Images of the World and the Inscription of War

(Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges, Harun Farocki, West Germany 1989, 75 min., digital file, German w/subtitles)

(In)visibility. The late German filmmaker and theorist Harun Farocki observed in 1992: “Since its invention, film has seemed destined to make history visible.” Images of the World and the Inscription of War seems to reply: what if we don’t see what film makes visible, until it is already history? In this examination of technology and morality, Farocki probes the American military’s failure (or was it refusal?) to recognize and act upon evidence of Auschwitz’s existence, as revealed in 1944 reconnaissance images. From this inquiry stems an unsettling and free-associative cinematic essay on hidden identities, camouflage, decoys, and masks—unfolding, in Farocki’s trademark style, through an assemblage of multiple visual media.