Lecture by Péter Forgács

The lives of ordinary Hungarians are exposed and examined in the work of media artist Péter Forgács. Through examples of forgotten home movies from the 1920s and 1930s that he has recast, Forgács discusses his unique approach to media and his development as an artist, while providing a general introduction to the films that follow. (Approximately 50 minutes)
This program is made possible by funds given in memory of Rajiv Vaidya.

The delicate story of cousins Lisl Goldarbeiter and Marci Tänzer, both born in 1907 to a large middle-class Austro-Hungarian Jewish family, is retold largely through Marci's home movies of his beloved Lisl, whose rise to beauty pageant stardom culminated in her crowning as the first Miss Universe. (Péter Forgács, 2006, digital beta, German with subtitles, 70 minutes)

Presented in association with the Washington Jewish Film Festival: An Exhibition of International Cinema

Poetically detailing the sensation of a near fatal heart attack, Own Death is Forgács' first foray into fiction, based on Hungarian writer Péter Nádas' biographical novella. A seemingly objective meditation on life is rendered subjective through Nádas' first-person voiceover and Forgács' use of rich evocative imagery. (Péter Forgács, 2007, digital beta, 118 minutes)

Tibor Höfler, last living member of the Hungarian leather manufacturing dynasty from Pécs, retells his family's history through narrative, letters, photographs, and home movies. As personal stories unfold against pivotal moments in central European history, Tibor's fate intertwines with that of Goethe's young Werther, a character modeled on his own eighteenth-century ancestor Jakob von Höfler. (Péter Forgács, 2008, digital beta, Hungarian with subtitles, 160 minutes)