Skip to main content

Nothing Ventured

Harun Farocki

2004 00:52:00 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video
Tags:
Consumer culture, Documentary, European Film/Video

Description

An examination of venture capital, Nothing Ventured documents the tough negotiations that take place when entrepreneurs and bankers meet.

“Nothing Ventured reveals some of the pressures the post-industrial production companies are facing when it comes to innovations. In this day and age, most of the products manufactured consist more of informational parts rather than material ones. This also forms the basis for constant innovations: After a few years, a computer or software is regarded as obsolete and devalued, even if it has never been used. This has an effect on the consumer, and simultaneously puts the producer under pressure.”

-- Harun Farocki

“The essential paradox of venture capital: banks only lend money against collateral, and entrepreneurs who lack backers must pay hefty fees to venture-capital firms. Farocki documents a single negotiation running over two days that concludes unexpectedly.”

--MoMA New York website, 2005

In German with English subtitles.

About Harun Farocki

Harun Farocki (1944-2014) was born in German-annexed Czechoslovakia. From 1966 to 1968 he attended the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB). In addition to teaching posts in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Manila, Munich and Stuttgart, he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Farocki made close to 120 films, including feature films, essay films and documentaries. He worked in collaboration with other filmmakers as a scriptwriter, actor and producer. In 1976 he staged Heiner Müller's plays The Battle and Tractor together with Hanns Zischler in Basel, Switzerland.

He wrote for numerous publications, and from 1974 to 1984 he was editor and author of the magazine Filmkritik (München). His work has shown in many national and international exhibitions and installations in galleries and museums.