dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y by Johan Grimonprez (English)

Buckle up for dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, the acclaimed hijacking documentary that eerily foreshadowed 9-11. We meet the romantic skyjackers who fought their revolutions and won airtime on the passenger planes of the 1960’s. By the 1990s, such characters apparently are no more, replaced on our TV screens by stories of state-sponsored suitcase bombs. Director Johan Grimonprez investigates the politics behind this change, at the same time unwrapping our own complicity in the urge for ultimate disaster. Playing on Don DeLillo’s riff in the novel MAO II: ‘what terrorists gain, novelists lose’ and ‘home is a failed idea’, he blends archive hijackings with surreal and banal themes including fast food, pet statistics, disco and his quirky home movies. David Shea wrote the superb soundtrack to this roller coaster through history, best described in the words of one hijacked Pepsi executive as: “running the gamut of many emotions: from surprise to shock, to fear, to joy, to laughter and then again, fear.”

CREDITS

dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

a film by Johan Grimonprez

1997, Belgium-France, digital betacam,

color & black/white, 68 min, stereo

excerpts

Mao II and White Noise by Don DeLillo

original music and sample collage by

David Shea

written and directed by

Johan Grimonprez

production

Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, New Media Department, Paris; Kunstencentrum

STUK, Leuven

with the support of:

Documenta X, Kassel

Klapstuk 97, Leuven

Fundación Provincial de Cultura, Diputación de Cádiz

The Fascinating Faces of Flanders

Ministry of the Flemish Community

original language

English

translations

French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Galician

Excerpts from White Noise (Don DeLillo, 1984-1985) and Mao II (Don DeLillo, 1991) are used by permission of the author and the Wallace Literary Agency Inc.

press package

[email protected]

www.johangrimonprez.be