Paranormal (1997)

• 75%
• 1997
• Documentary
• Gerda Lampalzer
• Manfred Opperman

It appears as if the "world's loss of magic" which Max Weber talked about has reached a climax and provoked a counter reaction. The interest in inexplicable phenomena is growing, something which can even be measured by the propensity of those unerring trend barometers, the television stations, to broadcast a fill of material of this nature. Paranormal phenomena manifest a remainder from the factual world which cannot be explained. They represent another dimension which requires a "medium", be it human or technical, in order to be perceived. The film Paranormal undertakes research in the milieu of borderline science as a parallel activity. The filmmakers seek out experts and amateurs in the field of the supernatural and ask them to explain the methods by which they make contact with the "cosmic information web". The necessary apparatus forms the central part of the report. In their search for "units of sense" in the chaos, the researchers use, interestingly enough, those techniques which are presently central to popular culture ­ de-construction, sampling and scratching. Parallel to this Lampalzer / Oppermann also undertake their own experiments by various cinematographic means, ranging from single frame photography to a manipulated Super 8 camera. The failure to make contact is shown ­ partly ironic and partly laconic. The end is left open to interpretation ­ unexposed film material hung in a tree becomes an ambiguous sign.