Cinematic interaction: From kinoautomat to cause and effect

Abstract The world's first interactive movie was created in Czechoslovakia and called Kinoautomat. After achieving world fame at the Expo'67 in Montreal, this pioneering work of interactive narrative quickly disappeared from memory. Inspired by my own long-standing personal interest in interactive film, I set out to discover as much as possible about the Kinoautomat, with the ultimate aim of making an interactive DVD from the original materials. Although the process has involved considerable archaeology it has proved ultimately successful, and has had the additional result of fuelling a new dimension to my own personal work – the ‘live’ performance of an interactive film show called Cause and Effect in which the audience are encouraged to interact in various ways with the different films presented.