- Occupation
Producer - Country
Austria
Seeber Michael
Aftermath
The Nicobars are a small archipegalo in the Indian Ocean, where one of the last indigenous people lived almost like in a time capsule for 900 years. When the Tsunami struck them in 2004 not only a third of their population died but they were also thrown into a modern world through the wave of aid and relief organisations that arrived on their shores. This aftermath proved to be a bigger catastrophe for their culture than the Tsunami. Today the organisations are leaving and the money is spent. But the Nicobaris embark on the search for a new identity.
Attention: State Frontier
"I often felt ashamed from the bottom of my heart for being Austrian", says filmmaker Sabine Derflinger. In ACHTUNG STAATSGRENZE she introduces rejected asylum seekers who are locked up in the police prison of Linz, waiting for their deportation. Rejected asylum seekers who are found by the Austrian aliens police are sent to prison for a maximum of six months, pending their expulsion. In prison they are being treated as if they belong to the category of tough criminals: ten minutes of fresh air a day, three minutes of monitored phone calls a week and one ten-minute shower a week. In 1995 15,000 people met with this fate. ACHTUNG STAATSGRENZE is the first Austrian film that takes these confined refugees' predicament to heart.
The Nicobars are a small archipegalo in the Indian Ocean, where one of the last indigenous people lived almost like in a time capsule for 900 years. When the Tsunami struck them in 2004 not only a third of their population died but they were also thrown into a modern world through the wave of aid and relief organisations that arrived on their shores. This aftermath proved to be a bigger catastrophe for their culture than the Tsunami. Today the organisations are leaving and the money is spent. But the Nicobaris embark on the search for a new identity.
Attention: State Frontier
"I often felt ashamed from the bottom of my heart for being Austrian", says filmmaker Sabine Derflinger. In ACHTUNG STAATSGRENZE she introduces rejected asylum seekers who are locked up in the police prison of Linz, waiting for their deportation. Rejected asylum seekers who are found by the Austrian aliens police are sent to prison for a maximum of six months, pending their expulsion. In prison they are being treated as if they belong to the category of tough criminals: ten minutes of fresh air a day, three minutes of monitored phone calls a week and one ten-minute shower a week. In 1995 15,000 people met with this fate. ACHTUNG STAATSGRENZE is the first Austrian film that takes these confined refugees' predicament to heart.
The Global Town
Shopping centers have been booming in European cities for many years. They are very popular for the customers but also controversial in public discussions. They are changing economic structures, social relations and form the appearance of our cities. The documentary "Global Town" (working title) of Ulli Gladik follows this movement: the film meets and follows important players in development, marketing and architecture, also politicians, consumers and retailers in different countries all around Europe - in Germany for example, where a new trend of inner city shopping malls is currently arising on the other hand in Romania a boom and bubble was recognized.
What's Wrong With a Free Lunch?
A crucial question: who owns the world? An economist tracks down a new spectre, haunting the planet – unconditional basic income. The film covers a fundamental issue – the question, who owns the world. From the diamond filled Namibian deserts, Mongolia’s copper mines and Alaska’s oilfields to Japan’s megacities and the world’s most renowned universities and think tanks, we travel to parts of the planet, which exemplarily stand for the earth’s resources (both material and immaterial ones). These places represent the underlying theoretical framework at a meta level in long, even-tempered shots, which shift the audience’s attention to a state of abstraction. The film’s theoretical superstructure is a reflection on classic liberal theories and moral concepts of the age of enlightenment, that more than ever shape modern, western societies.
Everyday Rebellion
Everyday Rebellion is an impressionistic documentary essay as well as a web platform about non-violent forms of protest and civil disobedience in the 21st century. A project about methods of resistance supported by technology, seen not only through the current movements of the Arabian and Iranian uprisings, but also through former successful and less successful revolts. The film describes the everyday conscious and subconscious of resistance of societies fighting suppression and repression.
Shopping centers have been booming in European cities for many years. They are very popular for the customers but also controversial in public discussions. They are changing economic structures, social relations and form the appearance of our cities. The documentary "Global Town" (working title) of Ulli Gladik follows this movement: the film meets and follows important players in development, marketing and architecture, also politicians, consumers and retailers in different countries all around Europe - in Germany for example, where a new trend of inner city shopping malls is currently arising on the other hand in Romania a boom and bubble was recognized.
What's Wrong With a Free Lunch?
A crucial question: who owns the world? An economist tracks down a new spectre, haunting the planet – unconditional basic income. The film covers a fundamental issue – the question, who owns the world. From the diamond filled Namibian deserts, Mongolia’s copper mines and Alaska’s oilfields to Japan’s megacities and the world’s most renowned universities and think tanks, we travel to parts of the planet, which exemplarily stand for the earth’s resources (both material and immaterial ones). These places represent the underlying theoretical framework at a meta level in long, even-tempered shots, which shift the audience’s attention to a state of abstraction. The film’s theoretical superstructure is a reflection on classic liberal theories and moral concepts of the age of enlightenment, that more than ever shape modern, western societies.
Everyday Rebellion
Everyday Rebellion is an impressionistic documentary essay as well as a web platform about non-violent forms of protest and civil disobedience in the 21st century. A project about methods of resistance supported by technology, seen not only through the current movements of the Arabian and Iranian uprisings, but also through former successful and less successful revolts. The film describes the everyday conscious and subconscious of resistance of societies fighting suppression and repression.
Michael SeeberMichael was born in 1954 in Innsbruck (Austria) and studied Biochemistry in Innsbruck and Mainz (Germany). He founded a cellar theatre in Innsbruck being active not only as a director but also as an actor on stage, and started writing his first scripts and novels. He was awarded the Theodor Körner Price for Literature by the Federal President of Austria in 1986. In 1988 he set up the Vienna-based film production company Prisma Filmproduktion GmbH. Since then he has been working as a scriptwriter, director, developer and producer.From 1994 to 1998 Michael was a Board Member of Documentary, the documentary funding section of MEDIA I. In 1995 he participated in the training programme EAVE.Michael‘s credits include more than thirty creative documentaries for cinema and TV as well as feature films (partly international coproductions), a.o. internationally awarded films as Luna Papa (1999) and Bella Martha (2001).A selection includes the documentaries Postadresse 2640 Schlöglmühl (1990), Schuld und Gedächtnis (1992), Emigration N.Y.(1996) and the TV-documentary Die Risikogesellschaft (1995) all by directed by Egon Humer. Further the documentaries Koshmar (1992) by Heinz Stussak; Teddy Kollek (1995) by Amos Kollek; Rest in Pieces (1997) by Robert Pejo; Am Stein (1995) by Othmar Schmiderer, and Erwin Chargaff (1996), a TV-documentary by Ebba Sinzinger. Feature film productions include Die totale Therapie (1996) by Christian Frosch; Beresina (1999) by Daniel Schmid; Luna Papa (1999) by Bakhtiar Khoudojnazarov; Lovely Rita (2001) by Jessica Hausner; Bella Martha (2001) by Sandra Nettelbeck, and Vollgas (2002) by Sabine Derflinger.Since early 2007, Michael has been working as a freelance producer and scriptwriter, most recently in close cooperation with Golden Girls Filmproduktion GmbH, Vienna (Austria). Since 2009, Michael has been working as a tutor and adviser for the MEDIA training programme SOURCES 2 (Stimulating Outstanding Resources for Creative European Script Writing).
Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices GmbH
Seidengasse 15/3/20
A-1070 Vienna
Seidengasse 15/3/20
A-1070 Vienna