FOCUS on Gabriele Mathes – Filmprogramm 1

Gabriele Mathes has been captivating audiences with her trenchant short films for over 35 years. The Outstanding Artist Award winner always surprises with new narrative styles and formal approaches, very often interweaving insights into her private environment with larger (socio-)political contexts.

The cinematic work of Mathes, who studied directing at the Vienna Film Academy under Peter Patzak and Axel Corti, is characterised by an individual style and a completely independent film language that defies categorisation. She has received numerous film awards for her work - such as the prize for innovative cinema at the Diagonale 2006 for her autobiographical film Eine Million Kredit ist normal, sagt mein Großvater (2006) or the Austrian Short Film Award at Vienna Independent Shorts for Flaschenpost (2012).

**6 pm | PROGRAMME 1

Strike film (A 1988, 16 min)**

Gabriele Mathes is right in the middle of a series of student protests against the Austrian government's austerity measures in the education sector in autumn 1987. Red-hot!

Red Alert (A 1992, 32 min)

A feminist science fiction grotesque about three TV journalists who interview female murderers. Anarchic, provocative, evil - but full of humour and intentional breaks.

Message in a bottle (2012, 30 min)

Mathes retrieves a forgotten cassette from 1987 from her old video camera. The material from her past tells of the violent end of a relationship and the new beginning that followed.

Audience discussion with Gabriele Mathes after the film programmes.

Film still: Red Alert (1992)