for his film, Low Definition Control, is repeatedly expanding upon a theory in fragments by means of unreal, grainy images of everyday scenes.
From off-screen, scientists and intellectuals from a wide variety of disciplines (neurology to media sciences to theology) can be heard discussing the question of what’s appearing on history’s horizon, which is a result of increasing panopticism and the disappearance of the assumption of innocence in contemporary society: a complete “evacuation of the real” and loss of the “idea of naturalism.”

Low Definition Control is science fiction in a literal sense: a visionary anticipation of biopolitical/governmental processes that began some time ago, in which technology is so deeply inscribed into human behavior that a disciplinary and control society could at some point be replaced by one comprising disembodied, predictable interface subjects.
(Bert Rebhandl)

Teaser online vimeo
Teaser online youtube

Trailer
Orig. Title
Low Definition Control - Malfunctions #0
Year
2011
Country
Austria
Duration
95 min
Director
Michael Palm
Category
Documentary, Essay
Orig. Language
German, English
Subtitles
English, spanish
Credits
Director
Michael Palm
Script
Michael Palm
Cinematography
Michael Palm
Music
Maurice Ravel, Trevor Duncan
Editing
Michael Palm
Sound Design
Michael Palm
Sound Mix
Sabine Maier
Production
Johannes Hammel
Research
Claudia Leutgeb, Michael Palm
Supported by
ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen, Innovative Film Austria, Wien Kultur MA 7, Land Oberösterreich
Available Formats
35 mm (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:2,35 (CinemaScope)
Sound Format
Dolby digital
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour, b/w
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,78
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour, b/w
Festivals (Selection)
2011
Viennale - Vienna Int. Film Festival
Copenhagen - cph:dox, Intl Documentary Film Festival
Mar del Plata - Int. Film Festival
Jihlava Documentary Film Festival
Denver - Int. Film Festival
2012
Wroclaw - New Horizons Festival
Linz - Crossing Europe Film Festival
Madrid - Documenta Int. Doc Film Festival (SECOND PRIZE. ORIGINAL FULL-LENGHT FILM)
Edinburgh - International Film Festival
Marseille - FIDMarseille International Film Festival
Lissabon - DocLisboa
Leeds - Int. FilmFestival
Kaunas Int. Film Festival
Cork - Int. Film Festival
Kassel - Dokumentarfilm- & Videofest
Austrian Film Academy Awards (Nominiert für Besten Österreichischen Dokumentarfilm 2012)
Hamburg - Dokumentarfilmwoche
Rotterdam - Int. Filmfestival
Nyon - Dokumentarfilm Festival
Jeonju - International Film Festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
2013
München - Nonfiktionale
Washington - National Gallery of Arts shows "Sixpack: The Austrian Experiment"