A prima vista

The oeuvre of the Austrian experimental documentary maker Michael Pilz comprises many subjects and crosses many continents. A binding element is his very personal style, with which he wants to seduce the viewer into a state of a tentative sensitivity that ensures that what he shows he had seen differently. Slowing down and amazement, if necessary via an initial feeling of irritation, are his key concepts.
In A prima vista Pilz opens a reservoir of personal images of family outings and of his children, who reconnoitre the world receptively. This is juxtaposed with archive material (from his self-portrait from 1969 and his first 16mm film, among others), shots of friends and a ritual at the Viennese pagoda. Pilz observes and leaves things as they are. The form comes first, then follows the substance.
A prima vista is another Pilz film for meditation. The associative images, linked together by the director without any prior intentions in an intuitive way, have already found their own place, as he puts it. He himself becomes less and less important for that. Pilz also directs our gaze inwards, but also guides the tone of this journey of the senses with an evocative soundtrack and several words from John Cage, Sathya Sai Baba and Sree Kumar, a yoga teacher from Kerala.