Save Film and Shoot It
Philipp Fleischmann and Christian Kurz agree. Film has to survive. Both are essential members of Vienna’s young film movement – Christian Kurz presents ‘filmkoop wien’ while Philipp Fleischmann leads the School for Independent Film – they agree that the art of film-making is lost if film dies.
filmkoop wien…
…is an artist run laboratory that recently reached its fifth year of operation. Within this time, there were many films made on our premises and since we only work with analogue film, we do not feel that analogue material will become obsolete. Looking at other techniques from the past we see it like this:
- Woodcutting is still used as a printing method by artists even though it is vastly outdated. This is possibly due to the fact that society never stopped producing wooden boards. Even within woodcutting, there is artistic progress visible – even after 500 years after the first peak in artistic quality.
- Film cannot be used to build houses and is only produced for the sake of recording light. Looking at the huge success of oil painting, it would seem ridiculous to even think that with the invention of acrylic colours, we would have stopped producing oil-based paint. And so from this perspective, it seems strange to think that photochemical film should ever stop being produced.
It is – as Alexander Horvath stated in his text – a fact, that our heritage can only remain pro-creative if it is kept legible. While he and the Austrian Film Museum are doing that by showing film as film, “filmkoop wien” and the ‘School Friedl Kubelka for Independent Film’ aim to preserve the analogue film-making process.
Without the knowledge of how to paint, it makes no sense to even try preserving oil colour. Without photochemical film, we would lose the craft of film-making too.
Christian Kurz, on behalf of filmkoop wien
SCHOOL FRIEDL KUBELKA for Independent Film, Vienna
The “School for Independent Film, Vienna” was founded in 2006 in order to offer instruction and knowledge to those who are especially interested in working with analogue film as their artistic medium. Various film artists come to teach their individual understanding of film. ‘Moving Images’ cannot be thought of without its respective medium. Only by having access to experience and work with film as film, a new generation of film-makers can build upon their own history. Save Film. Also for its future yet to come.
Friedl vom Gröller, Founder of the School
Philipp Fleischmann, Artistic Director