Pauline Boudry, Renate Lorenz, Brigitta Kuster

Copy Me _ I want to Travel

Germany | 2004 | 68' 00'' | color | mono | bulgarian + english | english or german

The copy of which the film is talking about was produced in Bulgaria: in the eighties the Western product Apple-II was dismantled there and put together again as the Eastern product Pravetz II. The reverse engineering of a successful personal computer, the copy comes into operation in the Cold War. Unofficially it is a copy; officially it is a Bulgarian production. As every copy it fails its original. Something particular was created in Bulgaria and produced collective desires: it was supposed to be a successful product, a mass product, which would help the small country Bulgaria catch up to the USA. The computer was supposed to outsmart the West and with its help one wanted to make fun of those, „who donʼt even know where Bulgaria is.” In the production of the copy women took on a special role. Many of them working in high positions and carrying „three watermelons under one arm”: officially women were enjoying equal rights, but unofficially one would say said in the socialist Bulgaria, „Woman carry three watermelons under one arm. They are supposed to be a good activist, a good housewife and a good worker.” Later, during the transition from socialism to capitalism, the computer was also used for the production of viruses. Once made, the viruses copied themselves and traveled: „The USA can deny entry to me, but not to my viruses”, said Dark Avenger, a virus writer whose products caused major damage in companies in the USA. But collective desires were also deflected, got stuck. The production copied the way of production of Western capitalism; the virus writers were considered losers without an „understanding of property”. Many of the computer kids became women programmers and hardware specialists, who earn little at the few existing Bulgarian companies and earn well or better, if they work for an American or German company. Many of the women we were searching for already left the country and live with working permits in the USA, in Canada or in South Africa.