Pinocchio (1995/2000)

⭆ Film & Art | A 16mm short film / viral video by Martin Reinhart, 1 min

This short film was originally made in reaction to the perfidious campaign of the xenophobic and nationalist Austrian Freedom Party (FPO). By claiming that their leader, notorious demagogue Joerg Haider, had never lied to to the public, they insinuated that the established parties were deep-state forces working against the Austrian people. During the 1995 National Council election all of Vienna was blanketed with this slogan. The reaction of Viennese citizens was fierce and the posters were spontaneously “redesigned” in many ways almost as soon as they were put up. One example was the simple deletion of “never” in the sentence "He never lied to you", completely reversing the meaning. On others, the party leader’s face was decorated with Pinocchio noses and Hitler moustaches.

I asked my students to document the spectacle of the posters being re-edited and re-painted every day, and from the hundreds of photos they produced I made a silent 16mm film. This first film was screened rarely at the time, but the idea received new momentum in 2000 when the political situation changed for the worse. The FPO was then part of the coalition government sparking regular protests against their reactionary and rassist politics culminating in the Donnerstagsdemonstrationen [Thrusday demonstrations] with tens of thousands taking part . I decided to make a second version of the film, on video and with sound.

It was at this time that the first IPTV companies started in Vienna and other possibilities of watching video content online also became available, so it seemed only logical to distribute the film via these channels. It went viral over-night and became something like the unofficial hymn against the government. The clip was published under the label »nachbild-agentur« – an artistic cooperation between Katarina Matiasek and myself– so only close friends were aware I had made it.