Illich on film

Just for the record, there is an interesting film of Ivan Illich available from a German Web merchant as a paid download. Shot by German documentary maker Gordian Troeller in 1976, it shows Illich at CIDOC and includes much footage of the festival held there as that institution shut itself down. (CIDOC spawned a handful of language-instruction schools, many of which are still operating today.)

There's a lengthy description of the 43-minute film at the site of Download-Film on this page. Beware, though, like the film itself, this page is written in German. Prices range from 5 euros to 20 euros, depending on the quality of video encoding.

Given what we know of Illich's general reluctance to give interviews, it's difficult to imagine him cooperating with any film-maker, but the official Troeller site includes a biography that indicates at least partial sympathy with Illich's thought:

From 1963 to 1998 Troeller made 89 films. The main canon of his work dealt with the subject “development leads only to lesser development” – a credo he maintained throughout his working life. Troeller made a conscious decision against the fiction of the “objective documentary” and opted for the concept of complete “editorial partiality” to describe his works. It is precisely for this reason that his films are particularly suitable for pedagogical purposes, far more so than so called neutral reporting: Troeller’s films are all based on theories, that can be critically assessed. Troeller has a definite point of view and his intentions are clearly stated. This is material which is hugely enjoyable and debatable. For every theory put forward reasons are given and evidence provided. It is precisely because of the fundamental questions that his films raise that these films remain so topical and worth seeing today. His canon of work will endure.