In the Open

Director's Statement

Born in 1977 in Graz, Austria, Albert Sackl studied philosophy and art history at the University of Vienna (1995-1997) and fine arts at the Städelschule Frankfurt (film class with Peter Kubelka, 1997-2000). He taught at the School for Independent Film, Vienna (2007-2010) and studied fine arts at the Academy for fine Arts in Vienna (class with Heimo Zobernig, 2007-2011). How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing? The whole process took about four years; shooting took three months through day and night. I got good financing, although in the end the film became more expensive than what I could raise and I had to work a bit afterwards to pay my debts. Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”? From the early ancestors of film like Etienne-Jules Marey on, the development of the new media has very strong roots in Europe. The European cinema community nowadays exists in various divided groups and subgroups and I think every enterprise to somehow pool those groups for specific occasions is a good thing. If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen? Mainly works from the so-called avant-garde film like Dziga Vertov’s ENTUZIAZM, Michael Snow’s ‘RAMEAU’S NEPHEW’ BY DIDEROT, Kurt Kren’s ASYL, Charles Dekeukeleire’s IMPATIENCE, Peter Kubelka’s SCHWECHATER or Gregory Markopoulos’ TWICE A MAN as well as feature films like Robert Bresson’s AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, Ulrich Seidl’s HUNDSTAGE or Lars von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA as well as a variety of documentary films. What is your next project? It is in its first stadium of development and will deal with a kind of specific form that I try to develop from my earlier works. As all my earlier film work it will be categorised as a so-called “experimental film”. I want to shoot with 16mm film on a wide range of different locations, using a kind of analogue 3D-timelapse-technique. At the moment there are a lot of ideas that are still waiting for arrangement and first tests. Maybe it will become my first film with sound.