Over the past half-century, two tendencies have dominated independent, artisanal filmmaking. One of these is the fascination with the material artifacts of cinema´s history: it is often called »found-footage filmmaking« and sometimes »recycled cinema«. Filmmakers working in this vein are often archeologists of cinema, aesthetically and/or ideologically engaging with the work of earlier generations of filmmakers of all kinds. The other tendency has produced a remarkable cinema of Place: depictions of a wide range of environments that ask us to really see (and hear) where we and our human colleagues across the globe are in relation to our natural/cultural environments. Throughout his long career, Gustav Deutsch has been an important contributor to both these tendencies.(Scott MacDonald)
Contents:01 ADRIA - HOLIDAY FILMS 1954-68 (SCHOOL OF SEEING I), 1990, 16mm (S- 8 Blow-up), col & b/w, 37 min02 EYEWITNESSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES Gustav Deutsch, Mostafa Tabbou, 1993, 16mm, col, 33 min03 NOTES AND SKETCHES I 31 poket films, 2005-2015, digital, col, 60 minBONUS: SAT., 29TH OF JUNE/ARCTIC CIRCLE, 1990, 16mm (S- 8, Blow-up), col, 3 min
DVD Extra: 20 pages bilingual English-German booklet featuring HERE AND THERE/NOW AND THEN: THE CINEMA OF GUSTAV DEUTSCH by Scott MacDonald
Summer, sun, beach games and other attractions: holidays and excursions have always motivated amateur and professional filmmakers to switch their camera on – also later at home to be able to dream away. Out of such anonymous Super-8 shots the renowned experimental filmmaker Gustav Deutsch composed in 1990 a very entertaining master home movie that leads us to the Adria (Adria - Holiday Films 1954-68. School of Seeing I).
For Eyewitnesses in Foreign Countries (1993) the Austrian Gustav Deutsch and the Moroccan Mostafa Tabbou have gazed into each other’s native place: an enlightening “authentic film-experiment in 600 takes” that shows how everyday life is special in the eyes of the beholder from afar.
Travelogues can also contain “mini-dramas”: this is what the “pocket films” of Notes and Sketches I (2005-15) reveal. Surprising behavioral studies of man and animal, the hidden humor of nature’s phenomena as well as of automatized routines make good entertainment for your home cinema and for all ages.
