Early Seidl Shorts

Between 1980 and 1982, Ulrich Seidl studied at the film academy in Vienna – much against the wishes of his strict Catholic parents, who would have preferred their son to train for the priesthood. Seidl however was determined to make films – and to escape the provincial, small-town world of Lower Austria.

Having made two short films, his adventure at the academy came to an end; film student Seidl already had his own ideas about what a documentary should be, and the way Seidl made Einsvierzig and Der Ball was anything but acceptable to his conservative tutors. The static, strongly symmetrical camera positioning (in Einsvierzig at exactly 1 metre 40, Karl’s height) and the tone of the films – critical observation, at times satirical – was seen as shocking and disrespectful.

Stylisation as trademark

Comments made by Seidl about the documentary genre later in his career are revealing. For Seidl, the line between fiction and reality is thin, especially if you see documentary as an extreme stylisation of reality.

Seidl, in conversation with a film journalist: “What is ‘documentary’? You should film with a hidden camera, that is documentary. But as soon as you appear with a camera, you are intervening in reality. It’s weird to pretend this is not the case. You are filming, you ask a question, you edit – these are all interventions. The world I create using filmic means, that has to be true, to be right. The extent to which it is staged, is another question. And I’m not interested in that.”

Introduction and discussion

On Tuesday 29 September, Eye curator Jaap Guldemond, who put together the Ulrich Seidl exhibition, and Eye programmer Thijs Havens will introduce the screening and discuss Ulrich Seidl’s work.