Total Refusal (pseudo-Marxist media guerilla)

Fri Feb 7th
doors: 7pm
films: 7:30

$5 – $15 suggested donation
FREE POPCORN

No Name Cinema
2013 Pinon Street
Santa Fe, NM 87505
nonamecinema.org

Total Refusal (pseudo-Marxist media guerilla)

The artist-, researcher-, and filmmaker-collective Total Refusal (Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf) explores and practices strategies for artistic intervention in contemporary computer games. It works with tools of appropriation and rededication of game resources. The collective’s themes are informed by critical game studies and social theory in an attempt to promote and popularize a counter-hegemonic left. They also gain their inspiration from the gaming communities to practice “agitainment” – a synthesis of agitation and entertainment. By pouring post-Marxist analysis into the glossy world of video games, the collective aims to provide an accessible yet critical examination of mass media and its underlying ideological algorithms. Its work spans films, video art, live in-game performances, texts and educational initiatives. They call their films “Machinifestos” – political manifestos expressed through machinima. By bridging the worlds of academia, art, film and gaming, Total Refusal catalyzes a Marxist critique of society through playful, analytic and humorous practice in order to radicalize its audience.

Since Total Refusal formed in 2018, their work has received over 65 awards and honorary mentions – such as the European Film Award, Best Short Direction Award at the Locarno Film Festival, the Diagonale Film Award for the Best Short Documentary, the Contemporary Visual Arts Award of Styria and the Vimeo Staff Pick Award. Total Refusals’ work has been screened at over 250 film & art festivals, such as Berlinale, Doc Fortnight at MOMA New York and the Locarno Film Festival. Their work has also been shown at various exhibition spaces like the Architecture Biennial Venice 2021, the HEK Basel, and the Ars Electronica Linz.