SITUATION #42

B-ROLL with Andre by James N. Kienitz Wilkins takes us on a journey in search of a filterless representation. Through the testimonial of a mysterious hooded witness we learn about the prisoner, Andre, and his obsession with image resolution. From the low-res images of Google Street View to GoPro footage and the commercial showcasing of 4K cameras, the film navigates through the varying definitions of our current image universe as we listen to stories of one man’s attempt to transcend the limits of visual experience.

With increasing image resolution information becomes bigger than the human eye can process, leading to a state of perception where “it’s not about our eyes anymore”. As in Andre’s carceral dream, higher resolutions would allow us to break free from the chains of Plato’s cave, free from the shadows of Standard Definition, to reach pure ideas and pure form. B-ROLL with Andre offers up the moral possibility of a world with no lens, no focus, no filter, a world of Super High Definition with no flaws and no B-roll.

B-ROLL with Andre was also screened at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, as part of the program Post-Internet I: Our Fetishistic Relationship with Technology, on 10 November 2016, 10.30 p.m.

More by James N. Kienitz Wilkins: automaticmoving.com

A cooperation with 20. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur.