I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see videos by Mathew Barney, but when I arrived there I fell in love with a video, “Reel-Unreel”, by Francis Alys. It's part of the exhibition, “Elevated: Contemporary Art in the AGO Tower”.
Alys has documented children’s games in a number of countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, and Afghanistan, among others. He filmed Reel-Unreel in Kabul in 2011. A group of boys invent a game using reels of film that presumably belonged to the Film Archive of Afghanistan. The Taliban confiscated and burned the archive in 2008. The film is shot from the point of view of the Afghani boys as they race through the streets of Kabul using the reels like hoops, the celluloid images trailing a long line behind them.
Alys has documented children’s games in a number of countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, and Afghanistan, among others. He filmed Reel-Unreel in Kabul in 2011. A group of boys invent a game using reels of film that presumably belonged to the Film Archive of Afghanistan. The Taliban confiscated and burned the archive in 2008. The film is shot from the point of view of the Afghani boys as they race through the streets of Kabul using the reels like hoops, the celluloid images trailing a long line behind them.
(It's quicker to link to Francis Alys and open Reel-Unreel there than to link to the film directly.If you click on the link for the film it will take a minute or two to download.)
