Actions of Indication

An experimental biopic that explores the life of Swiss writer Robert Walser. The film deliberately avoids a linear narrative structure and approaches Walser more in the form of a poetic meditation on the life of a poet. Walser is portrayed as a role model for the film's author, who has radically distanced himself from or rejected the grammar and rhetoric of conventional film more than his colleagues.

The film Autoportrait is made up of four parts: Part 1: Search, Part 2: Work, Part 3: Daydream, Part 4: Family. Each of the parts can be shown as a self-contained film.

A short film by HHK Schoenherr

"Location: a ballet company, Mrs. Cordua training alone, training together with another person, head exercises, body exercises, leg and arm exercises, supporting herself, working in the ballet room, taking off her makeup in the dressing room, undressing, washing herself carefully, treating all of the sweaty places of her body (armpits, anus, genitalia), getting dressed, opera house corridors, canteen, driving through the city, typical buildings, shops, factory complexes on the way; apartment—opera house and back, her husband reading the newspaper, sitting, lying down, working, smoking, cooking potatoes, eating potatoes, opening the mail, drinking coffee, filming, caring for feat, mouth, while saying something amusing, hand movement (beheading gesture meaning it is finished), a TV film, dancer relaxing in private, smoking, discussing, disparaging, a TV film, drinking tea, the end: that certain shine in Mrs. Cordua's eyes!" (HHK)

As a word, play stands for playing, playful, giving full play to your imagination, play-acting style, play at passion, playground, manner of playing, playing for time, phase of play, playing a joke, play document, playing field, playroom, and everything that has to do with film, the film stock, with its color and black/white. Unexposed, overexposed and double-and multiple-exposed film, waste material and the creations of fancy.

"This idyll was made for a Dracula film project by Ernst Schmidt of Vienna, who wrote to various European filmmakers in order to produce a bigger film with their participation." (HHK)

Experimental film with a doll.

"In Germany, I bought an old 35mm Debrie camera. I spent several weeks working with this camera and found that its mechanics were marvelously thought out and that the way the camera was made was proof of the skilled craftsmanship back then. I developed a procedure which also allowed me to use the camera as a printing machine. The printing process is not so different from the filming process, as far as the transport of the film goes . . . It was a lot of fun to try to exhaust the possibilities of the Debrie. It was not only the mechanics that were exciting, like the works of a wonderful old clock, but the numerous possibilities for the realization of the second part of the film, too. This consists mainly of what has already been shot, but offers at least 50% more experimental manipulations in the printed part." (HHK)

"An attempt to make a portrait of my wife." (HHK)

A short film by Raphaela Schoenherr with HHK Schoenherr.