Christine A. Maier

Movies

Elfriede Jelinek - Language Unleashed
Camera Operator
Wunderkind, scandalous author, traitor to the fatherland, fury of the theater, feminist, fashion-lover, communist, pessimist, language terrorist, rebel, enfant terrible, nest fouler, brilliant, vulnerable artist, Nobel laureate. This film about Elfriede Jelinek, who in 2004 became the first Austrian author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, focuses on her artistic approach to language. The montage of archive material with voiceovers and interviews, some of them recently recorded, is told from Jelinek’s point of view.
Alice Schwarzer
Director of Photography
Chronicles the life of German feminist, author and activist Alice Schwarzer.
Johanna Dohnal - Visionary of Feminism
Director of Photography
Johanna Dohnal, whose political career spans three decades, was one of the very first explicitly feminist politicians in Europe. As a member of the Austrian socialist government and the first Austrian minister for Women’s Affairs from 1990 to 1994, Dohnal was responsible for founding Austria’s first women’s refuge as well as criminalizing of marital rape. Yet her legacy remains yet to be discovered and re-examined. DIE DOHNAL makes a first step, and it makes Dohnal come alive.
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Director of Photography
Bosnia, July 1995. Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people – rescue or death? Which move should she take?
Mademoiselle Paradis
Director of Photography
18th century Vienna. Maria Theresia von Paradis, a gifted piano player and close friend of Mozart's, lost her eye-sight as a child. Desperate to cure their talented daughter, the Paradis entrust Maria to Dr. Mesmer, a forward-thinking-physician who gives her the care and attention that she requires. With the doctor's innovative techniques of magnetism, Maria slowly recovers her sight. But this miracle comes at a price as the woman progressively starts to lose her gift for music.
One Day in Sarajevo
Director of Photography
Causes and consequences of the assassination that happened in Sarajevo a hundred years ago still continue to reverberate in Europe. On June 28, 1914 Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Franz Ferdinand sparking World War I that marked the start of the 20th century. As Sarajevo commemorated the centennial of the assassination, different people had different interpretations of what happened in the city a century ago and different emotions about it. ONE DAY IN SARAJEVO tells about various perspectives of the anniversary in Sarajevo combining and contrasting footage filmed by citizens of Sarajevo (with small cameras and mobile phones) with scenes from feature films about the assassination by directors from Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the United Kingdom
Quarry
Director of Photography
Marble—in its raw state and as a noble product—is the matter that Quarry is made of. The film portrays two distinct interiors, a large underground marble quarry in Vermont, and several showrooms of Manhattan luxury condos. In between stands a solid reflection about the material choices associated to these architectures and the stone's value within a speculative economy.
Love Island
Director of Photography
Love Island tells the story of a pregnant French woman who lives in Sarajevo with her Bosnian husband and their daughter. They go for a vacation at a Croatian island, where things get complicated when they all become attracted to a beautiful woman.
For Those Who Can Tell No Tales
Director of Photography
Kym, an Australian tourist, decides to travel to Bosnia. Her guidebook leads her to Višegrad, a small town steeped in history, on the border of Bosnia and Serbia. After a night of insomnia in the 'romantic' Hotel Vilina Vlas, Kym discovers what happened there during the war. She can no longer be an ordinary tourist and her life will never be the same again.
Festung
Director of Photography
Johanna (13) is in love – but how is she to enjoy this rush of emotions when her violent prone father is returning to the family home? Torn between the wish to stay true to her father and the love for her boyfriend, Johanna is faced with an impossible decision. A story about family secrets, the chains of family loyalty and the power to break free.
Colors in the Dark
Director of Photography
Anita and Fred have been a couple for 50 years, and happily married for nearly as long. They have two grown children, and their grandchildren are finishing school. Both can look back at a fulfilling past, but their lives are still rich and vibrant. The fact that Fred is terribly ill has been hidden from the family. For the first time in all these years, Fred takes some liberties, which his wife interprets as an affront. Never before has she felt so abandoned. Although she starts to question her relationship, a love like theirs cannot end so easily. Indeed it should never end.
Love of the Children
Director of Photography
Two single parents decide to move in together and their two teenage children fall in love.
On the Path
Director of Photography
Loving young couple Luna and Amar try their best to overcome unexpected obstacles that threaten their relationship. After Amar's dramatic change in a fundamentalist community, Luna tears herself apart searching if love is truly enough to keep the couple together on the path to a lifetime of happiness...
Stories on Human Rights
Director of Photography
20 short films about human rights.
Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Director of Photography
High School grad and all American gal, Anna, finds her purpose and herself after she hooks up with the radical feminists in The Itty Bitty Titty Committee.
Reclaim Your Brain
Director of Photography
Frustrated, because he is forced to produce bad TV-shows, a manager of a TV-station, enters the station and manipulates the ratings, to initiate a TV-revolution.
Good Morning Austria
Director of Photography
A working day in Austria, 2004. Nine modern working-class heroes are engaged in their daily struggle of survival, accompanied, motivated and influenced by the country’s most popular radio station.
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
Director of Photography
A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.
Lucy
Director of Photography
A young teenage single mother (Maggi) struggling to raise her baby daughter (Lucy) finds the weight of responsibility bearing down on her shoulders. Maggy was forced to grow up before her time. Thankfully for Maggi, her mother is always willing to help though Maggy still lives at home with her mother, it's obvious that she longs to gain some independendence. Meeting Gordon at a local club, who is a few years older, makes a living and has his own apartment. One night, after a heated argument with her mother, Maggi makes the decision to move in with Gordon. Though the pair subsequently make a sincere attempt to be good parents.and do what's best for Lucy, they soon find that taking on the responsibilities of adulthood aren't so easy when you've barely moved past childhood yourself.
Northern Skirts
Director of Photography
Vienna, 1995. Jasmin, Tamara, Valentin, Senad and Roman live near the northern border of Austria. Their lives repeatedly intersect and drift apart. The characters involved are young migrants from the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Poland and Austria itself. Strangers in a strange land, they feel a sense of loss in their new, temporary environment. The five-some meet and get close to each other, hopelessly clinging to friendships and relationships with no future. They frequent cafés and train stations dreaming of a better tomorrow. Often, they just fall back on the prospect of short-term affection in yet another doomed romantic or sexual encounter. Trying hard to suppress the memories of war and alienation, they try to find moral strength and warmth through one another.
Sunspots
Director of Photography
Short film about a woman and a little girl.
The Fruit of thy Womb
Director of Photography
To evade the incomprehensible world of adults seven-year-old Natascha creates her own world, influenced by her impressions of sexuality and religion. It is a world of mainly catholic imaginations and symbols - a world between frightening bogey men and flying Christ children.
Somewhere Else
Director of Photography
Four months after the end of the war, four young people from Sarajevo share their experience, their thoughts and their hopes for the future, walking around the city in ruin.
Nachtschwalben
Director of Photography
Two girls in the disco give free rein to anger, nobody stops them.
Film or Power
Zagreb-born artist Vlado Kristl (1923-2004) was the most radical of the German auteur filmmakers. This is an anakofilm.