Title- and Graphic Design for the TV-Documentary Knock Off - Revenge Of The Logos, a social commentary about the knock-off industry. Directed by: — Katharina Weingartner and Annette Baldauf. Clients: — Knock Off Prod., Arte TV, ZDF
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RELATED LINKS:
www.arte.tv
www.zdf.de
THE VILLAGE VOICE:
"Venturing further up the island, Knock Off begins on Canal Street and winds up in Harlem. The ostensible subject is the sale of designer knockoffs, a growing segment of New York's underground economy that the filmmakers sympathetically position within the history of Asian American immigrant labor (one activist even argues for piracy as a crucial means of empowerment for immigrant communities). As the film moves uptown, it expands into a broader examination of shopping culture in late capitalist America, with electronic sounds and multilingual titles creating an air of Kraftwerkian detachment, and recurring themes emerging from the episodic structure. The Soho segment not only nails the essential creepiness of the huge billboards that dominate Houston Street but introduces the notion of shopping as performance, a view taken up by activist-comedian Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping, seen here against the backdrop of that "theater of branding" known as Times Square. Knock Off never quite manages to account for the mysterious appeal of designer labels, but it does embrace the relevant if unoriginal idea that the knockoff is often even better than the real thing."
THE NEW YORK TIMES:
"Knock Off: Revenge on the Logo is a documentary which takes a multi-leveled look at the phenomenon of the knockoffs, from shoppers simply looking for a bargain and immigrants hoping to make a living wage working under the radar to activists who see knockoffs as a way of empowering consumers who are tired of paying top dollar for products they've been conditioned to want and who want to rebel against designer culture. Offering a guided tour of knockoff culture from Canal Street to Harlem, Knock Off: Revenge on the Logo also features a performance by activist entertainer Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping."
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