digital handcraft
China`s global factory for computers

Video, 28 min., 2008

by Alexandra Weltz, co author Sarah Bormann

digital handcraft is an educational film, a portrait of the process of computer hardware production. It displays the organisation of production in global value chains and investigates the conditions of life and labour for millions of migrant worker in China’s factories, which manufacture the hardware for the immaterial production of the 21st century.
This film takes a look at the flipside of globalised computer production, which is incongruous with the “clean” image the industry usually displays. By interviewing both activists and workers, the film investigates the current situation as well as future possibilities for improving their situation. Furthermore, the film looks at issues surrounding the illegal shipping of computer scrap parts from Germany to developing countries.

DIGITAL HANDCRAFT China’s global factory for computers from Alexander Augsten on Vimeo.

produced as part of the project: PC global/WEED

Antonio Negri.
A Revolt that never ends

Video, 52 min., 2004

ZDF/arte, YLE, SVT with the financial support of Kulturstiftung des Bundes and Filmförderung Baden-Würtemberg

by Andreas Pichler and Alexandra Weltz

Few modern-day intellectuals have evoked as much admiration and hatred, or as much praise and rejection, as Antonio Negri. His book Empire, co-authored with Michael Hardt, was an international bestseller. A critical analysis of the new global economy, it was hailed as a bold new manifesto for the 21st century and overnight it turned Negri into a leading spokesperson for the international critical globalisation movement.
Antonio Negri. A revolt that never ends profiles the controversial life and times of this university professor, philosopher, militant, prisoner, refugee, and “enemy of the state.” It traces Negri’s roots in the history of radical left-wing movements in Italy during the sixties and seventies, illustrated through archival footage of workers’ strikes, factory occupations, terrorist actions, violent street confrontations, political repression, and government trials of dissidents.
During these tumultuous decades, finding himself branded as an evil ideologue with alleged ties to the Red Brigades terrorist group, Negri spent many years in prison and in exile in Paris, where he contributed to philosophical debates with authors such as Deleuze and Guattari. The film features interviews with Negri, conducted following his April 2003 release from confinement, as well as public speaking appearances at seminars and protest demonstrations, plus commentary from his co-author Michael Hardt and Italian and French colleagues.
Against the backdrop of scenes of recent anti-globalisation protests, Negri discusses the dangers of the economic, cultural and legal transformations being wrought by the forces of globalisation as well as the opportunities to resist these changes. Antonio Negri explores this visionary theoretician’s lifelong political struggle, now being expressed in works of contemporary relevance such as Empire and its sequel, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, a powerful intellectual project in protest of the new global order.

order at:  Neue Visionen Filmverleih

Munich express working title I-III

Video, 3x 24 min., 2006

as part of crash test dummy festival

directed by Alexandra Weltz, camera and editing Franz Wanner

The video interviews “Munich Express Arbeitstitel I-III” were developed in 2006, within the framework of the European culture project “crash test dummy,” which took place from May to July 2006 in public spaces in Budapest, Prague, Ljubljana and Munich.

crash test dummy was engaged with the circumstances of life and survival in a precarious and permanently changing society. The needs, mobility and flexibility of individuals are paradigms of a global, post-fordistic society.

Refugees are the ideal test dummies of a globalized world, in which goods float freely, while people thud against borders. Every day dummies die in test-drives on overloaded ships off the coasts of Italy, Spain or the Canary Islands. They suffocate in containers or are thrown overboard on the high seas. The resilience of their bodies decides their destinies.

They can see what they want to change in their lives, and they head towards an uncertain future. In three interviews, refugees who currently live in Munich told of their journeys, the situation in Germany, their difficulties and their hopes and wishes. Because of their precarious legal situation, they wished to remain anonymous.

Many thanks to the interview contacts and the Bavarian Council for Refugees

Fear of the Kanak Planet

Video 33 min., 2001
by Ilker Egilmez und Alexandra Weltz

Fear of a Kanak Planet is a mockumentary that deals with the life of a young Turkish man in the heart of Berlin. It is the story of Durmus, a former graffiti sprayer who fell off track. We follow his way around Berlin-Kreuzberg, where he takes us to the home of a drug dealer and a local breakdance hang-out, and of course, shows us the streets. Durmus’ friends introduce us to his past, when he was a respected sprayer with a promising future.
The film is a reply to a proposal by the conservative party in Berlin’s youth organisation, that “Germany should be recognizable in Kreuzberg” again. Racism and racist stereotypes are a widespread phenomena in Germany today. The film makes a statement against racist stereotypes of immigrants and especially Turkish immigrants in Germany. These stereotypes are often formed and transported by media representation. By over-exaggerating the “typical” clichés about a young Turkish man in Germany, the film confronts the audience with the decision whether to believe that the stories told and the people shown are real or not.
see the film at: fearofakanakplanet.com