Restart and Subversive Film Festival is happy to announce the Masterclass by Austrian director with French address Hubert Sauper, author of timeless documentary 'Darwin's Nightmare' and newest 'We Come as Freinds', premiered at Sundance, and now in the competition of the 7th edition of Subverzive FF (3.- 14.5., cinema Europa, cinema Tuškanac, Zagreb) proudly partnered by Restart.
Masterclass named 'Political Film' is on schedule on Thursday, 8th of May, 4 PM in Dokukino Grič. Entrance free!
Masterclass: HUBERT SAUPER – Political film
In political terms, there's a new layer of struggle for every new generation. And within this fight, call it opposition, subversion, revolution, there is always the same fire, it's the fire to enter a kind of newly invented life, it's a collective feeling of pure joy, too. Every new generation has to (or at least should) stand up against establishment and power. To fight power, to oppose disgraceful structures, one needs to be strong, motivated, joyful, sensual. Strength versus power – that is the parole, construction (of ideas and utopia) versus destruction and the lack of phantasy. As a matter of fact, this is always the same, for every époque and every society. What is new: the method, the syntax.
And here is the good news: As for me, i feel like there's a new and very sophisticated language being created, the language of audiovisual arts – motivated by the need of resistance. Since i started to make political cinema in 1997, the "visual literacy" of audiences has grown immensely, as a result of movies that push the boundaries in form and content. Today, it is possible to communicate through (real) cinema something that no other medium can: the spark of fascination, joy, anger, astonishment, empathy. Cinema is universal, it strikes all these cords in our soul, it is able, ideally, to communicate in a second or third degree of reality. Visually educated audiences can see much more in a cinematic work than what is said and shown. A political film, provided that it's also a piece of art and creative in it's form, reaches not only our reasoning and feeling. Cinema strikes deep within the unknown, un-triggered landscape of our thinking, and cinema is therefor changing our view on life. The big line "to change the world" sounds pathetic. But it is true actually that a movie or a good conversation can change the world: provided the agreement that this term qualitative. As each one of us is the world.
Hubert Sauper, film director, writer, actor, cinema producer is best known for political documentary films in "cinema verite" style. Sauper earned world wide recognition for his film's expression, content, and aesthetics. His films are usually controversial for their explicit political standpoints. His last documentary, the groundbreaking Darwin’s Nightmare, has known an international success and has been critically acclaimed (Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature). Visiting professor, tutor, and teacher at Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Columbia univ. NY, Colorado University, USC Santa Cruz, Universidad central de Venezuela, Universidad de la Habana, Cuba, La FEMIS (french film school), Moscow int. film school, Istambul University, Greenhouse Mediterranean film center, israel.
Born in the Tyrolean Alps, Austria in 1966 as son of inn keepers, musicians. Hubert lived his entire adult life in Italy, Southern California – USA, Great Britain, Tanzania, Zaire (now DR Congo) Sudan, South Sudan. His permanent home is since 1994 in Paris, France.
Studied photography in the US, then film directing at the University of fine arts in Vienna, as well as the Universite de Paris 8, and as a guest student at the FEMIS after recieving an ERASMUS grant. Thesis of Cinema: "Film as testament" etude of three last films of the directors Cyril Collard, Andrey Tarkovsky and Joris Ivens ("Die Verdichtung"), published in Vienna. Hubert graduated with special mention as director from film school, receiving a university degree as bachelor of the arts.
Filmography:
filmografija:
On the road with Emil (documentary, 16mm, 30 min)
So I sleepwalk in broad Daylight (fiction, 60 min)
Lomographer's Moscow (experimental documentary, 30 min)
Kisangani Diary (documentary, 45 min.)
Alone with our Stories
Darwin's Nightmare (feature documentary)
We come as friends (feature documentary)