How Long Is “Controle No. 6”?

Shot entirely on CCTV cameras while working at a suburban multiplex cinema, Jann Clavadetscher’s Controle No 6 is no budget filmmaking in the truest sense. Constructed over many weeks, Jann surreptitiously performed for the cinema’s security cameras, in empty car parks, box office booths and lifts, only later going back to comb through these tapes in an attempt to retrieve the material in which he appears. With movie star looks and an affection for body comedy, Jann could be situated as the Harold Lloyd of the Experimental Film Society of which he forms part (as unlikely as that sounds). Lloyd serves as a model here for a naturally physical performer, but also for the ways in which Clavadetscher gracefully skips over what would otherwise be impossibly restrictive conditions in which to make a film.