Ernst Schmidt jr.
In the past 1,5 year, the Austrian Film Museum worked together with Haghefilm Digitaal to scan in 2K all 76 films made by the Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Ernst Schmidt jr.
„VALIE EXPORT leads Peter Weibel on a leash, still from: Women’s power, 1973, Ernst Schmidt jr.“
It was a challenging project, since Ernst Schmidt jr. was a filmmaker who was questioning the nature of film constantly, testing its boundaries and turning film upside down. At times we had to wonder if it was the beginning or the end we were looking at, if a film element should be treated as a positive or a negative, or if the image was meant to be the soundtrack or the separate magnetic soundtrack was meant to be image!
„Kid shows drawing of man with camera, still from: Wienfilm 1896-1976, 1976-1977, Ernst Schmidt jr.”
„Still from: Wienfilm 1896-1976, 1976-1977, Ernst Schmidt jr.“
We are very happy with the end result of this project. Although a digital image is something entirely different than an analogue film image, and we cannot and do not want to conceal any digital intervention, we managed to represent the original filmic characteristics and image in the best possible way.”
Janneke van Dalen
Austrian Film Museum
www.filmmuseum.at
