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Christopher Wilcha, USA

"The Target Shoots First"

USA 1999, Video, 70:00 min, col

"The Target Shoots First" heralds a completely new genre, namely that of the industrial-homevideo-essay. Chris Wilcha, punk-rock-fan and recent graduate philosopher, was taken in 1993 by the mail-order music company Columbia House. The music industry was wrestling with Generation X, the alternative rock band Nirvana was incredibly popular. Wilcha, who had never expected his dedicated hobby would make him an expert with a major company, was pushed up the social ladder. His disgust at the capitalist mega-company made him decide to regard his personal transformation as an experiment. From the first day on, he recorded his experiences on the work floor on video. In the course of two years, he filmed all kinds of things, from the Christmas party, the summer picnic, lunches, meetings, office parties, to his own promotion from the thirteenth to the eleventh floor. „The Target Shoots First“ shows from the inside how Columbia House tried to incorporate an alternative youth culture and how Wilcha himself was not able to escape the company indoctrination: within two years he was producing an „alternative“ fanzine to promote the products of Columbia House. Wilcha shows in an often hilarious and always intelligent way the boundaries of the techno-democracy. In view of the limited enthusiasm of companies to publicise their marketing strategies, it is amazing that Wilcha was able to make the video.

(Katalog 29th International Filmfestival Rotterdam, 2000)

Christopher Wilcha

Nach seinem Collegeabschluss 1993 arbeitete Christopher Wilcha für das Columbia House, das größte Versandhaus für CD's und Tonträger Amerikas. Seine einzigen Qualifikationen für den Job? Die Fähigkeit, den Unterschied zwischen Bad Brains und Bad Religion zu erkennen sowie Kenntnisse über Nirvana, deren Song „Nevermind“ die Charts erklomm und die Kaufgewohnheiten junger Musikfans änderte. „The Target Shoots First“ wurde aus über zweihundert Stunden Hi8 Filmmaterial, das Wilcha als Angestellter einer Tochterfirma von Sony gesammelt hatte, ausgesucht. „The Target Shoots First“ wurde in weiten Teilen der USA und im Ausland gezeigt, wie dem New York Video Festival, dem Pacific Film Archive, dem Vienna International Film Festival und dem International Film Festival Rotterdam. Zurzeit arbeitet Wilcha an verschiedenen neuen Video- und Fotoprojekten, die untersuchen, wie Unternehmen, Industrie und Militär die Landschaft Amerikas im späten 20. Jahrhundert geformt haben. Im letzten Sommer machte er einen Künstler-Aufenthalt beim Center for Land Use Interpretation's Wendover, Utah Studio. Wilcha machte bei der New York University einen BA-Abschluss in Philosopie und 1999 einen MFA in Film/Video beim California Institute of the Arts.

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