Peter Zeitlinger

Peter Zeitlinger was born on the Vlatava island Stavanice in Prague. His parents were Kveta and Milos Mihovic, a musician from Marienbad.

Due to the turbulences during the Soviet occupation in 68 and the political instability his mother left the country and moved to the neighbouring and neutral country of Austria. Not even 10 years old young Peter Zeitlinger had to learn a new mother tongue. Being forced to express himself in a new way Peter Zeitlinger started painting and sketching a lot. Instead of multiplication tables his maths exercise book was decorated with sketches of his maths teacher, whom he had secretly fallen in love with.

Aged thirteen Peter Zeitlinger discovered the possibility of making images move. A friend's father had an 8mm camera and kept it in his gynecologist's practice. When during the heights of puberty Peter Zeitlinger and his friend secretly observed the gynecologist at work, they discovered the camera. During the night Peter Zeitlinger would sneak into the practice and borrow the camera. For many nights he used the operating light in the practice and worked on his own animated films before he sneaked out of the practice at the crack of dawn. One night he was discovered by his friend's father but strangely enough he was not told off! Instead, the wealthy doctor was so deeply moved by the animated films that he gave his camera to the "poor refugees' child".

Now it became possible for Peter Zeitlinger to work in the outside world during the daytime. For one of his first films "We Walked" he was awarded a youth film festival prize and was given a camera with zoom and audio recording features. That was when filmig really lifted off. Until he was accepted at the Academy for Film he had produced a good 70 short or animated films. Peter Zeitlinger's first animated film "Der Geburtstag" (The Birthday) was his ticket to university, because being a taciturn person he otherwise would not have survived amongst all the talkative chatter boxes.Michael Snow and Peter Kubelka became Peter Zeitlinger's admired and most influential teachers.

Peter Zeitlinger had met Kubelka in Linz and had been impressed by the latter's all-encompassing concept of art. Kubelka introduced him to the interrelations between music, cooking and film making. All of these three forms of expressing life obey the same rules: composing (i.e. montage, composition) and preceptions in the course of time (dramatic plot). In addition to the courses at the academy Peter Zeitlinger also attended lectures by Lachmayer and Prof Mader who read at the Vienna philosophical institute. He also studied Management of Arts under Jungblut and Dieter Ronde trying to graduate as an MA.

The theoretical essays by Peter Zeitlinger, first published in the University newsletter brought about a remarkable uproar amongst his teachers, because in "Abschaffung der Montage" (Abolishing Montage), which was based on profound philosophical knowledge, Peter Zeitlinger meticulously managed to proof that a "Filmgrammatik" (Grammar of Films) does not exist. Although Peter Zeitlinger was not enrolled in directing it was the lecturers from the directing department (A. Stummer and A. Corti) who strongly spoke out in favour of Peter Zeitlinger being admitted to the exams, which were quite threatened at the time. Peter Zeitlinger graduated with excellency.

During his university years Peter Zeitlinger had already written a number of scripts. One of the scripts co-written by Peter Zeitlinger and Erhard Riedlsperger was "Tunnelkind" (Tunnel Child). The film is set at the Czech-Austrian border where the Iron Curtain was erected during the late 60s. Borders and marginalization are recurring topics in Peter Zeitlinger's work. Although many of the films Peter Zeitlinger had produced during his uiversity years were awarded several prizes it was due to the highly bureaucratic structures in Austria that it first seemed impossible for a young graduate from university to work as a Director of Photography (DOP).

Normally, years of assistance and begging were to be endured first. After a debate sparked of by Peter Zeitlinger the directorate of the film board decided to allow an exception to the rule: for the first time a first-time director was allowed to select the DOP of his choice, Peter Zeitlinger, for his first full-length film. The media, as well as the film business and the fellow students were keen to observe the maknig of this film at the Czech-Austrian border.

On a daily basis the latest shots were assessed by a committee even before the director or the DOP had seen them, and the comittee then had to grant premission to continue with the project. An experienced replacement crew was kept on call to take over, in case the project would fail. After one week at work the replacement crew was sent home. A little later the film was invited to the International Berlin Filmfestival.

The film tells the story of a little girl who manages to convince the chief builder at a construction site for the electric fence to build the fence above a secret tunnel in order to leave an escape into freedom. During the production of Tunnelkind the Iron Curtain for Czechoslovakia was abolished. Reality seemed to catch up with fiction. The Berlin Film Festival was also dominated by the liberalisation of the communist countries and the film was applauded as dealing marvellously with current affairs.

Peter Zeitlinger