At 24 Hours, Film Redefines ‘Real Time’ – and, Perhaps, ‘Horror Flick’

Two years ago, New York artist Mary Ellen Carroll and a skeleton production crew began filming the Federal Building at 11000 Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles. One day later, they were done.The result of this project, a 24-hour movie titled “Federal,” makes its New York premiere at Cinema Village tomorrow at 9 a.m. The screening, which runs through the night and concludes Friday at 9 a.m., takes place exactly two years after “Federal” was filmed, on July 28 and 29 in 2003. The event also corresponds with the actual time outside: At 4 p.m. tomorrow, the film will be showing 4 p.m. at the Federal Building.“It’s about what happens when you look at something for a long period of time,” said Sarah Herda, director of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in SoHo, which is currently displaying 24 still shots of the Federal Building photographed during the filming of the movie.Over the course of 24 hours, the light in the sky changes from dark blue to pale yellow to bright azure. The lights in the office building go on and off. A bouquet of flowers appears in the film’s fore ground. Helicopters sound overhead. Two production assistants discuss their finances.Although it is hard to predict people’s reactions to daylong exposure to an office building described by some architectural guidebooks as the “embodiment of bureaucracy,” Ms. Carroll said, “There are certain things that are universal anticipations. People think they’ll be bored, people think they know what it will be about.” But ultimately, she said, “Everyone has their own experience of it.”Ms. Carroll had photographed the Federal Building over the course of 15 years, but when she decided to film the building for a single day, she ran into a logistical labyrinth made all the more confusing after September 11. Even after securing the required permissions to film, the camera crew was questioned by the FBI, Secret Service, the CIA, and the police, although no one stopped the filming. Snippets of these conversations can be heard in the background of the film.The camera crew filmed the north and south facades of the building simultaneously, which makes a total of 48 hours of footage. The movie will be shown on two screens within the theater, allowing audience members to choose which side of the building they want to watch. They can even get up and switch rooms, but that also means that they can’t view the entire movie.“It’s completely inconsumable,” Ms. Herda said. “Even if you wanted to, you can’t watch it all.” (She has in fact not yet seen the film in its entirety.)Ms. Herda expects several hundred people to show up at different times during the screening. Some are coming at 9 a.m. sharp. Another group responded that they would arrive at 4:30 a.m. At the premiere in Vienna, Austria, six people sat through the entire show.Just in case, Ms. Herda explained that the theater is equipped to handle an all-night viewing: “The chairs are pretty comfortable and there’s a good espresso machine.”Screening: Tomorrow, 9 a.m.-Friday, 9.a.m., Cinema Village,22 E.12th St., between University Place and Fifth Avenue, 212-924-3363, e-mail rsvp@storefrontnews.org for information, free, $10 suggestion donation. Photography exhibit: Through Saturday, August 6,Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Storefront for Art and Architecture, 97 Kenmare St. at Cleveland Place, 212-431-5795, free.

At 24 Hours, Film Redefines ‘Real Time’ – and, Perhaps, ‘Horror Flick’

At 24 Hours, Film Redefines ‘Real Time’ – and, Perhaps, ‘Horror Flick’

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