Wittgenstein Abecedarium grew out of a long-term project that I started five years ago, that involved living as an itinerant filmmaker, changing residence every month or so. In each location, I would look for a subject to make a film about - a street, a river, a person, an idea - anything the place might suggest to me. I don’t write conventional narrative scripts or outlines - my films evolve in response to my changing experience of the person, place, or thing, talking to people, and through reading and research. For each film, I try to adapt or invent a form to fit the subject.

 

I had studied Wittgenstein in college, and on a whim, visited his grave while I happened to be passing through Cambridge 5 years ago. After spending time in the graveyard and meeting people who make pilgrimages to his gravesite, I decided make a film in Cambridge, based on my own personal view of his work, life and relationship to art and culture.

Wittgenstein Abecedarium was shot over three years in the Ascension burial ground, collecting archival still and moving images, re-reading Wittgenstein,researching biographies, memoirs and dissertations, and interviewing the people who come to visit his grave. At the same time, I was editing and re-editing the film using multiple spreadsheets to create the structure of the film.

​

Jeffrey Hall