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HARDLY WORKING

Total Refusal
Austria, 2022
21 min

We find ourselves inside a video game. The NPCs (non-playable characters) are leading their dull lives on loop, bringing mechanical bustle into the simulation. But what can their repetitive gestures say about life and labour under capitalism?

The background characters are the main concern of Hardly Working – the NPCs, the human figures populating the realities of video games through thankless activities. Day after day, in a loop, they are condemned to permanent presence, to the same set of tasks performed seemingly without will or consciousness. From nails that are futilely hammered into the same boards to rags washed into the same bucket, no matter the weather, the narrator’s acute commentary draws from these Sisyphean typologies an analysis of the absurd laws and processes governing capitalism. The Austrian group Total Refusal’s film speculates on an immediate actuality, where the only way to win the game is to stop playing it. (Dora Leu)

Date and Location

27th of September, 21:00, Cinemateca Eforie

Tickets

Premii și festivaluri

Total Refusal

The pseudo-marxist media guerilla Total Refusal explores and practices strategies for artistic intervention in contemporary computer games. They work with tools of appropriation and rededication of game resources. Their films and performances were presented among others at Berlinale and at the MoMA in NYC and they recently received the award for the best Austrian short documentary (Diagonale’20, Graz). The current members of Total Refusal are: Susanna Flock, Adrian Jonas Haim, Jona Kleinlein, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner & Michael Stumpf. Their work includes: Everyday Daylight (Online Performance, 2021), How to disappear (Short, 2020), Operation Jane Walk (Performance, 2018).

  • Technical sheet
  • SCREENPLAY/CINEMATOGRAPHY/SOUND RECORDING/EDITING/SCRIPT: Total Refusal / Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf
  • SOUND DESIGN: Bernhard Zorzi
  • COMPOSER: Adrian Haim
  • TRANSLATION: Michael Stumpf
  • MODDING: RCPisawesome
  • SCENERY: Rockstar Games
  • SUPPORTED BY: Kunstraum Steiermark stipend (Land Steiermark), Kunsthaus Graz
  • WITH THE SUPPORT OF: Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union

 

 

 

 

 

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