Transfiguration: Slow Approximation

For quite some time i have been fascinated by the spectacular beauty of the 13th Century Roman Liturgy for Easter. AUgustin's (Philosopher and church teacher who lived during the transition from the Antique to the Middle Ages) words about the art of the Sequence, which at the time were refered to by the singers as a work of music, inspired me to undertake the attempt to produce a film, one which essentially reflects what Augusrin heard. Indeed what did je hear? A form of communiction which didn't ne cessitate the spoken word, but one in which one spirit to another was revealed. I have presented here a Visual Sequence to the musical sequence.

Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women, was the political thinking during the 1960s and 1970s in Romania. In 1966, Ceaucescu issued Decree 770, in which he forbade abortion for all women unless they were over forty or were already taking care of four children. All forms of contraception were totally banned. The New Romanian Man was born. By 1969, the country had a million babies more than the previous average. Romanian society was rapidly changing. By using very interesting archival footage and excerpts from old fiction films and by interviewing famous personalities from that time – gynecologists or mothers who were part of the new society - the director revives this period of tremendous oppression of personal freedom. Many deaths were caused by the mere fact that women, including wives of secret Romanian agents, famous TV presenters, and actresses, had to undergo illegal abortions. Many women were jailed for having them.

The glorious and tragic story of American athlete and actor Johnny Weissmuller (1904-84), Olympic swimmer, water polo player and the only true Tarzan, an archetypal character and myth of cinema, that of the original Hollywood blockbusters (1932-48).

On Valentines Day, 1931, Universal Pictures released the film Dracula - the first true horror movie. Its worldwide success catapulted the film's lead actor, Romanian-born Bela Lugosi, to overnight stardom. "Bela Lugosi: The Fallen Vampire" traces the life and career of this mysterious man whose name became synonymous with the evil, yet magnetically compelling Count Dracula. Using archival still and film clips as well as interviews with film historians, actors and Lugosi himself, the special chronicles the meteoric rise and then precipitous decline of a talented yet tragic man who forever changed the face of horror films.

A first hand account of one of the biggest cases of human trafficking during the Cold War. A story of greed, courage, hope and remorse.

Filmmaker Christoph Schwarz is broke. Fortunately, he gets an offer from ORF. But does Schwarz really want to document his self-experiment as an environmental activist? Wouldn’t it be better to reorient the longterm experiment into a critique of capitalism and secretly buy the desired weekend house with the film budget? A self-mocking film about double standards, which playfully and humorously shows that the problems you clear away, are often smaller than the new ones that you thereby create.

Lek (Play) is a post-romantic summer dream.

The wildness of the music and images is that of life itself. A wildness of curiosity, not fear, of jungles and nature. This idea of “re-wilding” isn’t about naively glorifying a life in nature. It rather is about examining our cultural paradigms of wildness and civilization.

TROLLSLÄNDOR MED FÅGLAR OCH ORM is documentation and a meditation, a pure visual space of vibrant images and a travel in a world we never have a chance to come in to. The title says it all; the work is an imaginative world of insects consisting of images, combined with birds, as there are toads and snakes to see. The theme is the eternal cycle of life, birth, sex and death. The structure of the film images is constant change. TROLLSLÄNDOR MED FÅGLAR OCH ORM is a composition of images and contains of many frames of 16 mm film. Some images are self-recorded, others are taken from scientific film material and combining the images like in a collage, TROLLSLÄNDOR MED FÅGLAR OCH ORM examines the mysterial grey zone of image and imagination. The film has no text, no sound it is only visual!