Kurt Kren
Biography: Kurt Kren was born in 1929 in Vienna, Austria from a Jewish father and a German mother. From 1939 till the end of World War II, Kren lived in Rotterdam, where he was sent to with one of the Children's Transports. In 1947 Kren returned to Vienna, and his father provided him a job at the National Bank. He began making films in 1957. 2/60 48 Köpfe Aus Dem Szondi -Test (1960) was his first serial film and 3/60 Bäume Im Herbst (1960) confirmed this structural orientation. He realized in the 1960s his most famous films with the Viennese actionists, where his skill of short film blossomed. In 1966, he took part in the « Destruction in Art Symposium » organized by Metzger in London. In 1968 he visited the USA for the first time, showing his films in New York and St. Louis. This very year he became a founder of the Austria Filmmakers Cooperative. After a participation in a happening "Kunst und Revolution" ("Art and Revolution") at the University of Vienna in 1968, Kren's films were confiscated and he was fired from the National Bank. He participated in 1970 in the International Underground Film Festival (London) and in 1971, in the Cannes Film Festival. He then moved to Cologne for five years. Retrospectives were set up by the London National Film Theatre in 1976 and the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1979. He was also involved in the Dokumenta 6 of Kassel in 1977. From 1978 to 1989, Kren lived in the USA and presented lectures for universities and schools. He did many jobs such as security officer in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Within this period he made his bad home movies as he used to call them inspired by his travels across the country. He finally returned to his native Vienna in 1990. He died from pneumonia in Vienna in 1998.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: September 20, 1929
Deathday: June 23, 1998
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Known For
Homage to Kurt Kren
1997-01-01
Homage to Kurt Kren
Overview: A homage to the Austrian experimental filmmaker Kurt Kren, his two films "1000 Years of Cinema" and "Snapspots" and his way of working; and that with a slight wink.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1997-01-01
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Home Movies 1971-81
1985-01-01
Home Movies 1971-81
Overview: Home movies shot on Super 8mm by W+B Hein over 10 years.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1985-01-01
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Exit... But No Panic
1980-01-01
Exit... But No Panic
Overview: A guy having sex with a woman on a rooftop – just to get her coffee-machine.
Genres: Action Crime Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1980-01-01
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10c/65: Brus wishes his Christmas on you
1965-01-01
10c/65: Brus wishes his Christmas on you
Overview: A kind of home movie made in Brus' apartment. Brus' Christmas wishes can be seen on a poster which he painted and which he holds for a short time in front of the camera.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1965-01-01
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Birth of a Nation
1997-08-06
Birth of a Nation
Overview: Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-08-06
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Becoming Otto
2010-06-01
Becoming Otto
Overview: A portrait of the Austrian avant-garde artist Otto Mühl/Muehl (1925-2013), whose work combined sex, violence, gastronomy and bodily effluence with unbridled abandon.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2010-06-01
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Sodoma
1970-04-05
Sodoma
Overview: The Austrian avant-gardist Otto Muehl may well be the most scandalous filmmaker to ever work in cinema, and Sodoma stands as his most famous work. This creation takes the experiments a bit further down the road.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1970-04-05
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29/73 Ready-Made
1973-09-11
29/73 Ready-Made
Overview: In a TV film about the film Casablanca, Kren is meant to read aloud three letters that Groucho Marx wrote to Warner Bros., because they wanted to take legal action against him over A Night in Casablanca. The recorded material could not be used on television and was meant to be destroyed. Kren found it and showed it uncut with its repetitions.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-11
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Portrait: Kurt Kren
1970-09-19
Portrait: Kurt Kren
Overview: "This film is an attempt in focusing. I visited Kurt Kren in Vienna. (Kurt Kren is considered to be the father of the European underground film.) Kurt Showed me lots of documents, papers and letters, all about the fights he had with many restaurant owners in Vienna. But the film I made is not about these fights; I tried to focus on the eye of the hurricane, the eye of Kurt Kren. Is this Kurt Kren or isn't it?" (HHK)
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-09-19
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36/78: Rischart
1978-01-01
36/78: Rischart
Overview: Hans-Peter Hochenrath and Birgit Hein made a documentary film about me for the Saarland Network and wanted me to make a self-portrait. Instead of pointing the camera lens away from myself, I pointed it toward myself. I rewound the film over and over again so that multiple exposures were produced, while I was repeatedly fading in and out.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1978-01-01
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Porträtfilm: Kurt Kren
1969-01-01
Porträtfilm: Kurt Kren
Overview: Ludwig Schönherr | Federal Republic of Germany | 1969 | 18 fps | 3'25" | silent
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1969-01-01
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Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Part 3
1993-01-01
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Part 3
Overview: On the 28th of October 1884 Daniel Paul Schreber, candidate of the National Liberal Party in Chemnitz, suffered a heavy defeat at the elections of the German Reichstag. He was taken up in the mental clinic of the Leipzig University soon afterwards. To his rehabilition he wrote an extensive piece of work, "Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken" (Memoirs of My Nervous Illness), which was published in 1903 and led to his temporary dismissal. Hereby Schreber became the most quoted psychiatric patient in scientific literature. The third part was realized by Peter Tscherkassy based on a concept by Ernst Schmidt Jr.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1993-01-01
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