Pause!: Peter Kubelka Masterclass

Pause! Counts frames of film, measures flashes of light, and goes in search of the essence of film. Austrian avant-garde filmmaker will meditate on the meaning of cinema. Peter Kubelka is a central figure of avant-garde film in the second half of the 20th century and a representative of Viennese Formal Film. Although he made only seven films between 1956 and 2003, these works have become essential to any study of the essence of film and its creation, material, rhythm, and expressive characteristics. A filmmaker with a deep interest in music, painting, literature, and architecture, Kubelka has played an important role in making cinema more accessible. He founded the Austrian Film Museum in 1964 and spent 35 years as its director, and has been consistently involved in curatorial and museum activities related to film – for instance with the Anthology Film Archive in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. At this masterclass, Kubelka will screen three of his metric films, plus his work Our Trip to Africa. “I always wanted to go to the essence of cinema, and I believe that I did that.”

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