Film Is. (1-12)

The pictures are burning. A house is in flames for exactly one minute. Cinema under attack: An anonymous fragment from the early days of film is turned into a reflection on reproduction and reality as well as on destruction which takes place on two levels through Gustav Deutsch’s reworking of the material.

Film ist. 1-6 is an avant-garde collage from Gustav Deutsch, using found footage from various scientific films to explore the properties, impact and nature of film.

Fragments of several (mostly) silent films are shown. They're guided by quotes from, among others, Plato and Sappho and a soundtrack.

In Gustav Deutsch's most recent found footage work the masses "absorb" (Walter Benjamin), the artwork. Three historical camera pans across the streets and squares of Vienna, Surabaya, and Porto provide a starting point for reflection on the relationship of everyday stories and cinematic machinery.

A series of snapshots from the life of a fictional actress named Shirley serves to weave together thirteen paintings by Edward Hopper (e.g. "Office at Night", "Western Motel", "Usherette", "A Woman in the Sun") into a fascinating synthesis of painting and film, personal and political history. Each station in Shirley’s professional and private life from the 1930s to 1960s is precisely dated: It is always August 28/29 of the year in question, as the locations vary from Paris to New York to Cape Cod.

Since 1995, the Viennale has invited renowned directors to create short, one-minute films as personal contributions to the festival. Ranging from home movies to political essays, musical sketches to abstract studies, these “little films” form a unique anthology of cinematic moments. 20 Little Films collects a selection of these works, premiering together for the Viennale’s 50th anniversary at the Locarno Film Festival.

The second half of Gustav Deutsch's experimental Film ist. series, constructing new narratives and moods out of existing footage, mostly from early silent era films.

Twenty-eight well-known filmmakers living and working in Austria were invited by WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006, to produce associative miniatures on Mozart. Requirement: they had to be one-minute artistic short films. The directors come from a whole range of different backgrounds, ranging from animated, experimental and short film to documentaries and feature films. The result is a multi-facetted sampler of diverse formal and contextual positions with regard to Mozart’s person and his influence on today’s society, art and culture. The contributions run the gamut from experimental-conceptual statements through socio-critical and documentary observations to pithy short feature films.

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

100 film loops for 100 film-viewers. Each loop deals with one basic aspect of repetition in life and film. The essential characteristics of each aspect become evident by endless repetition in the loop. "With the Pocket Cinema project I want to trace the repetitions in life and film as an attempt at the essential elements of film - motion and time.

Tradition and modernity, contrasting ways of life: the master of archival footage has assembled an impressive collection. His serene narration takes us inside the private lives of migrant families in different eras, from the beginnings of film to the present day. This new film from one of the great avant-garde directors is also a powerful tribute to a neglected genre.

ADRIA is an artistic analysis of film as a medium and of its meaning as SCHOOL OF SEEING. The subjects of this analysis are the beginnings of the Austrian hobby and amateur film creation, restricted to holiday movies from the Adriatic Sea. The footage was analyzed according to set focal points (image detail, camera movement, etc.) then dissected according to serial aspects (tracking shots, pans, etc.) and edited into new sequences (descriptions, reactions, etc.) These sequences are liberated from their individual isolation and unified in a sequence that reflects the general situation. This general situation reflects upon two aspects. One is the first active involvement with film as a medium - in front of and behind the camera - and the other aspect highlights social contexts such as the first holiday abroad and organizing one’s leisure time.Therefore the private depiction of an individual situation becomes a document of a general situation.