Machines in Flames sparked a resurgence of interest in its protagonist, CLODO: the mysterious collective bombing computer companies in early 1980s France. Enabling this resurgence was the film’s wide distribution, appearance in magazines, and selection in film festivals.
Reviews ︎
“
Part desktop documentary, part evocative experimental film, this philosophical video essay succeeds in enacting the ‘detective logic of the digital’ like few other works I have seen.
” - BFI Sight and Sound, Best Video Essays of 2023.
“a highly unorthodox film that consciously displays its internal wiring throughout” - Tribune Magazine
“a highly unorthodox film that consciously displays its internal wiring throughout” - Tribune Magazine
“Culp and Dekeyser use unconventional techniques – such as allowing part of the narrative to unfold on a Macbook screenshare – that remain true to the anarchic spirit of the group.” - Huck Magazine
“Aesthetically it is such a poetic slow wandering among zoom interfaces, archival images and slow video shots of the streets of Toulouse, and the narrator voice is incredibly soothing, while taking you in on so many social and political aspects.” - curator, Fotomuseum Winterhur
“combines traces of archives, stories of companies targeted by the CLODO to think about the self-destruction of machines and cybernetics.” - lundi matin
Screenings ︎
Machines in Flames has been shown in 70+ venues, including museums, political venues, hacker festivals, squats, and universities. These include:
The Photographers’ Gallery / Fotomuseum Winterthur
CalArts Expo 2022
CineMovil
Mayday Rooms
Sorbonne University
University of Amsterdam
PRATT
Techno-Police Festival
Université Paris 8
BDP-Haus
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
New Centre for Research & Practice
La Générale
architekturforum oberösterreich
Brighton University
Film Festivals ︎
Selection, Bergamo Film Meeting International Film Festival 2023. (Italian Premiere)
Selection, WRO Biennale 2023. (Polish Premiere)
Selection, Breaking the Frame: Cambridge Film Festival.Selection, WRO Biennale 2023. (Polish Premiere)
Interviews (selection) ︎
“Machines in Flames: Documentary proves mystery of French IT workers who bombed tech firms - then vanished”, the i.
“The Anti-Tech Militants Militants Who Never Got Caught”, Popular Front Podcast.
“Machines in Flames”, Theorizing the Web.
“Smash the Computers”, Tribune Magazine / Jacobin Latin America.
“The French anarchists who took on sinister tech giants”, Huck Magazine.