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Bernhard Hetzenauer

Biography

Bernhard Hetzenauer studied Film Set and Stage Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Film at the HFBK Hamburg. His films often deal with questions of subjectivity, representation and the construction of memory. Screenings include film festivals such as Viennale, Max Ophüls Preis, Morelia, Ficunam, Ann Arbor, Cartagena, Sheffield Doc Fest, Message to Man, Lussas, Málaga or Jihlava, and the Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, Taxispalais Innsbruck, 21er Haus/​Belvedere Wien, Kunsthalle Wien, Künstlerhaus Wien, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, CECUT Tijuana, MACBA Barcelona, KC Grad Belgrade or The Missing Link Zurich. Hetzenauer held scholarships from Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn, DAAD, SRE Mexico, and the EMARE MEX Artist Residency Program.

Books:

Das Innen im Außen”, Berlin: Alexander Verlag, 2013 / Mexico City: UNAM2016.

Faces of Athens”, Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2019.

Martina Blanco

Vita
Born
1981, Innsbruck
Education
2000 New York Film Academy. 2001 – 2007 MFA in Film Set and Stage Design, University of Applied Arts, Vienna. 2009 – 2012 MFA in Film/​Fine Arts, HFBK Hamburg.
Occupation
Autor, Regisseur, Kamera, Produzent, Filmmusik
Awards
2021
Tyrol State Award for Young Contemporary Art
2021
Best Short Doc, Festival Kunturñawi, Ecuador 
2021
Tyrol State Art Collection
2019
Best Documentary Video, FINI Hidalgo, Mexico
2018
Jury Mention, FIDBA Buenos Aires
2018
Best Short Doc, FIC San Luís Potosí, Mexico
2018
Best Mexican Short Doc, Shorts Mexico
2018
Best Mexican Short Doc, DocsMX
2018
zeitimpuls Open Award, Vienna
2018
Innovative Award, Crossing Europe Film Festival
2016
Upper Austrian State Award for Young Cinema
2013
Theodor Körner Award, Vienna
2013
Erasmus Euro Media Award, Vienna
2013
HFBK Film Prize, Hamburg Cultural Foundation
2013
St. Petersburg Cinema Press Federation Diploma
2013
Jury Award, Bienal de Arte Visual, Toluca, Mexico
2012
DAAD Award, HFBK Hamburg
2008
Austrian Federal Photography Collection
2008
Audience Award, VIS Film Festival, Vienna
2006
Ursula Blickle Video Award, Kunsthalle Wien
Filmography
In Produktion In Prod.
Those Next to Us, Dokumentarfilm, approx. 20 min, Regie, Produktion, Kamera
2019
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda, Dokumentarfilm, 11 min, Regie, Kamera, Schnitt, Produktion
2017
Faces of Athens, Dokumentarfilm, 110 min, Buch, Kamera, Produktion, Regie, Schnitt
2017
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow, Dokumentarfilm, 20 min, Regie, Kamera, Produktion, Schnitt
2013
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth, Dokumentarfilm, 78 min, Buch, Filmmusik, Produktion, Regie, Schnitt
2010
What Remained Unspoken, Dokumentarfilm, 13 min, Buch, Kamera, Produktion, Regie, Schnitt
2007
We All Have Illusions, Dokumentarfilm, 70 min, Regie, Buch, Kamera, Produktion
2007
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams?, Dokumentarfilm, 15 min, Buch, Filmmusik, Kamera, Produktion, Regie, Schnitt
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Those Next to Us (In Produktion)
Those Next to Us
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Those Next to Us (In Produktion)
Those Next to Us
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Those Next to Us (In Produktion)
Those Next to Us
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)
The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Faces of Athens (2017)
Faces of Athens
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Faces of Athens (2017)
Faces of Athens
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Faces of Athens (2017)
Faces of Athens
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Faces of Athens (2017)
Faces of Athens
Bernhard Hetzenauer
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow
Bernhard Hetzenauer
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow
Bernhard Hetzenauer
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow
Bernhard Hetzenauer
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow
Bernhard Hetzenauer
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)
La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow
Bernhard Hetzenauer
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth
Bernhard Hetzenauer
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth
Bernhard Hetzenauer
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth
Bernhard Hetzenauer
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth
Bernhard Hetzenauer
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)
And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth
Bernhard Hetzenauer
What Remained Unspoken (2010)
What Remained Unspoken
Bernhard Hetzenauer
What Remained Unspoken (2010)
What Remained Unspoken
Bernhard Hetzenauer
What Remained Unspoken (2010)
What Remained Unspoken
Bernhard Hetzenauer
What Remained Unspoken (2010)
What Remained Unspoken
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Leo Pilgerstorfer
We All Have Illusions (2007)
We All Have Illusions
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Leo Pilgerstorfer
We All Have Illusions (2007)
We All Have Illusions
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Leo Pilgerstorfer
We All Have Illusions (2007)
We All Have Illusions
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Leo Pilgerstorfer
We All Have Illusions (2007)
We All Have Illusions
Bernhard Hetzenauer
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams? (2007)
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams?
Bernhard Hetzenauer
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams? (2007)
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams?
Bernhard Hetzenauer
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams? (2007)
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams?
Bernhard Hetzenauer
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams? (2007)
When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams?
Films

Those Next to Us (In Produktion)

AT/DE/MX

Dokumentarfilm

approx. 20 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

Those Next to Us (In Produktion)

Synopsis

Der Mexikaner Germán López Rosales schildert seine Erfahrungen eines Schleppertransports von der mexikanischen Grenzstadt Laredo nach San Antonio, Texas. Neben Germán, in den stockdunklen Laderaum eines LKW eingeschlossen, starben auf Grund der starken Hitzeentwicklung am Tag der Überfahrt zehn der 39 mit ihm reisenden Migranten. Der dokumentarische Essay zeichnet Germans Weg von seinem mexikanischen Heimatdorf bis Texas nach. Seine Stimme aus dem Off schildert dabei eindringlich den Hergang der Ereignisse. Die Weite und scheinbare Idylle der südtexanischen Landschaften bilden einen kaum überbrückbaren Kontrast zu Germáns intimen Schilderungen und verweisen auf die Absurdität des sich immer mehr verschärfenden Grenzkonflikts.

Info
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Produktion
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Ton
Mariángela Martínez Restrepo, Gabriela Ivette Sandoval Torres
Kamera
Tristan Guercovich, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Premiere International
30. November ‑0001
Premiere Österreich
30. November ‑0001
Kinostart
30. November -0001

The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)

AT/DE/NO/MX/DK

Dokumentarfilm

11 min

Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen / Bernhard Hetzenauer

The Birthmark – El lunar en su espalda (2019)

Synopsis

Consuelo’s daughter Victoria was brutally murdered in Mexico City. The Birthmark visualizes the mother’s inexpressible pain in blurry, abstract images, which become concrete only selectively: in macro-recordings of fleshy scar tissue and threatening pointy spikes that emphatically drill into not only the viewers’ eyes, but also their bosom.

(Michelle Koch, catalogue Diagonale 2020)

Info
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
Kamera
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
Schnitt
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
Produktion
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Pia Ilonka Schenk Jensen
Ton
Iván Ramos, Daniela López Guerrero
Filmmusik
Marco Antonio Luján
Premiere International
21. January 2020 — Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken 2020 
Premiere Österreich
30. May 2020 — VIS Vienna Shorts 2020 
Kinostart
30. November -0001
Awards
Festival de Cine Kunturñawi, Ecuador, Best Short Documentary 2021

Faces of Athens (2017)

AT/DE/GR

Dokumentarfilm

110 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

Faces of Athens (2017)

Synopsis

Faces of Athens” highlights the consequences of the collapse of the Greek social and health systems after the implementation of budget cuts demanded by the EU’s finance ministers.

When the situation in public hospitals became increasingly hopeless, the Athenian cardiologist Dr. Giorgos Vichas decided to set up a health center together with volunteers in 2011. This clinic in the south of Athens was to be completely free of charge for those without insurance. The Metropolitan Community Clinic at Elliniko was one of many such initiatives that were founded all over Greece thanks to civic commitment.

Despite various economic obstacles, these social clinics sought to help society’s weakest, the true victims of the financial crisis, by offering medical aid, surgery, and providing medicine. Many of those affected could not afford costly visits to the doctor or prescription fees even when they were seriously ill.

In 23 personal testimonies, volunteers and patients recount their lives during the financial crisis. These texts are based on conversations that Bernhard Hetzenauer conducted in April and May 2016 in several places across Athens, which can be seen as exemplary of Greek solidarity. These include the Social Clinic of Elliniko, the KIFA (Athens Community Polyclinic and Pharmacy) near Omonia Square and a similar KIFA in Piraeus.

Together with video portraits of the interviewees, these testimonies were shown in the eponymous Faces of Athens” exhibition in Vienna’s Künstlerhaus 1050 and the gallery KC Grad in Belgrade in the summer of 2017.

(Excerpt from catalogue Faces of Athens”, Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2019)

Info
Buch
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Kamera
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Produktion
Kristina Konrad (Weltfilm), Musek/Wegerer/Riha (Qubik), Bernhard Hetzenauer
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Ton
José Rodríguez, Roberto Félix Sánchez, Michael Freudenthaler
Schnitt
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Premiere International
7. May 2022 — The Missing Link Zurich 2021 
Premiere Österreich
2. June 2017 — Künstlerhaus Wien, solo exhibition Faces of Athens 
Kinostart
30. November -0001
Awards
Nomination, The Missing Link 2021 – Award for psychoanalysis, Zurich 
Acquisition of work, Tyrol State Art Collection 2022

La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)

AT/DE/MX

Dokumentarfilm

20 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

La sombra de un dios – A God's Shadow (2017)

Synopsis

Chon, a member of the Native Mexican Wirrárika community, tells the story of his cousin Faustino, son of the shaman of an indigenous settlement called La Mora. In the 1980’s Faustino had proclaimed himself to be God. Together with an armed group he menaced and terrorized other neighboring villages. When Chon witnessed his cousin killing members of their own community, he escaped.

(catalogue, Viennale 2017)

Info
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Kamera
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Produktion
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Marko Mijatovic, Antoniu V. Moldovan
Schnitt
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Clementina Mantellini
Ton
Aarón Oliveros Soria, Marco Antonio Lujan, Alan Rodríguez Cervantes, Roberto Félix Sánchez
Premiere International
23. January 2018 — Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken 2018 
Premiere Österreich
28. October 2017 — Viennale 2017 
Kinostart
30. November -0001
Awards
Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz, Local Artist Innovative Award 
RLB Kunstbrücke, Innsbruck, Nomination RLB Art Award 
zeitimpuls Film Festival Vienna, zeitimpuls Open Award 
FIDBA Buenos Aires, Jury Mention 
Shorts Mexico, Mexico City, Best Mexican Short Documentary 
DocsMX, Mexico City, Best Mexican Short Documentary 
FIC San Luís Potosí, Mexico, Best Short Documentary 
Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Mexico, Best Documentary Video

And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)

AT/DE/EC

Dokumentarfilm

78 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

And There Was Fire in the Center of the Earth (2013)

Synopsis

Born in 1912 in Prague, Vera Kohn escaped Czechoslovakia a few months after Nazi Germany had invaded her country. In 1939 she made her way with her family to Ecuador where many Jews found refuge. Here she began a new life. After a career as a leading actress in Quito, she traveled to Europe because of a severe mental crisis to undergo psychotherapy with German Gestalt psychotherapist Karlfried Dürckheim. After three years of studying Dürckheim’s Initiative Therapy,” Vera returned to Ecuador, where for many years she was a practicing psychologist and teacher of Zen Buddhism. This film tells Vera’s story, which the film’s director contrasts and merges with his personal questions of collective guilt and individual responsibility as he attempts to come to terms with his family’s legacy.

Info
Buch
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Kamera
François "Coco" Lasso, Diego Arteaga, Dario Aguirre, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Filmmusik
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Produktion
Bernhard Hetzenauer, HFBK Hamburg
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Schnitt
Amparo Mejías, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Ton
Patricio López, Janne von Busse, Rainer Schwarte
Premiere International
10. May 2013 — Festival EDOC, Quito/​Cuenca/​Guayaquil, Ecuador 
Premiere Österreich
15. May 2014 — Ethnocineca Vienna 
Kinostart
5. November 2014
Awards
Film Festival Kunturñawi Ecuador, Best Research for a Documentary 
Bienal de Arte Visual, Toluca, Mexico, Jury Prize
St. Petersburg Cinema Press Federation Diploma
Erasmus Euro Media Award, Vienna 
HFBK Film Award, Hamburg Cultural Foundation 
Theodor Körner Art Award, Vienna
DAAD Award, HFBK Hamburg
Merit Award, Anni und Heinrich Sussmann Stiftung, Vienna

What Remained Unspoken (2010)

AT/DE/MX

Dokumentarfilm

13 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

What Remained Unspoken (2010)

Synopsis

In this film the director accompanies 25-year-old Mexican actress Ana Serrano through a process of finding herself. In a poetic way the film shows the painful process of losing a beloved person and the search for a way to deal with the loss.

(catalogue, Crossing Europe 2010)

Info
Buch
Ana Serrano, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Filmmusik
Marco Antonio Luján
Ton
Hector Saavedra, Alexander Zlamal
Kamera
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Produktion
Cinescopio Films, HFBK Hamburg, Universidad del Cine Buenos Aires, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Schnitt
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Premiere International
13. August 2010 — TRANZYT IDFF Poznan 
Premiere Österreich
22. April 2010 — Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz 
Kinostart
30. November -0001

We All Have Illusions (2007)

AT/EC

Dokumentarfilm

70 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

We All Have Illusions (2007)

Synopsis

Ambato, a small city in the Ecuadorian sierra. 17-year-old former street kid Vicente tries to change his poor life. He is helped by Catholic nun Madre Narciza who is the head of a social project there. 19-year-old Miguel and his friends, a group of shoeshiners, try to escape their economic problems by playing folcloristic music. Narciza dedicates her life to offer these young people a – maybe – better future. The film comes close to these young people without looking at them from a first-world-point-of-view but showing them as human beings struggling for their dreams.

Info
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Leo Pilgerstorfer
Buch
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Kamera
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Ton
Leo Pilgerstorfer
Produktion
Bernhard Hetzenauer, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien
Premiere International
9. May 2008 — Festival EDOC Quito 
Premiere Österreich
19. January 2007 
Kinostart
30. November -0001
Awards
Ursula Blickle Video Award 2006

When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams? (2007)

AT

Dokumentarfilm

15 min

Bernhard Hetzenauer

When Did I Stop Telling You My Dreams? (2007)

Synopsis

In a slide show in black and white, the spectator watches the director’s memories of his grandmother. Accompanied by an intimate voice-over spoken by the director himself, images from a time long ago come back to life.

(Culture Unplugged)

Info
Buch
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Filmmusik
Annalena Stabauer, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Kamera
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Produktion
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Regie
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Schnitt
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Ton
Can Sözen, Johannes Tröndle
Premiere International
21. December 2017 — German Short Film Day – Bundesplatzkino Berlin 
Premiere Österreich
21. May 2008 — VIS Film Festival Vienna 
Kinostart
30. November -0001
Awards
VIS Film Festival, Vienna, Audience Award, 2008
Acquisition of work, Tyrol State Art Collection 2018
Acquisition of work, City of Innsbruck Art Collection 2018
Bernhard Hetzenauer