Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik

The first film ever projected is listed under the title THE WORKERS LEAVING THE FACTORY, but the workers’ film has not become a main genre in film history. The space in front of the gate is far from being a preferred cinematic location. I have collected images from several countries and many decades expressing the idea “exiting the factory”, both staged and documentary – as if the the time has come to collect film-sequences, in the way words are brought together in a dictionary. (Harun Farocki)