Private Project

GLARING LIGHT

A young couple kissing joyfully at the breakfast table, playful, excited, re-embracing, postponing the goodbye for nearly two minutes, before she leaves and he pensively lights a cigarette as the title is superimposed on a blindingly white screen surrounded by a dark circle, suggesting the spot of a projection lamp: The astonishing first shot of Schreiner’s debut Grelles Licht is an emblematic moment. Immediately, there’s an abundance of this special feeling of natural spontaneity, yet also the insistence that things take time. “You can’t chase after things,” Schreiner declares categorically, “you have to let them become. You have to be long enough in a place for something lasting to emerge, even with the most banal things. It takes time. And it will be beautiful, if you take the time.” Part of the disarming beauty of this first shot is that it both evokes vital ecstasy and hope, some unconscious, irretrievable happiness—in this case, of young love—but it applies to Schreiner’s notion of living in general. Yet for all the time it takes, this potentially endless state of bliss eventually is over, making one painfully aware of the finiteness of things, felt in disappointments and alienation(...) One thing that is so miraculous about his films is the ease of his subjects in front of the camera, “who seem to approach it (like a mirror image), and not the other way round,” as Barbara Wurm has noted. Schreiner himself says that he tries “to let things happen, not watch them, which may be a provocation: as a filmmaker you seem doomed to watch. But you have to mobilize all mental strength to adjust your attitude to escape watching, to be able to approach the other and dive into him.”


(Christoph Huber, Cinema Scope, 2010)

  • Peter Schreiner
    Director
  • Peter Schreiner
    Writer
  • Peter Schreiner
    Producer
  • Peter Schreiner
    Cinematography
  • Peter Schreiner
    Editing
  • Hermann Krejcar
    Cast
  • Niki List
    Cast
  • Leopold Schreiner
    Cast
  • Bärbel Neubauer
    Cast
  • Franz Franke
    Cast
  • Christian Polster
    Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    GRELLES LICHT
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Feature, Other
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 28 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 31, 1982
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria
  • Country of Filming:
    Austria, Germany
  • Language:
    German
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:1,33
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Austrian Film Museum, Vienna, Austria, 1982
  • Austrian Film Days 1982, Austria
  • Diagonale 2010, Graz, Austria
Distribution Information
  • echtzeitfilm - Peter Schreiner Filmproduktion
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Peter Schreiner

born 1957 in Vienna
studies at University of Music and Performing Arts,
Department Film and Television, Vienna
films since 1982
1982 Glaring Light (16mm, bw, 120 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
1983 First Love (16mm, bw, 100 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
1985 Children Film (16mm, bw, 110 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
1986-88 On The Way (16mm, bw/col, 120 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
1988-91 The Cimbers (16mm, bw, 116 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
1993-95 Blue Distance (16mm, bw, 95 min., sc, dir, ed)
2004-06 Bellavista (DV-35mm, bw, 117 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
2007-09 Totó (DV-35mm, bw, 128 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
2010-12 Fata Morgana (HD-DCP, bw, 140 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
2013-15 Lampedusa (HD-DCP, bw, 130 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
2015-18 Garden (HD-DCP, bw, 136 min., sc, dir, cam, ed)
Awards:
Main Diagonale Award (Best Austrian Documentary 2006/07)
Advancement Award for Cinematic Art 2009
Diagonale Award (Best Cinematography, documentary film 2009/10)
Diagonale Award (Best Artistic Film Editing, feature fiction film 2019)
"Big Stamp" for the best regional film 2010, Int. Filmfestival ZagrebDOX, Croatia 2009
IFFI-Award 2016 for Best Documentary, Prize of the Town of Innsbruck, Austria 2016
Mirabile Dictu ICFF - Award, "The Silver Fish" for best director, Rome 2016
Human Time - Award for Best Featurefilm, Human District IFF, Belgrade 2016
Winner of the "Critical Eye-­‐screening", Lume Int. Filmfestival, Brazil 2011
best cinematography, 4. Int. Documentary Drama Filmfestival, Saratov, Russia 2007
'Personale' (retrospective), Diagonale, Festival of Austrian Film 2010 - Graz / Austria
'Focus Peter Schreiner', Cinemigrante International Filmfestival 2016 - Buenos Aires / Argentina
festivals and screenings:
Int. Forum des Jungen Films - Berlin, Mostra Int. d'Arte Cinematografica - Venezia , Karlovy Vary Int. Filmfestival, Int. Filmfestival Rotterdam, São Paulo Int. Filmfestival, Buenos Aires Int. Filmfestival, DocLisboa Filmfestival, Denver Film Festival, Bradford Int. Filmfestival, Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Films, Documenta-Madrid, Era New Horizons - Wroclaw, Split Int. Festival of New Film, Duisburger Filmwoche, Saratov Sufferings Int. Filmfestival, DocPoint Helsinki, Full Length Festival Lublin, Austrian Cultural Forum - New York, Mediterranean Experience - Reggio/Calabria, ZagrebDox Int. Documentary Film Festival, Jeonju Int. Filmfestival - South Korea, European Film Week Tehran, Transilvania Int. Filmfestival, Cinédécouvertes Competition - Belgium, dfi-Symposium "Töne sehen - Bilder hören" - Köln, Italian American Institute - New York, European Film Days - Tokyo, Lume Int. Filmfestival, Int. Film Festival "A man`s shadow"- New Caledonia, Bildrausch Filmfestival Basel, Isola Cinema Int. Filmfestival, Festival du nouveau cinema - Montreal, Copenhagen architecture x film Festival, Shadow Filmfestival Amsterdam, Würzburger Filmwochenende, Int. Filmfestival Innsbruck, Filmschau Visionary - sixpackfilm, Walserherbst, Lessinia Filmfestival, Der Neue Heimatfilm - Freistadt, Riga Int. Filmfestival, Trento Filmfestival, Mirabile Dictu Int. Catholic Filmfestival - Rome, Human District Int. Filmfestival - Belgrade, A Film for Peace Int. Filmfestival - Udine, Indie International Film Festival Belo Horizonte - Brazil, Cinemigrante International Filmfestival - Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sose International Filmfestival - Armenia / International Filmfestival Carthago, Tunis, Tunisia / Festival Internacional de Cine de Autor, Guadalajara, Mexico / Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival a. o.
television:
ORF (Kunststücke), OKTO (Oktoskop)

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