On Africa (1970)

Skip Norman shot On Africa after graduating from the German Film and Television Academy DFFB On the level of the image we see tracking shots through West Berlin information detailing the economic gains of colonialist exploitations and photographs from West Africa while the soundtrack shares facts about the continents conquest and decolonization As Norman himself put it The starting point is the relationship between Europes prosperity and Africas poverty Europes destruction of societies and cultures and the simultaneous use of Christianity and racial theories as justification for a massive exploitation of the colonized On Africa was first shown in 1970 and then broadcast on television by WDR in 1972 In 2020 the Harun Farocki Institut was able to digitize a 16mm print from the archive at the WDR