Festival director Sigrun Höllrigl

Sigrun Höllrigl, born 1966 in Innsbruck, spent her youth and school time in Switzerland. Later on studies of literature and philosophy at University of Vienna  Major subjects: German literature 1900-1938. Philosophy of enlightenment, psychoanalysis. Final thesis about the German writer and journalist Kurt Tucholsky and master degree in philosophy. Begin of the doctor studies, research fellowships in Germany (Berlin, Stuttgart), travels to Switzerland. Journalism in arts, art & mediaprojects, writing. Publisher of the first art e-zine in Austria "der maschinist" She founded  the artplatform ART 2000 and realized the  pilot project  "Computer Communication & Prison" with the Austrian media artist Franz Xaver. She founded the art association "Target Reply" and realized works in media arts, journalism, did ghostwrite and realized two bookprojects for the Austrian publishing house Ueberreuter. (e. g. „Flirting in Cyberspace“). In 1999 she changed into information business and worked for 6 years for renowned international companies and later on in event marketing. In 2008 Sigrun Höllrigl returned again to arts founding the initiative and artist community ART VISUALS &POETRY www.poetryfilm-vienna.com.  The group works on multimedia literature performances, and on poetry films. Besides that she follows her own literary work writing essays, novels, poems, articles. In 2013 she co-founded a philosphy and dialog project for Ulrich Reinthaller www.phoenixberg.at and directed the first poetry film festival in Vienna In 2014 she organised the first poetry film competition in Austria and is the director of the Viennese poetry film festival. 2015 her novel "Odysseus X" was published by edition keipler. In 2016her second novel  called  "Das Lager/The Camp" was published by edition keiper Graz. Sigrun Höllrigl  lives in Vienna and Lower Austria.

Filmography literature film (last updated August 2015) 2012: "requiem auf georg trakl", "ein blaues tier sich verneigt" (Sigrun Höllrigl/Marc Neys)2013 "tschumbotschampoo oder Jörg Bungee verschollen am seil" (Sigrun Höllrigl/Alexandra Reill) 2014 "capparis spinosa" / "sonnenfieber"      (Sigrun Höllrigl) 2014 "vormittags im auwald" (Sigrun Höllrigl/Marc Neys) 2015 "a man and a woman" (Sigrun Höllrigl / George Chkheidze).

International Screenings: Internationales Poetry Film Festival ZEBRA Berlin, DoctorClip Rom, Hamburg International Short Film Festival, ART VISUALS & POETRY FESTIVAL Wien, International Poetry Film Festival Oslo, International Film Poetry Festival Athens, Internationale Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg 2014, Skepto International Filmfestival Cagliary, Italy 2014.VIDEOFEST2K14 BIENAL INTERNACIONAL DE VIDEO Y CINE CONTEMPORÁNEO VIDEOFEST, Baja California, Mexico 2014 ,WUK, Künstlerhaus Vienna 2014, Stuttgarter Filmwinter 2015 ,FILE 2015 - Electronic Language International Festival, Sao Paolo, Brazil 2015. FILE 2015 - Electronic Language International Festival, Sao Paolo, Brazil 2015, Goldsmith College University of London 2015, dotdotdot Shortfilm Festival Wien 2015. Internationales Poetry Film Festival ZEBRA Münster/Berlin 2016, File FILE 2015 - Electronic Language International Festival, Sao Paolo, Brazil 2017.

Artist website www.sigrunhoellrigl.net  E-mail:sigrun.hoellrigl(at)filmpoetry.com

MARTINA PFEILER (UNIVERSITIES, RESEARCH, EU-PROPOSAL)

Martina Pfeiler was born in Leoben, Austria, in 1976. She studied English and American Studies and Geography and Economic Studies from 1995 to 2001 at the University of Graz and at Roehampton Institute London in the United Kingdom. She completed her habilitation and PhD at TU Dortmund University in Germany, where she received her venia legendi in American literary and cultural studies in 2017. Since 2023, she has been Professor of Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Education Upper Austria. From 2021 to 2024, she was Vice-PI in the ERC/FWF-funded project “Poetry Off the Page. Literary History and the Spoken Word” at the University of Vienna, where also currently also teaches and conducts research at the Department of English and American Studies. Her book publications on poetry performances include  Poetry Goes Intermedia. U.S.-amerikanische Lyrik des 20. – und 21. Jahrhunderts aus kultur- und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive (Francke Verlag) and Sounds of Poetry. Contemporary American Performance Poets (Narr Verlag), as well as several book chapters and articles on the popularization of UK and US-American poetry and on the popularization of Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick through Hollywood. She is co-editor of the poetry slam anthology Pott Meets Poetry: The First Illustrated Slam Anthology of the Ruhr Area (Lektora Verlag).

Martina Pfeiler has given numerous international conference presentations and undertaken research stays in Brazil, Japan, the USA, and the UK, including conducting interviews with international poets, filmmakers, and media artis. She is currently working on a co-authored volume titled In the Event of Poetry: Contemporary British Poetry Performance in Context (Palgrave).  https://martinapfeilercrossroads.com/  

Katharina Wenty, moderation

Katharina Wenty, born in Korneuburg in 1995, grew up in Vienna, where she discovered her passion for writing at the age of eight, and for filmmaking another eight years later. During her education as a multimedia specialist at the Höhere Graphische Bundes-, Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt she specialized in film & photography, and after graduating she turned to theater, film and media studies at the University of Vienna. With her short film projects she has already been part of several film festivals, e.g. 3rd International Short Film Festival Pune India, Wörgl Short Film Festival, and could collect one or the other award, among others Media Literacy Award and Zeitimpuls Kurzfilmaward. Since 2016, Katharina Wenty has been performing regularly as a poetry slammer on stages in and outside the German-speaking world, and has now appeared at numerous festivals, congresses and events in over ten countries on three continents. As chairwoman of Poetry slam'md - Verein für Bühnenkunst, Literatur und Jugendkultur she organizes and moderates together with Anika Suck a poetry slam series with an international focus in Mödling. She represents Austria in the World Poetry Slam Organization and is actively involved in the planning of annual world championships. 

Hubert Sielecki (Film curator)

Hubert Sielecki,  1946 born in Carinthia, Austria. Studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Scolarship at the Film University (Animation Film) and at the Art University (painting) in Lodz, Poland. Since 1973 Freelance work with experimental color photography, with electronically, mechanically and acoustically reacting   objects, environments, performance, posters without commercial purposes, old photographic techniques, Music. Various exhibitions. Film: 1982 - 2012 Lectorship for Experimental Animation Film at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Installation and guidance of the only school-studio for Animation at the University of Applied Arts. www.hubert-sielecki.at