Spectres of the Spectrum (Craig Baldwin, 1999)
Oct
4
A scene from the TV series Science in Action (1950—1966) showing Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier. DP: Bill Daniel.
“Patrick, it's Hitler! Yes it is Hitler! Patrick, you must take a picture of me with him!”
Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem [Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea] (Jindřich Polák, 1977)
Jun
1
Time-traveling tourist Shirley White (Marie Rosůlková) dragging a bewildered Hitler (František Vicena) in front of her husband's photo camera. DP: Jan Kališ.
– Shirley White, American time traveler
“Esto Perpetua”
Idaho Transfer (Peter Fonda, 1973)
May
17
National Idaho Day
Teenagers Ronald (Kevin Hearst) and Karen (Kelly Bohanon) sitting next to each other in the desert. Karen, wearing untied shoes and a sleeping bag over her shoulders, looks distraught. DP: Bruce Logan.
A disaster has struck the future world. A private one, Karen's sister has had an accident. And a global one, one so severe that a Government project is put in place. The Project, located in the #Idaho desert and in different points in time, transfers teenagers 56 years forward so to repopulate the to-be-wiped-out land. Then, without warning or reason, The Project shuts down and the kids strand into a deserted future.
– Idaho state motto
Idaho Transfer is, even for early 70s standards, an odd affair. It carries the weight of its time – hippie optimism had died thanks to #Manson, US meddling in Vietnam, the impending #EcoCrisis (we knew, we always did…) – but there too was this optimism for the upcoming millennium. Everything was going to be fine, in The Future. We'll be wiser, no more wars, no more famine, technology will save us. Released just 4 months before the first Oil Shock, Fonda somehow transferred a glimpse of our future.
Hu-Man [Pleurs] (Jérôme Laperrousaz, 1975)
Apr
7
Public Television Day
Terence (Terence Stamp) projected on multiple large screens with television executives watching. DP: Jimmy Glasberg.
The global audience of #Mondo-Vision, a live broadcast #TimeTravel experiment, determines through their emotional investment in the lead's screened experience what the man's destination will be. Even so, the spectators' collective energy should serve as a powerhouse, enabling a televised leap into the future. The man whose faith determines it all is Terence Stamp – played by the actor with the same name. He agrees to partake in the hope that enough emotional energy can be harvested for him to travel back in time so he can reunite with his lost love.
While definitely taking a cue or two from Alain Resnais' Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968), Hu-Man has a much grimmer feel to it. The seventies were not a time of or even for optimism, including Stamp's career and personal life. Noun Serra's dizzying editing and the real-world danger both the in-movie actor and real-world actor are exposed to makes Hu-Man a much more self-referential and personal experience for this future's reality-fatigued viewer.