Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine

Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine

Tscherkassky concentrates on central motifs from Sergio Leone’s classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, zeroing in on Eli Wallach stumbling across a vast cemetery and the anti-hero’s head as he dangles from the gallows. Tscherkassky intercuts the latter image with countdown leader, ironically delaying the saving bullet shot by Clint Eastwood. Hereby the very film tears and suddenly descends into pure, soundless whiteness. Only by way of its defects is the medium of film made tangible. The flaws in the system – blisters, scratches, distortions and cracks – overwhelm and overlay the narrative, shatter the illusion and give rise to a richly ambiguous, new story. (Stefan Grissemann)

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Peter Tscherkassky
Sound: Dirk Schaefer
Format: 35mm
Color: B/W
Production Country: Austria
Production Year: 2005
Duration: 17΄
Contact: sixpackfilm
Awards/Distinctions: Grande Premio Experimental – Vila do Conde - Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens 2005, Main Award – Zagreb 25fps Film & Video Festival 2005, Honorable Mention – Windsor Media City 2006, Special Mention of the Jury – Clermont-Ferrand ISFF 2006

The screening is not recommended to viewers with a history of photosensitive epilepsy

Peter Tscherkassky

Peter Tscherkassky has been making films since 1979. His films received more than fifty awards including Golden Gate Award (San Francisco), Main Prize at Oberhausen, and Best Short Film at the Venice International Film Festival. He studied philosophy. His dissertation was titled Film as Art (1986). He organized several film festivals and curated countless film programs. Since 1984, he has written numerous essays on avant-garde films. He is the editor of the book Peter Kubelka (1995). He co-founded sixpackfilm (1991). 2005: World premiere of Instructions for A Light And Sound Machine at the Cannes Film Festival. Since 2006, he has presented numerous exhibitions of his Film Strips Light Boxes in several countries. In 2010, Coming Attractions had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. He is the editor of the book Film Unframed: A History of Austrian Avant-Garde Cinema, published in 2012. In 2015, The Exquisite Corpus had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. From 2018 to 2021, a series of concerts with newly composed soundtracks for his CinemaScope trilogy was performed by Ensemble Nikel, in Darmstadt, Utrecht, Graz, New York, Tel Aviv, Paris, Metz, Brussels, and Copenhagen. In 2019, he was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit from the City of Vienna. In 2021, Train Again has its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2021, the double-vinyl-LP Dirk Schaefer: Peter Tscherkassky, All the Soundtracks (2005–2021) was released on the label purge.

Filmography

1981 Blood-Letting (short)
1982 Erotique (short)
1982 Film of Love (short)
1983 Freeze Frame (short)
1983 Holiday Film (short)
1983 Miniatures – Many Berlin Artists in Hoisdorf (short)
1984 Ballett 16 (short)
1984 Motion Picture (La sortie des Ouvrier de l’Usine Lumiére á Lyon) (short)
1985 Manufracture (short)
1986 kelimba (short) 1
987 Shot-Countershot (shot)
1992 Parallel Space: Inter-View (short)
1996 Happy-End (short)
1997 L'Arrivée (short)
1999 Get Ready (short)
1999 Outer Space (short)
2001 Dream Work (short)
2005 Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (short)
2006 Nachtstueck (Nocturne) (short)
2010 Coming Attractions (short)
2015 The Exquisite Corpus (short)
2021 Train Again (short)