VIVE LE CAPITAL, HD Video Installation, 2010-2012, 15’05”

Pascal works on Wall Street and surpasses greed to become a prominent philanthropist. Greed surpasses Pascal because he works on Wall Street.

VIVE LE CAPITAL is a deliberation on a love/hate relationship with money. The plot pirouettes between the protagonist’s soliloquy in French, and dancers who respond in various transgressive behaviors. Three of them travel to the time of Cosimo De Medici and visit the roots of our banking system; they also pay homage to the French Revolution and embody John Law, the first Ponzi schemer in history.

The site for the film is 14 WALL STREET — the former Bankers Trust building. BT’s fraudulent activity was recorded and used as evidence in a trial that led to its dispersion in 1998. Amongst other sources, fragments of the original court transcripts were incorporated into the film’s text.

EXHIBITED AT: Videobrasil, MACRO Museum, Rome, No Longer Empty, NY, Kino Der Kunst, Munich, Anthology Film Archives, NY, Loikka Helsinki, BANK Shanghai, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe; in the collection of MUDAM Luxembourg.

CAST:
Pascal Yen-Pfister, Savina Theodorou, Nicholas Ruiz, Sandra Passirani, Meagan A Woods

CREW:
Editor: Jeremy C. Hansen, DP and Camera: Chapin Hall, 2nd Camera: Hiroshi Hara, Music composition: Timothy Korn, Location Sound: Timothy Korn, Assistants: Matt Doers, Shmulik Friedman, Nick McGovern, Costumes: Renana Banit, Orit Ben-Shitrit, Meli Sanfiorenzo, Meagan Woods, Body paint: Dana James, Voice artist: Regis Zaleman, French Translation: Herve Rhinn

GENEROUS POST PRODUCTION SUPPORT:
The Ostrovsky Family Fund, Artis

IN KIND DONATIONS:
Space residency courtesy of LMCC’s SwingSpace program, Materials for the Arts, Film within film: Die Rothschilds

SPECIAL THANKS:
Gregory Minevich, Jean De Boysson, Matt Doers, Sally Haftel, Jason O’Neal, Bailey Roberts, Brett Van Deusen, Tal Yahas

WRITTEN DIRECTED AND PRODUCED by Orit Ben-Shitrit