Film: “The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins” (screened Thursday 16 November @ 7:30 PM:)

Media as if People Mattered: Leading at the Speed of Bleeding vs History at the Speed of Love.

Geoff Bowie presented discussed his film (2001, 76 min).

"The Universal Clock" refers to:

• The standardization of TV programs to fit all TV stations anywhere in the world, with ad breaks.

• The industrialization and commodification of TV programming; the McDonald-ization.

• The conditioning of our perception of time from a more human scale to something dictated by the preferences of a global, free market economy.

British director Peter Watkins opposes this trend.

At the heart of "The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins" are portraits of several participants in Watkins' major new film "La Commune (Paris, 1871)," (shown at the Contemporary Arts Center thru November 15, 2006). The eloquent, personal reflections of the portraits testify to the empowering, consciousness-raising effect Watkins’ filmmaking process has on the 'ordinary citizens' with whom he works.

This film was screened free and open to the public at Union Station Video Café, 825 Main Street, Downtown Cincinnati, OH 45202.