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

A FILM BY JOHAN GRIMONPREZ


Excerpts from 'Mao II' & 'White Noise' by DON DELILLO
Music by DAVID SHEA




GOLDEN SPIRE WINNER
San Fransisco International Filmfestival

DIRECTOR’S CHOICE
Images, Toronto




Exceptional for its juice, its jazzy, compelling fusion of social and esthetic issues, and its stomach churning power -The New York Times

A visceral impact, a sense of urgency and a wrenching emotional attack
-The Times, London

Each cut turns a screw deeper until your mind starts to hurt
-San Francisco Bay Guardian

An eccentric rollercaster ride through history -Time Out London

Historical, hysterical and hilarious! -De Morgen

Hypnotizing! -Los Angeles Times




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.”


dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris). Acclaimed as the most exceptional entry at the International Art Exhibition Dokumenta X (Kassel), the film has since traveled internationally in numerous festivals, exhibits and broadcasts. The film was awarded the GOLDEN SPIRE at the San Francisco Film Festival, the DIRECTOR’S CHOICE at Images, Toronto, and made the official festival selection at Telluride, Rotterdam, New York, Tokyo, Berlin. Since then it has been broadcast on all major European television channels.

dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y resides currently in major museum collections: The Tate Modern, London; the National Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; The Lousianer Museum, Copenhagen; the Nationalgallerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; SMAK, Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst, Ghent, as well as other private collections.





dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y
by JOHAN GRIMONPREZ

Belgium-France, color & black/white, 68 min, stereo, dvd (2003) after the original digital betacam (1997)

EXCERPTS from 'Mao II' and 'White Noise' by Don DeLillo
ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SAMPLE COLLAGE by David Shea
WRITTEN & DIRECTED by Johan Grimonprez
PRODUCTION: Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, New Media Department, Paris & Kunstencentrum STUC, 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, Brussels.

PRODUCTION DVD: argosedition vzw & zapomatik vzw
© 2003 Johan Grimonprez
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: English
TRANSLATIONS: French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Galician

THE BOOK IS PUBLISHED BY: Hatje Cantz Publishers
PRODUCTION: argosedition vzw & zapomatik vzw
DESIGN: Peter Bilak, Den haag
First edition 2003
Printed in Germany

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.

© Johan Grimonprez 1997/2002





Contact: www.zapomatik.com