Xcèntric 2018
Adam Curtis. A natural history of power. Session 8
The Century of the Self
Audiovisuals
Free
Adam Curtis is the leading figure in contemporary audiovisual essay. His films and series, as lucid as they are revealing, show the operation of power, its winding architecture, and how it marks both present-day geopolitics and us.
Freud’s lessons about the unconscious reached the US transformed by one of his nephews, Edward Bernays, into tools for marketing and, to some extent, the rise of individualism. Another contemporary pioneer in public relations, the inventor and director of General Motors Charles Kettering, famously said: “The key to economic prosperity is the organised creation of dissatisfaction. Presentation with Cloe Masotta.
The Century of the Self:
Episode 1: Happiness Machines, 2002, 60 min
This cycle, curated by Chema González, brings together almost the entire body of work of this English journalist and producer, re-editing the vast archives of the BBC. The films are screened in remastered copies accompanied by presentations and debates about Curtis’s work.
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