GERALD IGOR HAUZENBERGER

I was born in a small village close to the Austrian Alps. From a working-class home, my first profession was as a lithographer. After I finished my lithography education I moved to Vienna to apply to Graphic Design school, from where I graduated four years later with a Distinction. Eager for further knowledge, I also studied advertising at the Vienna School of Business. Furthermore I studied film, theatre and new media at Humboldt University in Berlin and at Vienna University. After graduation in 1997 and 1999, I took part in a postgraduate program for film, film theory and liberal arts.

Additionally I worked as a tutor for University Television and made my first documentary film (director & producer) together with Arash T. Riahi in 1999 (title: Eclipsa nam ce Face), which was screened at several festivals and finally purchased by an Austrian broadcast company.

After I completed the university program for film and liberal arts in 2001, I worked as a director, author, curator, and director of photography and taught at various universities in Austria.

Shortly after my first successful documentary Beyond the Forest (30 international festivals, five awards) I gave up teaching in 2006 and began to concentrate on film producing.

My last film The Trial was a big success at the cinema and in film festivals. This year I won the AUSTRIAN FILM AWARD in the Best Documentary category.

As a filmmaker I’m committed to social issues, in particular the current state of personal and “objective” structural limitations on political activism in modern democracy. And what can happen when segments of society lose their faith in the government.

It is almost as if modern democracies such as Austria have taken a step backwards, toward societies of control that are filled with distrust. I understand myself as filmmaker whose goal is to reflect such issues and transform it in a unique style for a broader audience.