Pilz has worked for years with small handy video formats and in doing so has developed a style of his own of documentary film-making that is close to the travelogue and the home-movie. Travelling and filming, Pilz has accumulated a personal video archive from which he can compile his films very independently with his own digital editing equipment. He has grown used to shooting his films in such a way that during the editing little more has to be done. A precondition is a personal commitment from the people he films.Bridge to Montecello was shot in 1996 in Dallastown, a small American town near Gettysburg. Pilz was visiting his friend, the painter Josef Schützenhöfer, who had been living and working in the United States for more than twenty years and had decided to return to Austria. Before he left he wanted to show his work and his surroundings to Pilz. The film-maker spent several days with Schützenhöfer, his wife Janice and little son Louie. The little boy in particular plays an engaging role in the film that is dedicated to him. Pilz first shows the artist going about his everyday activities, before following him to his studio. They talk about all kinds of things, go shopping and look around. Once inside the artist’s study, Pilz looks round admiringly and hears an explanation of what the grand political panorama the artist has been working on for years will look like.
