(40:00)

     Bertolt Brecht’s constructions, all told, were attempts to appropriate ‘mendacious straightforward realism’ in popular media for purposes of shock and interruption. 

     Mechanical aids, writes Brecht, were to be employed “not to help out the spectator but to block him; they prevent his complete empathy, interrupt his being automatically carried away.”  And while Brecht was leery of the camera’s Cyclopean gaze, it was clear that its montage-effect could achieve ‘critical distance’. 

     Here, Brecht’s “Chock” effect intended to be more cerebral than visceral -- where fragmentation, the incorporation of documentary media, parody, nudity, musical interlude, among others, conflate to break illusion, deny emotional catharsis, and to instead educate the audience (V-effekt). 

     Passive reception was to be replaced with intellectual co-production.

Read the full project HERE.