Peter Weibel 1944-2023
Thick reality (Stan) or stupid (Ollie) reality: Peter Weibel is dead. In DENKAKT from 1968, Ernst Schmidt jr. shows the still young rebel Weibel thinking while sitting on a balcony, wearing a Bazooka Leiberl, a former chewing gum brand. A text can be heard in which the theorist and artist, who was a pioneer in Austrian media art, ponders reality (and the medium of film) on the basis of the characters Stan and Ollie, a theme that accompanied him throughout his life. One of Weibel's characteristics was always that he spoke quickly and a lot, letting the desire to convey and develop ideas come out in the tone even during the act of speaking, even pouring his thinking directly into words. And ideas this man had very, very many. His numerous collaborations with VALIE EXPORT, such as AUS DER MAPPE DER HUNDIGKEIT, TAPP UND TASTKINO or UNSICHTBARE GEGNER, for which he contributed the script and also acted, are legendary. His TV works, soaked in humor, also remain unforgotten. In keeping with the history of media art, he realized them in the medium of TV, at that time on ORF, and remained a welcome guest. As part of the discussion format "Club Zwei," for example, he had blood drawn live in the action ZEITBLUT, which successively filled the picture in a glass container in front of the camera and thus ran into the screens of Austrian households. As a media poet, he called this action "telecommunication," his quite essential comment on the question of the evening: "For what art and paid by whom?" Weibel has always remained an advocate for art, whether as an artist, an exhibition curator, as the longtime director of the ZKM, or in his extensive teaching and publishing activities. In a track by his cult band Hotel Morphila Orchester, Weibel once sings more pertinently than perfectly, "The media channels are my body channels." That was probably truly to be understood in the same way. Rest in Peace - our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his partner Susanne Widl, his family and friends.
Berlinale Forum – DE FACTO wins "Caligari-Prize 2023"
Outstanding news: DE FACTO by Selma Doborac is awarded the Caligari Prize 2023!
The jury states: "an extraordinary and highly intense film that, like hardly any other before it, makes us think philosophically about destructive (group) dynamics and the inhuman in human beings". The 38th Caligari Film Prize was awarded to Selma Doborac for her documentary fiction hybrid DE FACTO (AT/DE 2023, 130 min) from the programme of the 53rd Berlinale Forum.
-> Jury Statement
Portrait: Selma Doborac: Caligari-Prize-2023 ©Dario-Lehner
Focus on ANNA VASOF at Independent Film Festival Athens 2023
Anna Vasof builds machines and constructs mechanisms, always in search of the essence of cinematographic movement, she creates surreal body-object hybrids or bangs her head against columns or walls in various world cities to explore their sound. With always a lot of humor, Anna Vasof undertakes investigations into the illusion machine that is cinema. The Independent Film Festival Athens (March 2-5, 2023) is now dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the media artist: IFFA 2023
The cinematic work of Maria Lassnig in a comprehensive show at the Anthology Film Archive in New York
"For Lassnig, film was by no means just a pastime or an excursion into low or popular culture. Like other 20th century artists, she embraced film as a unique means of expression. As the artist herself put it, while it is only ever the final layer of a painting, that is, the ‘finished’ image, that remains, film allows the unfolding of time itself to be depicted, frame by frame, film image by film image. Yet Lassnig’s film work is hardly just ‘painting in time’…. Her work reflects her engagement with the medium, its history, and its narrative techniques, ranging from Hollywood cinema via American independent film and animation all the way to television."
Filmprogram Anthology Film Archive
Book launch: MARIA LASSNIG: FILM WORKS (FilmmuseumSynemaPublikation)
Maria Lassnig at INDEX-edition for streaming and purchase
"ANQA" by Helin Çelik and "De Facto" by Selma Doborac @ 53rd Berlinale Forum
sixpackfilm is very happy to announce two more world premieres at the upcoming Berlinale: With ANQA, Helin Çelik achieves a delicate approach to three women in Jordan, each one a survivor of male violence. Her film "does not tell the stories of these women, but outlines their post-traumatic situation in striking, poetic film images."
Selma Doborac's De Facto deals with perpetration – in the form of a "realistically arranged chamber play" with two dramatic figures, and based on witness and survivor testimonies, court verdicts, whistleblower confessions, and the like, on the textual level.
Links to -> ANQA and -> De Facto play dates.
We congratulate the filmmakers and their teams on their selection and look forward to the Berlinale. Hope to see you there!
Mo Harawe gewinnt International Grand Prix in Clermont-Ferrand
Mo Harawes Erfolgsgeschichte setzt sich fort: WILL MY PARENTS COME TO SEE ME gewinnt den International Grand Prix des Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival!
Herzliche Gratulation an Mo, aber auch allen anderen Gewinner:innen!
© Baptiste Chanat
HAPPY DOOM by Billy Roisz in competition at Berlinale Shorts
sixpackfilm is very pleased to announce that HAPPY DOOM by Billy Roisz will be part of the line-up of Berlinale Shorts at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival (February 16-26 2023).
HAPPY DOOM is an "audiovisual poem, an ode to color frenzy and vertigo. The screen a vibrating membrane simultaneously spewing and swallowing colors and noisy beats - a hypnotic deformed circumpolar psychedelic short trip".
Billy Roisz is a filmmaker, musician, performer. She has already presented her films zounk! (2012), darkroom (2014) and THE (2015, co-directed by Dieter Kovačič) in the Berlinale Shorts competition. In 2021 she has received the Austrian Art Award for Film.
We would also like to share the good news that VALIE EXPORT's short Lust (1986) will be shown during Critics' Week (February 15-23 2023).
Six films from sixpackfilm celebrate premieres at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023
No less than six new films will celebrate their international or world premieres at the upcoming International Film Festival in Rotterdam (Jan. 25-Feb. 5, 2023), including two feature-length films. In addition to Norbert Pfaffenbichler's second part of his underground trilogy entitled 2551.02 THE ORGY OF THE DAMNED ->, the latest video work by renowned artist Friederike Pezold REVOLUTION OF THE EYES -> has also been selected for the program of this year's festival. In the short film section new films by Josef Dabernig (PASTRY FRIDAY ->), Anna Vasof (ISSUES WITH MY OTHER HALF ->), Lukas Marxt (MARINE TARGET ->) and Siegfried Fruhauf (CAVE PAINTING ->) celebrate their international premieres. We are very happy ! Details @ IFFR
Comprehensive retrospektive of RUTH BECKERMANN in Spain
Austria's grand dame of documentary film, Ruth Beckermann, is currently being honored with a comprehensive retrospective in Spain's San Sebastian at the Tabakalera International Cultural Center. The show will run over the coming months including a masterclass with Ruth Beckermann.
