Péter Forgács

'Péter Forgács (born 10 September 1950) Hungarian media artist and filmmaker. Best known for his "Private Hungary" series of award-winning films based on found-footage home movies from 1930s to the 1970s, which document ordinary lives that were soon to be ruptured by an extraordinary historical trauma that occurs off-screen.

Biography Since 1976 Péter Forgács has been active in the Hungarian art scene as media artist/filmmaker. In the late 1970s and '80s he collaborated with the contemporary music ensemble Group 180, at the same time he started to work in the Béla Balázs Filmstudio. Forgács established the Private Photo & Film Archives Foundation (PPFA, 1983) in Budapest, a unique collection of amateur film footage from the '920, and has made this material "the raw data" for his unique postmodern re-orchestrations of history. In 2000-2002, created The Danube Exodus: Rippling Currents of the River installation,Getty Center https://www.getty.edu/, The Getty Museum and Research Institute later exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Brussels, Budapest, Helsinki, Berlin, Ulm, Kolozsvár-Cluj. His international film debut came with the Bartos Family (1988), which was awarded the Grand Prix at the World Wide Video Festival in The Hague (1990). Since Forgács has received several international festival awards in Budapest, Lisbon, Marseille, San Francisco International Film Festival, the Documentary Golden Gate Award 1998, Tribeca Film Festival 2005; and received the Prix Europe, Berlin European TV Documentary of the Year Award 1997. Forgács received the 2007 Erasmus Prize, which is "awarded to a person or institution which has made an exceptionally important contribution to culture in Europe." In 2009 Forgács represented Hungary at the Venice Biennale, exhibiting the Col Tempo - The W. Project installation. In 2013 Forgacs created the ″Letters to Afar″ video installation at Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw with The Klezmatics Group; and at EYE Netherlands Filmmuseum Amsterdam the "Looming Fire - Stories from The Dutch East Indies 1900-1940" installation.

Filmography

2017 Kemény 80 Picturesque Epochs II. 70 min HD video 2016 Venom HD Video 30 min. novel and narration by Zsófia Bán 2015 - Mária Gánóczy Painter - Picturesque Epochs I. 2011 - GermanUnity@Balaton-Honeyland - produced by Lumen Film, Amsterdam / Uj Budapest Film / ZDF/ARTE - HD video 2009 - Video Active - documentary - for Video Active EU TV online archive promo - web version 2009 - Hunky Blues - The American Dream - produced by Filmpartners Ltd. - HD CAM 2008 - I am Von Höfler - Private Hungary 15 (video) 2007 - Own Death - fiction film - novel by Péter Nádas (HD video) 2006 - Miss Universe 1929 - Lisl Goldarbeiter - a Queen in Wien (HD video) 2005 - El Perro Negro - Stories from the Spanish Civil War (HD video) 2004 - Do You Really Love Me? (video) 2004 - Mutual Analysis (video) 2003 - Der Kaiser auf dem Spaziergang - light & image project (Installation and HD video) 2002 - The Bishop’s Garden - Private Hungary 14 (video) 2001 - A Bibó Reader - Private Hungary 13 (35mm film and video) 1999 - Angelos’ Film (video) 1998 - The Danube Exodus (video ) 1997 - The Maelstrom - A Family Chronic (video) 1997 - Kádár’s Kiss - Private Hungary 12 (video) 1997 - Class Lot - Private Hungary 11 (video) 1996 - Free Fall - Private Hungary 10 (video) 1996 - The Land of Nothing - Private Hungary 9 (video) 1994 - Meanwhile Somewhere 1940-43... (video) 1994 - The Notes of a Lady - Private Hungary 8 (video) 1994 - Hungarian Totem (video) 1993 - Conversations on Psychoanalysis - documentary series 5/5 1993 - Simply Happy - with Albert Wulffers (35mm film and video) 1993 - Culture Shavings (video) 1992 - Bourgeoisie Dictionary - Private Hungary 7 (video) 1992 - Wittgenstein Tractatus - INTERLUDE series (video) 1991 - Arizona diary - with poet György Petri (video) 1991 - Photographed by László Dudás - Private Hungary 6 (video) 1991 - D-FILM - Private Hungary 5 (video) 1991 - Márai Herbal - INTERLUDE series (video) 1990 - The Diary of Mr. N. - Private Hungary 4 (video) 1989 - Either - Or - Private Hungary 3 (video) 1989 - Dusi & Jenő - Private Hungary 2 (video) 1988 - The Bartos Family - Private Hungary 1 (video) 1987 - Episodes from the Life of Professor M.F. (video) 1986 - The Portrait of Leopold Szondi (video) 1985 - Spinoza Rückwertz (35mm film) 1978 - I See That I Look (video)

Installations and performances

2013 - Forgacs created the ″Letters to Afar″ video installation at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews,