‘ZERO KILLED’ REVIEW + INTERVIEW @ PROJECTION
by Celeste Ramos | Projection, Oct 29, 2012
0K: Zero Killed and an interview with director Michal Kosakowski
Don’t worry. No one dies in this article.
Sixteen years in the making, Zero Killed looks at the dark side in all of us — the fascination with killing and death that, more than anything, points to the issues in our waking lives. Director Michal Kosakowski’s work has long revolved around violence and the motivating issues beneath it. “Fortynine”, the video art installation displayed in a mirrored room, was the precursor to the Zero Killed film that exposed people to 49 looping films showing very real-looking murders. From tortures to suicides, psychopathic one-on-one’s to quick-and-clean poisonings. Shootings, “accidents,” war crimes. As much as it sounds like TV news, these are the real fantasies of the main victim or perpetrator in each film, a living dark fantasy now made immortal thanks to the medium of film.
Michal Kosakowski is the prolific director of more than 70 films, a mix of shorts, documentaries, and original fiction. Often critiquing and interpreting the effects of media on the perception of human interactions and violence, his style is intelligent and disturbing. From a chalk outline exhibit to a collection of Hollywood film clips depicting the Twin Towers that “helped” in the public absorption of 9/11, Michal has long kept a close eye on how and why human beings act the way they do in the arena of violence.
Upon watching Zero Killed, I couldn’t help but imagine whether the whole process was traumatic or cathartic, or some shadow in between for them. What does it mean to be murdered, or murder someone else on screen for any and all to see? And what does it mean that people will pay money to see such things? (more…)
Zero Killed – Official Movie Site 