Filmarchiv Austria: Kurt Steinwendner Collection

>> View collection  Kurt Steinwender (1920-1972) was one of the leading Austrian filmmakers in the 1950s and 1960s. His first film “Der Rabe” (“The raven”), made together with Wolfgang Kudrnovsky, is considered to be the first Austrian experimental film after the Second World War. On the EFG the Austrian Film Archive presents some of Kurt Steinwender’s art films (“Der Rabe”, “Gigant und Mädchen”,“Alfred Kubin – Abenteuer einer Zeichenfeder”) as well as some of his industrial and advertisement films. The collection shows in a perfect manner that film history does not only consist of art and entertainment films. It mostly consists of a wide variety of "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films.

 
Detailed description provided by the archive:
Kurt Steinwender (1920-1972) was one of the leading Austrian filmmakers in the 1950s and 1960s. His first film “Der Rabe” (“The raven”), which he made together with Wolfgang Kudrnovsky, is considered to be the first Austrian experimental film after the Second World War. In 1952, he released the feature film “Wienerinnen” (“Women from Vienna”) which was influenced by Italian Neorealism. For this reason it is a unique work of art in Austrian film history. Kurt Steinwender’s following feature film “Flucht ins Schilf” operates with the same aesthetic approach. It was artistically a masterpiece but economical a big failure. For this reason Steinwender started to produce and direct industrial films and advertisements. In this way he financed his ongoing production of experimental and documentary films (e.g. “Gigant und Mädchen”, “Alfred Kubin – Abenteuer einer Zeichenfeder).
 

In 1962 he won the „Silbernen Bären“ at the Berlinale with the experimental short film “Venedig”.
 

During the 1960s Kurt Steinwender was becoming more successful with his paintings and installations. He started to use the artist’s name “Curt Stenvert” and was invited to the Art Biennale in Venice in 1966 and in succession to other important international art venues. Steinwender continued his film work infrequently and stopped it completely in 1970.
 

On the European Film Gateway the Filmarchiv Austria presents some of Kurt Steinwender’s art films (“Der Rabe”, “Gigant und Mädchen”,“Alfred Kubin – Abenteuer einer Zeichenfeder”) and a large collection of industrial and advertisement films. We think that the collection shows in a perfect manner that film history doesn´t consist only of art and entertainment films. It mostly consists of a wide variety of "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films.