Video

Orentlicher Selected Works 1981 - 1988

John Orentlicher

1995, colour, English

TAPECODE 347.41

About A Ton of Coal, 1988, 13:00 mins
In this tape, Orentlicher examines a club in Marengo, New York which constructs live steam trains and owns eighteen acres of railroad to run them on. On the steam trains, Orentlicher says: "My interest in them was centered on their committment to a technology of the past and their consuming passion for its preservation". The tape slowly reveals the character and skill required to transfer material into a passion.

Agri-culture, 1987, 8:30 mins
A documentary approach to the largest technology fair for farmers in the Northeast. The tape examines the influx of technology on what was always viewed as pastoral, family oriented way of life into agri-business. Layered audio with visual effects.

Seekers 1985 16:30
Critical documentary of two contemporary pleasure industries. A video dating service and Plato's Retreat, a defunct swinger's club in New York City. The tape weaves the two phenomena together with a promise of romance, and voyeuristic or vicarious experience is anticipated, but never delivered.

Just a Feeling, 1985, 16:00 mins

Neurite, 1983, 20:00 mins
A critical documentary on the rituals practiced by surgeons to soften the interaction between the medical establishment and patients. The reality of surgical encounters with a focus on the ritual of preparation with narrative is provided to expand on the rite and its function.

Technics & Liberation, 1981, 25:00 mins
A man and a woman explore sexual concerns in narrative form inter cut with technical substitutes for heterosexuality. 3 parts.

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