Flaherty NYC is proud to host the New York City premiere of Zero Killed, the debut feature of Polish-born, Berlin-based artist Michal Kosakowski, which has steadily garnered acclaim across a number of international festival appearances.
Since 1996 Kosakowski has interviewed dozens of common citizens from a broad swath of national and occupational backgrounds about their murder fantasies. He then offers them a chance to stage them as short films with the stipulation they appear as the perpetrators or victims. For Zero Killed, Kosakowski has revisited his interviewees, many over a decade after the fact, to discuss their emotional reactions to the experiments while further soliciting personal opinions about topics including war, torture, revenge, the death penalty and suicide. The interviews and staged films have been assembled into a running dialog about violence at base, personal and societal levels. The result is a streaming commentary that’s sometimes wryly amusing, often disturbing and always provocative—a richly textured dissection of media and society that begs for the conversation to spill off screen.
Director: Michal Kosakowski. 81 min. 2012. HDCam.
Kosakowski will be in attendance for a post screening discussion with author Andy P. Smith and some of the film's subjects.
Co-presented with Flaherty.
Rescheduled from the original October 31 date.
Ticket Price: $12, Film Club Member: $8
Brief Bio
Born in Szczecin, Poland, in 1975, Michal Kosakowski is the director, writer, producer, director of photography and editor of numerous short and experimental films, documentaries and video installations. His work includes more than 70 films, many of which have been shown in international festivals and exhibitions, and have received numerous awards (Best Documentary Feature for Zero Killed at Chicago Underground Film Festival, Best Short Film for Just Like the Movies – Milano Film Festival 2007, Chilean International Short Film Festival 2007, Amsterdam Film Experience 2007). 1991-1997: Foundation of Dark Productions, independent film production company, Vienna. 1991-1996: Academy of Commerce, Vienna / Graduation in 1996. 1996-1997: Vienna Film Academy / Production Class. 1997-2000: Study at Fabrica / Benetton Communication Research Center, Catena di Villorba / Collaboration with Oliviero Toscani. 2000- 2002: Filmeditor at DMC – Design for Media and Communication, Vienna. 2003-2006: Foundation of nosugar added, film production company, Vienna. 2008-2011: Lecturer at MD.H – Media Design Hochschule, Munich, Germany / Class Experimental Film & Theory of film-making. Since 2011 Foundation of Michal Kosakowski Films, film production company, Berlin, Germany.
Andy P. Smith earned his BFA in Writing at Pratt Institute and his master's degree from NYU. His writing has been published in The Village Voice, Vice Magazine and Colors Magazine.
Andy P. Smith has over 10 years experience in Event Coordination, organizing film screenings, dance parties and concerts in underground venues all across NYC and the USA, including special events for SxSW, The CMJ Music Marathon, The Northside Festival and The Brooklyn Underground Film Festival.
Working as a staff writer at the community newspaper The WG, Andy P. Smith is currently writing a long-form ethnographic study of the last decade's DIY music scene in Brooklyn. He also works as the Education Coordinator at The Yard, a coworking space in Williamsburg, where he curates a curriculum of continuing education.
Most recently, Smith launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign for a participatory theatre project called Zombie Apocalypse: Brooklyn.
He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.