by Nam June PAIK with Charlotte MOORMAN
Guest: Bob EDWARDS
Cinematographer: Steve MASON
Narrator: Russell CONNOR
Location Director: Frank PILLEGGI
Sound Effects: Laurie SPIEGEL
Camera: Bill VIOLA, Michael PURSCHE, Peter HARDY, Richard MAUDE, Graham HELLET
Produced by the TV Lab at WNET/ Thirteen

One of Paik’s most overtly political and poignant statements, Guadalcanal Requiem is a performance/documentary collage that confronts history, time, cultural memory, and mythology on the site of one of World War II’s most devastating battles. Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands is the iconic setting upon which Paik inscribes symbolic gestures and performances. Scenes of Charlotte Moorman performing with her cello, interviews with American and Japanese veterans and Solomon Islanders, and archival footage of the battle are juxtaposed, synthesized, layered, colorized, and otherwise electronically manipulated. The imagery is haunting and often surreal: Charlotte Moorman crawls along the beach in a G.I. uniform with a cello strapped to her back, plays a Beuys felt cello, and performs while concealed in a body bag. The subtext of this extraordinary collage is Paik’s assertion that global conflict arises as a result of cultural miscommunication.

“Guadalcanal Requiem” 1977

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