Gustav Deutsch & Hanna Schimek (loop media, Vienna) introduce Eros Exotic: On the notion and staging of the exotic and foreign in commercials, newsreels, fiction films, documentaries, and erotic films from the first four decades of cinematography. A
black woman washes a white baby with Sunlight soap; a Turk gets beheaded by two
black guys because he kisses a veiled lady; a Chinese transforms a worm into a
butterfly woman, and is transformed by her into a worm; a white slave is sold
to Arabs; a group of naked bathing women are attacked by a group of Turks;
British soldiers disguised as blacks play a group of minstrels; a drugged man
dreams of Japanese female dancers and so on. . . .
How is the exotic and foreign pictured by French, British, Austrian, Dutch filmmakers in the first four decades of cinematography? Clichés and stereotypes about foreign peoples and cultures become visible. A program made up of films and excerpts of films selected from the image library of FILM IST. a girl & a gun, the latest installment in the series of films on the phenomenology of the medium, by Gustav Deutsch.
Sources: Austrian Filmmuseum Cineteca di Bologna CNC - Archives françaises du film Nederlands Filmmuseum the Imperial War Museum, UK
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