Michael Glawogger: Kurzfilmprogramm 2

Pacific Motion
Cinematography: Michael Glawogger. US, 1981, 16mm, color, 5 min

A Perfect Day
Cinematography: Michael Kreihsl; actors: Michael Kienzer, Sandra Foitl. AT, 1983, DCP (from 16mm), color, 11 min. German

The Strange Cities
Cinematography: Joachim Ramsauer, Michael Kreihsl; Cast: Claudia Engelhardt, Klaus Ortner. AT, 1983/84, DCP (from 16mm), b/w, 8 min. German

Death of a Reader
Cinematography: Michael Kreihsl, Joachim Berc; Music: Armin Pokorn; Cast: Reinhard Hauser, Marian David, Erwin Leder, Götz Spielmann, Emanuel Schmid. AT, 1984, 16mm, color, 16 min. German with English subtitles

Haiku
Michael Glawogger; director of photography: Anton Mathis, Johann Eder; actors: Barbara Zuber. AT, 1987, 35mm, color, 3 min

Mai Thai (Mozart Minute 26)
Director of photography: Michael Glawogger; editor: Monika Willi; actors: Andreas Kiendl. AT, 2005, 35mm, color, 1 min

Work Routes
AT, 1984, DCP (from 16mm), color, 28 min. German

To mark the tenth anniversary of Michael Glawogger's death, we are showing his first and last pictures (followed by Untitled). This second program of early short films offers another captivating cross-section of his beginnings, starting with Pacific Motion, a dynamic study of (American) trains in motion. A Perfect Day follows on from this in a way: Rides in the Vienna subway and through the Plabutsch tunnel in Graz line the plot, which is garnished with J. D. Salinger dialog (some of it was also shot in the Graz apartment of Glawogger's parents). Further works from the Film Academy period follow with the quirky art film Die Fremden Städte (including Korngold music and monumental silent film catastrophe), the dystopian parable Tod eines Lesenden (based on Arthur Schnitzler) and the mini-masterpiece Haiku, which bundles Glawogger images between hard work and everyday life study into a poetic staccato in three minutes. The much later Mai Thai is a Mozart Minute contribution in the form of a colorful sing-along party. Finally, a real discovery: Arbeitswege, Glawogger's first study on a subject that would occupy him for the rest of his life. The soundtrack is not complete, but even with fragmentary audio, this trenchant observation of living and working environments is fascinating. (Christoph Huber)