A R C H I V E1 9 8 6  
5th
  Jayce Salloum
The ascent of man
  USA 1986
Videotape, 14:56, colour and black-and-white
Perfectly simple material from television broadcasts proves able, in the hands of a specialist film-editor, to provide a fascinating view of the rise of homo sapiens. The video is in three parts: 'Silent running', 'Silent running - appendix' and 'Conditions of mercy' (the last part has, according to apologetic titles, still to receive finishing touches, though these can surely have no bearing on the content). Salloum demonstrates here how, in his view, the slippery slope of scientific materialism is leading humanity to one destination: in a nutshell, to extinction.

Pim Oxener