Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 1, 2005. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8 p.m., the Bitfilm Festival in Hamburg opens its doors. The highlight of the opening program is the approximately one-hour live show by the London VJ ensemble Addictive TV: “The Eye of the Pilot” is a journey around the world as it looked 50 years ago – accompanied by contemporary electronic music composed by Addictive TV‘s DJ Tolly and Alejandro de Valera.
In the fifties of the last century, the French pilot Raymond Lamy filmed at the destinations of his scheduled flights with his 8mm camera. Long before tourism reached places such as Bombay, Saigon or Tahiti, he captured scenes of everyday life there with the “eye of the pilot.” When the VJs of Addictive TV – voted among the best VJs in the world by DJ Magazine – discovered his footage by chance, they were fascinated by these unusual documents of contemporary history. They decided to remix the films and design a live performance around them. The yellowed footage from the 50s is embedded in modern motion graphics and mixed live to the beat of the music using special DVD players – a kind of “visual scratching.” Guitarist Alejandro de Valera from Paris coaxes atmospheric sounds from his fretless guitar to accompany it. The Perfomance “The Eye of the Pilot” was supported by the cultural institute of Ile de France and premiered at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The Hamburg performance is supported by the British Council and the Institut Français. Admission is 6 euros.
In addition, the Bitfilm Festival is showing an opening program with films from various competition categories. The evening draws to a close with a live performance of the DVD Brazilectro – Latin Flavoured Club Tunes featuring the Hamburg VJs of Eins23.tv and DJ Soulsurfer. Further information is available on the festival website.
Further Links:
- Bitfilm Festival 2005 Website
