FILM SCREENING | THE GREAT MUSEUM
The Great Museum (Das Grosse Museum)
a film by Johannes Holzhausen
The award-winning documentary THE GREAT MUSEUM is a curious, witty and humorous peek behind the scenes at a world-famous cultural institution. Director Johannes Holzhausen and his team spent more than two years gathering material at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Shot in the attentive style of direct cinema – with no off-screen commentary, no interviews and no background music – the film observes the various processes involved in creating a perfect setting for art. From the managing director to the cleaning services team, from the carriers to the art historians, the staff members at the museum are all interdependent cogs in the same machine.
THE GREAT MUSEUM is also a film about temporality and transience. It relates the museum’s everyday business to its long tradition, which dates back to the Habsburg Monarchy, and the timelessness of art objects.
Austria 2014, DCP/HD, 94 min (in German with English subtitles)
Director: Johannes Holzhausen
Script: Johannes Holzhausen, Constantin Wulff
Director of Photography: Joerg Burger, Attila BoaSound: Andreas Pils, Andreas Hamza
Editing and Dramaturgy: Dieter Pichler
Assistant Director: Ursula Henzl
Production Manager: Hanne Lassl
Producer: Johannes Rosenberger
Johannes Holzhausen was born in 1960 in Salzburg. After leaving school, he began a degree in art history at the University of Vienna in 1981. In 1985 and 1986 he and a group of others organised the lecture series “art and concepts of art”, presenting internationally renowned art scholars and art historians. As a student he also participated in various art projects, such as “WOPA Bank”.
From 1987 to 1995 he studied at the Vienna Film Academy where he made his first documentary, Those Loved by God, which was met with critical acclaim at numerous film festivals. After graduating from university, he spent five years working on his full-length documentary On the Seven Seas about a Soviet aircraft carrier. This film premiered in the Forum section of the Berlinale 2002. In 2000, in response to the Austrian government formed by the conservative People’s Party and the right-wing Freedom Party, he made his film Zero Crossing reflecting on the political situation.
His first television project was Der Gang der Dinge for BR (Bayerisches Fernsehen) about rural migration in the Upper Palatinate region. He continued his documentary work with Frauentag.
He is co-founder and associate of Navigator Film, a Vienna based production company for creative documentaries since 1996.
In 2003 Johannes Holzhausen was a member of the jury for the international competition at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. From 2005 to 2008 he was a member of the advisory board for films at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture.
His films have featured at renowned international documentary festivals throughout Europe and have been purchased and/or co-produced by European broadcasters like Canal+, WDR, ORF, ARTE, DSF, ZDF, BR
Trailer: http://thegreatmuseum-thefilm.com/
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