A web docu series in four parts on JFK’s trip to Vienna in 1961

On November 22, 2013, the 50th anniversary of JFK assassination, Yosi Wanunu and Peter Stamer drove in a chauffeured limousine around the streets of Vienna to commemorate the death of John F. Kennedy.

We followed the timeline of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas (which took place at 12.30) seven hours ahead, Vienna time. We took the same route Kennedy took when he visited Vienna in June, 1961. The visit became known as the Vienna Summit. It was essentially a Cold War meeting between Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the then Soviet Union, and JFK in his self-appointed role as the leader of the free world. Kennedy later said of Khrushchev: “He beat the hell out of me” and that the Vienna visit was the “worst thing in my life. He savaged me.”

Little did he know. Kennedy, obviously, didn’t anticipate November 22, 1963.

‚Driving Mr Kennedy’ was essentially a coda to our project ‘The Big Event’. While driving around the city, we discussed the project, talked about the relevance of JFK’s assassination to today’s world, and how the life and death of Kennedy remains all but impossible to pin down. During our drive we picked up experts and guests at different meeting points around the city. They joined us for a joy ride to talk about the Kennedy era (memories, opinions, observations…) and its reverberations.

Concept and Interviews: Yosi Wanunu and Peter Stamer; Camera: TimTom; Editing: Michael Strohmann

Jackie: Magda Loitzenbauer

Guests: Oliver Rathkolb, Stefan Zahlmann, Jonas Ferdinand Kilga, Stini Subal, Harold Otto

Black-and-white
“Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood”