Hacker Cinema
The Inextinguishable Fire
Nicht löschbares Feuer
1969 · Film · documentary · 22 min
Directed by Harun Farocki
An austere treatise on the military-industrial complex that produces napalm.
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There's an old German short film called Nicht löschbares Feuer (Inextinguishable Fire, 1969)[1] that I'm fond of. It was a protest film against Napalm and how some companies wouldn't really let their employees know what they were actually working on.
"I am a worker and I work in a vacuum cleaner factory. My wife could use a vacuum cleaner. That's why everyday I pick up a piece. At home I try to assemble the vacuum cleaner. But however I try, it always becomes a sub-machine gun.
...
This vacuum cleaner can become a useful weapon. This sub-machine gun can become a useful household appliance.
What we produce it depends on the workers, students, and engineers."
That last line is still very relevant today.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnpLS4ct2mM
Makes me think of a quote from an old West German anti-napalm film "Nicht Löschbares Feuer" (The Inextinguishable Fire) [1].
"The students of the Harvard University write that I should leave the criminal Dow Chemical Company.
I'm a chemist. What should I do?
If I develop a substance, someone can come and make something out of it. It could be good for humanity, or it could be bad for humanity.
Besides napalm, Dow Chemical manufactures 800 other products.
The insecticides that we manufacture help mankind.
The herbicides that we manufacture scorch this harvest and cause him harm."
[1] https://vimeo.com/107990231
"(1) A major corporation is like a construction set. It can be used to put together the whole world. (2) Because of the growing division of labor, many people no longer recognize the role they play in producing mass destruction. (3) That which is manufactured in the end is the product of the workers, students, and engineers."
This last thesis is illustrated with an alarmingly clear image. The same actor, each time at a washroom sink, introduces himself as a worker, a student, an engineer. As an engineer, carrying a vacuum cleaner in one hand and a machine gun in the other, he says, "I am an engineer and I work for an electrical corporation. The workers think we produce vacuum cleaners. The students think we make machine guns. This vacuum cleaner can be a valuable weapon. This machine gun can be a useful household appliance. What we produce is the product of the workers, students, and engineers."
From an introduction to Harun Farocki's "Inextinguishable Fire": https://www.harunfarocki.de/films/1960s/1969/inextinguishable-fire.html