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30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025

Michael Pilz

Michael PILZ (1943, Austria) started making 8mm films and photographs aged twelve. He studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna’s Department of Film, but never graduated. Later, he developed an interest in the technical, material and mental aspects of cinematography, as well as various ways of expressing the subconscious in film. The larger part of his cinematographic experiments of the 1960s, most on regular 8mm film, has been lost since 1985. In these works he experimented with cameras and film material itself (direct treatments such as painting, scratching), handheld and out-of-control moving cameras and absurd, anarchist staging. Since 1983 he has delivered occasional lectures and held workshops on aesthetics and experimental filmmaking, mainly outside of Austria. He is an uncompromising documentary maker who explores the world, inside and out, in his work. His idiosyncratic, contemplative approach has repeatedly provided unusual insights into film and the world around the filmmaker.

Filmography

Symposion (1967, short), Big Shot (1968, short), Für Peter Noever und Achille Castiglioni (1968, short), Voom (1969, short), Underground (co-dir., 1969, short), Maskerade (1969, short), Coop Himmelblau (co-dir., 1970, short), Wienerinnen (1971, short), Easy Feeling (1971, short), Wladimir Nixon (1972, short), Charly Jackson (1972, short), Das Lied vom Hofer (1972, short), L’Imagination des yeux (1973, short), Langsamer Sommer/Slow Summer (1976), Franz Grimus (1977), Lou Reed (1977, short), Die Generalin (1977), Szenen aus dem Wiener Milieu (co-dir., 1978), Schule und Autorität (1978, short), Landkino (1978, short), Sandvic Image (1979, short), Himmel und Erde/Heaven and Earth (1982), Wels (1984), Private Eyes (1984), Wels (1984), Noah Delta II (1985), Paticca-Samuppada (1986, short), Parco delle rimembranze/Parc of Remembrance (1987, short), Der Lauf des Wassers (1988, short), Eighty Centimeters Five Tons (1989), Staatz Ende (1989, short), 80cm 5t (1989), Feldberg (1990), Für Sebastian Prantl (1990), Two Horse Town (1991, short), Für Walter Neumayer (1991), Der Stadtflieger (1991), Für Walter Marti und Reini Mertens (1992), Für Thomas Lehner – Stadtwerkstatt Linz (1992), Für die Vögel (1992), Eigentlich spreche ich ja eine andere Sprache, und trotzdem haben wir immer gut miteinander gesprochen (1992), Cage (1992), State of Grace (1993), Il faut apprendre à voir (1993), Private Eyes (1994), Green Park Hotel (1994), All the Vermeers in Prague (1994), Für Walter Stach und Dieter Schrage (1994), Prisjádim na dorozku/Let’s Sit Down Before We Leave (1995), Irgendwo hätt’ich sonst hingewollt/I Would’ve Preferred Any Other Place (co-dir., 1995), Für Brigitte Schwaiger (1995), Für Radha Anjali (1995, short), Was übersetzt ist noch nicht angekommen (1996), Für Christine Gaigg (1996), Dallastown USA (1998), Bridge to Monticello (1998), Exit Only (1998), Für Richard G. Künz (1998), Für Ed Schulz (1999), Pieces of Dreams (1999), Da capo al fine – Was ich erinnere nicht was ich siehe (1999), Indian Diary – Days at Sree Sankara (2000), La habana (2001), Für Eric Neunteufel (2001, short), Im Spiegel des Fremden (2001), Gwenyambira Simon Mashoko (2002), Siberian Diaries – Days at Apanas (2003), Across the River (2004), 28 april 1995 Aus Liebe/For Love (2004), Memories of You – 7 December 2003 (2005, short), Windows, Dogs and Horses (2005), That’s All There Is (2006), Silence (2007), Für Keith Goddard (2007, short), 4 Minutes with Keith Goddard (2007, short), P.R.A.T.E.R. (2007, short), Haiku Happens (2007, short), A prima vista (2008), Die Erotik der Leere (2008), Jewel of the Valley – Dourat Al-Wad (2008), Yemen Travelogue – Days at Shibam and Seiyun (2008), MF – Für Marianne Fritz (2008, short), Für Erwin Puls (2009, short), Invocation of Bliss (2009), Rose und Jasmine (2010), Roman Diary (2011), 13 Szenen in Ton und Bild für Gb (2011), Skizze in Ton und Bild für Gb (2012), One to One Teheran Connected (2012), Francia 2013 (2013/2014), Noli me tangere – The View (1996/2014), Kindsein in Europa (2004/2015), Tandis/Für Nora (2016), Palladio 2.27 (2013/2016), Das innere Kind (2004/2016), The Use of Bodies (2012/2017), As-If-Not (2012/2017), The Party (2012/2017), Coda (2012/2017), All Blues (1961/2017), For You (2013/2018), With Love – Volume One 1987-1996 (2019)

More info: Michael Pilz

Michael Pilz at IFFR

  • Private Eyes

    Michael Pilz has made films and for several years – since December 1987 to be precise – he has made video diaries. He does that as part of a project he calls Private Eyes. He now has an archive of more than 260 hours of video.Pilz started filming on super8 in the early sixties and […]

    • Master Homemovies
  • Pieces of Dreams

    Intense film version of an encounter. Jack Garfein penetrates a text by Samuel Beckett about an encounter bwteeen two men. One director meets the othe

    • main programme short
  • Windows, Dogs and Horses

    In this work, Pilz creates a new reality in which time comes to a standstill.

    • Short: As Long As It Takes
  • A prima vista

    Meditative cinematographic journey by the poetic documentary maker Pilz in which pieces from his earlier work and home movies come together in a spont

    • Kings & Aces
  • La Habana

    Everyday impressions of life in the capital of a poor, yet joyous and musical Cuba.

    • on the waterfront new films
  • Indian Diary – Days at Sree Sankara

    Unusual travelogue by leading video-maker Michael Pilz.

    • main programme features
  • Gwenyambira Simon Mashoko

    For anyone for whom Rotterdam is too fast, too cold and too hectic, and who yearns for lethargy, African music and warm beer. A film that goes on and

    • True Stories
  • With Love – Volume One 1987-1996

    Audio-visual slices from the life cinematic of Austrian maverick master Michael Pilz.

    • The Tyger Burns