Lights, camera, … protest! Austrian film-makers and the extreme right

When the extreme-right, populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) formed a coalition government in February 2000 there was wide-spread international outcry, with the European Union placing sanctions on its co-member country pending an investigation into the party and its practices. In Austria itself, protest manifested itself in acts of regular street demonstrations and public debates, but artists, too, expressed their resistance to the new coalition government in a variety of forms. This article discusses a dozen short films from the series, 'Die Kunst der Stunde ist Widerstand'/'The Art of the Day is Resistance' and explores the range of different aesthetic responses by film-makers in the series. The series offers far more than simply documents of the unrest. Instead, it provides extensive and innovative stimulus for critical engagement.