How Long Is Now

Synopsis

Over the course of the 20th century humanity was concerned with the question: what will the world evolve into at the turn of the millennium? Michael Busch addresses the historical legacy of the last hundred years and its utopian potential to reflect on the most pressing problems of our time. The film is a mosaic of images from newsreels and experimental sketches, as well as fragments of lectures given by Boris Groys, Helga Nowotny, James Scott and other researchers at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Russian cosmists' idea of immortality, the UN declaration 1514, the body enhancements of the techno sphere, the history of the railways and the algorithms are among the many other 20th century narratives which determine our understanding of what is “now” at a deep level. With its loose structure, Michael Busch's film creates a productive intellectual space in which poignant questions about the present can be articulated.