FILM/MUSIC: Films by Péter Forgács

On this evening, independent filmmaker and media artist Peter Forgacs will be our best. His works have been exhibited world wide.He is best known for his "Private Hungary" series of award-winning films based on home movies from the 1920s and 1970s, which document ordinary lives that were soon to be ruptured by an extraordinary historical trauma that occurs off screen.

Dusi and Jeno (Private Hungary 2)
1989, 45 min, music by Tibor Szemző

With his 8mm camera, a secret film diary was shot between 1936 and 1966 by Jeno, who might have been the best cameraman of our age, had he not worked in 1945 as the senior clerk of General Mortgage Credit Bank. His wife is not as keen on film shooting as on their dog: they love it like a child. The main actors are Dusi and Jeno. But something else also plays a role: the city itself, in snow, fog and rain, with photography of sensual accuracy. This film is a poem, which sets up a breathtaking memorial to the vanishing representatives of the middle class.

Miss Universe 1929 - Lisl Goldarbeiter
A/NL 2006, 70 min, music my László Melis

In 1929 the first and, to present only, Austrian was chosen Miss Universe: Lisl Goldarbeiter. Her rise as a beauty queen, her life in Vienna between the world wars, and what happened to the family under National Socialism were all documented by her cousin Marci with his 9.5mm camera. They both survived WWII and were later reunited as a married couple in 1949. Marci filmed his Lisl until she died at the age of 88. Marci Tänzer’s film diary not only represents a document of the time, it serves as a unifying thread in a fabric of unspoken emotions, forebodings, little secrets, gestures and glances. Love can be found in it, as can a love of life, and at times sadness and doubt. This film is given its magic by the two main protagonists’ gift of dealing with what life throws at them in a calm way, even at an advanced age.

The event is part of the program series FILM/MUSIC supported by the National Cultural Fund.
For its schedule, please click here.

Director: Péter Forgács