Passing the Hat S-VHS and Beta-SP. Video on begging. Camera/ editing/direction: HDT Sound and directional assistance: Carl Hulverscheidt Assistant editor: Maria Zastrow Music: street music, Jacques Ibert, Lennon/McCartney Commissioning Editor: Carl-Ludwig Rettinger Production: 3SAT 1989. Length: 11:38.

Adresssing a subject like begging without the use of spoken commentary requires a great degree of iconographic concentration.

The motifs of begging are by no means „sociological“ in nature: the mere fact that more and more people are being rendered superfluous and excluded from the usual social cycle of work and compensation, even within Europe, says nothing about begging itself and the dignity associated with it. The various forms by which it is „prettified“ (i.e. through street art and welfare) are also taken into consideration here.

The images and sounds in this video are meant to stimulate thoughts and feelings on the subject, not to provide an analysis of begging as phenomenon. „Passing The Hat“ was my first video commissioned by TV.