Eszter Kondor - Böcker

The founding of the Austrian Film Museum in February 1964 was part of the radical innovations in early 1960s German-language film culture. This work of historical research describes the establishment, development and early critical success of the institution – from post-war Viennese film culture and its protagonists to the tenth anniversary of the Film Museum in 1974. The book evokes Austria's cultural climate and its changes between the late 1950s and 1970s, highlighting the struggles of the two museum founders, Peter Konlechner and Peter Kubelka, who were not yet 30 when they began their endeavor ("juvenile students" in the civil service lingo of that era). The book also touches on international film politics (in relation to FIAF) and on the clashes between Vienna's "actionist" underground scene and the Austrian Film Museum in 1969.

Viennese filmmaker Ruth Beckermann, who has been making films since the 1970s, has created an exciting and widely recognized body of essay and documentary films. Her work is both deeply personal and political. She discusses the complex relationship between history and the present and reflects on her identity as a Jewish woman in postwar Austria and Europe. Tropes of travel and migration feature heavily in her work as means of experiencing the world and of staying alive, literally as well as artistically.Beckermann’s films speak about identity conflicts and class struggle (Suddenly, a Strike), her family history in the Habsburg monarchy (Paper Bridge), and the war generation as it confronts the crimes of the Wehrmacht (East of War). In 2016, she turned the love affair between poets Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann in postwar Vienna into an unconventional feature film (The Dreamed Ones). In her latest project, The Waldheim Waltz (2018), Beckermann uses 1980s archival footage of the “Waldheim Affair” to reflect on the mechanisms of populism and the media.This is the first English-language publication on Ruth Beckermann’s filmic oeuvre, including an original essay by Nick Pinkerton, an in-depth conversation with the artist conducted by Alexander Horwath and Michael Omasta, and a detailed filmography by Michael Omasta and Brigitte Mayr.

Maria Lassnig (1919–2014) is internationally recognized as one of the most important painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. The leitmotif of her painting, the act of rendering her “body awareness” visible found additional expression in film in the early 1970s. During her time in New York, Lassnig studied animation at the School of Visual Arts and began to film in 8mm and 16mm. While several of these New York films have long since been part of her canonical works (e.g. Selfportrait, Iris, Couples, Shapes), many remained unfinished. These "films in progress" can be regarded as autobiographical notes as well as an artistic experiment featuring many of Lassnig’s recognizable sujets and methods. In 2018, this filmic legacy was restored and in many cases completed according to Lassnig’s original concept and instructions by two close collaborators, artists Hans Werner Poschauko and Mara Mattuschka, and presented to great international acclaim.This German-language publication provides the first comprehensive index of Lassnig’s film works, offering insight into the filmmaker’s world of ideas through a wide selection of Lassnig’s own previously unpublished notes. It also includes a selection of Lassnig's "films in progress" on DVD. Two essays by James Boaden and Stefanie Proksch-Weilguni place Lassnig’s work in the context of the US-American film avant-garde of the 1970s, while conversations with Mara Mattuschka, Hans Werner Poschauko and the restoration team shed a light on the rediscovery of Lassnig’s fascinating films.

Maria Lassnig (1919–2014) is internationally recognized as one of the most important painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. The leitmotif of her painting, the act of rendering her “body awareness” visible found additional expression in film in the early 1970s. During her time in New York, Lassnig studied animation at the School of Visual Arts and began to film in 8mm and 16mm. While several of these New York films have long since been part of her canonical works (e.g. Selfportrait, Iris, Couples, Shapes), many remained unfinished. These "films in progress" can be regarded as autobiographical notes as well as an artistic experiment featuring many of Lassnig’s recognizable sujets and methods. In 2018, this filmic legacy was restored and in many cases completed according to Lassnig’s original concept and instructions by two close collaborators, artists Hans Werner Poschauko and Mara Mattuschka, and presented to great international acclaim.This English-language publication provides the first comprehensive index of Lassnig’s film works, offering insight into the filmmaker’s world of ideas through a wide selection of Lassnig’s own previously unpublished notes. It also includes a selection of Lassnig's "films in progress" on DVD. Two essays by James Boaden and Stefanie Proksch-Weilguni place Lassnig’s work in the context of the US-American film avant-garde of the 1970s, while conversations with Mara Mattuschka, Hans Werner Poschauko and the restoration team shed a light on the rediscovery of Lassnig’s fascinating films.