Herzsofort.Setzung II (autogene Manipulationen)
1996 | 7 min | Icons & Media Art
Michael Brynntrup investigates artwork in the age of artificial reproducibility by means of transmedial self-portraits.
Michael Brynntrup
ActorDirectorMichael Brynntrup is a German experimental filmmaker and visual artist known for his avant-garde and highly personal work. He has directed and produced numerous short films and videos since the 1980s, exploring themes such as sexuality, identity, and queer culture. Some of his notable works include "Blue Movie," "Fragen an meinen Vater," and "Lumière."
Brynntrup has gained recognition for his contributions to the experimental film genre, receiving awards at various film festivals and screenings. His films often challenge traditional narrative structures and push the boundaries of cinematic storytelling. In addition to his filmmaking career, Brynntrup is also a respected visual artist and has exhibited his works in galleries and museums internationally.
Films
AIDE MÉMOIRE - ein schwules Gedächtnisprotokoll
1996 | 16 min | Biography
Two years before his death, the HIV-positive Baldiga reviews his life, in selected episodes.
E.K.G. Expositus (the public and the artistic media)
2004 | 101 min | Biography
A hospital in Berlin-Neukölln at midnight. A patient is being admitted. TV journalists are on the scene. The beginning of a story that tells itself.
Loverfilm
1997 | 22 min | Icons & Media Art
Berlin filmmaker Michael Brynntrup exposes his own sex life in a radical, relentless yet humorous invasion of privacy.
Jesus - The Film
By Anarchistische Gummizelle, Jörg Buttgereit
1986 | 127 min | Icons & Media Art
In a Dada-inspired retelling of the New Testament on Super8, 22 filmmakers and Michael Brynntrup explore faith and art in 35 episodes.
Narcissus and Echo
1989 | 14 min | Icons & Media Art
Long seemed invalid the Prophet's word, / But honored it was, by the outcome at last: / How odd the madness, how strange a death! (Ovid, Metamorphoses) NARCISSUS AND ECHO, a short film by Michael Brynntrup, is a “delightfully mannered game of deception, honored by the German Film Critics Association as the best experimental film of 1990. A highlight of camp aesthetic.” (Rundbrief Film) The director describes NARCISSUS AND ECHO as a film in the form of a riddle, a special kind of entertainment film ...
Unpublished! - A Bonus Track
2006 | 3 min | Icons & Media Art
UNPUBLISHED!- A BONUS TRACK is a bonus interview from the Michael Brynntrup film THE OVO, which appeared on the special edition DVD 'Berlinale Rolle 2', published by tip-magazin.
Blue Box Blues (Staging a Photo Shoot)
2004 | 8 min | Icons & Media Art
"An outstanding piece by Michael Brynntrup that captures the violence and tenderness, alongside the dominance and submission, that is found in a single, intimate embrace." (tip Berlin) Technically precise and with his characteristic visual proficiency Michael Brynntrup leads us in BLUE BOX BLUES through one of his perception experiments. He contrasts the spontaneous impression made by a sensual and vibrant photograph showing a lesbian couple in a tender embrace, with a lengthy, meticulous staging ...
Love, Jealousy and Revenge (Liebe, Eifersucht und Rache)
1991 | 7 min | Icons & Media Art
This short film by Michael Brynntrup, is "a spontaneous, kitschy, unerring, and spicy parable about mutual understanding featuring the world famous underground star BeV Stroganov." (Jury Filmfest Dresden) You know that every film has its own language...
The Ovo (Ovo - the Video)
By Michael Brynntrup, Ludger Wekenborg
2005 | 17 min | Icons & Media Art
THE OVO (OVO - THE VIDEO) is a short film by Berlin film artist and icon Michael Brynntrup. "It's not about how a drag queen moves, it's about what she sets in motion." (Ovo Maltine) “The Ovo is a documentary about Christoph Josten, better known as the Polit-queer and AIDS activist Ovo Maltine. Excerpts from talk shows, footage of demonstrations and personal interviews paint a portrait of a fascinating personality.” (Queer Film Festival Rostock, July 2010)
Veronika (vera ikon)
1986 | 11 min | Icons & Media Art
In his short film VERONIKA (VERA IKON) experimental filmmaker Michael Brynntrup takes the biblical prohibition of images literally.
The Statics - Engineering Memory Bridges (Die Statik der Eselsbrücken)
1990 | 20 min | Icons & Media Art
"A superb biography - a pseudo-scientific collection of curiosities with puns turning artistic somersaults."
Sudden and Unexpected - A Déjà-Revue (Plötzlich und unerwartet )
1993 | 30 min | Icons & Media Art
Udo Kier walks a black-humored, fine line between avant-garde and trash, which is tantamount to an act of unleashing.
Face It! (Cast Your Self™)
2007 | 4 min | Icons & Media Art
A short film by Berlin-based film icon Michael Brynntrup full of photographs collected from personal profiles in gay chat rooms on the internet.
E.C.G.1.0.1 (a self-portrait in broadcast and artistic media)
2004 | 24 min | Icons & Media Art
Michael Brynntrup, in his unmistakable style, was already anticipating developments in the media in the early 2000s.
Ipanema lip-synch
2003 | 3 min | Icons & Media Art
IPANEMA LIP SYNC is a queer karaoke video short from Berlin filmmaking icon Michael Brynntrup.
Gender Agenda
1999 | 76 min | Icons & Media Art
GENDER AGENDA is a compilation of eight queer short films by Berlin experimental filmmaking icon Michael Brynntrup.
Homo Erectus
1989 | 76 min | Icons & Media Art
An amusing journey through the Berlin Drag-Queen scene of the 80s in five short films by Michael Brynntrup.
All You Can Eat
1993 | 5 min | Icons & Media Art
This short film "takes the ‘cum-shot’ to new heights with a montage of some of the wildest, orgasmic, facial expressions." (Boys On Film #6)
Achtung - Respect (concentration chair)
2002 | 13 min | Icons & Media Art
A look back at body modifications in the early 2000s.
NY 'NY 'n why not
1999 | 4 min | Icons & Media Art
WALK / DON'T WALK / WALK. The rhythm of the nineties. A musical stroll along Christopher Street.
Recommended for you
Loverfilm
1997 | 22 min | Icons & Media Art
"The plots of this film are based on true events. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is not only intentional, but unavoidable. - The viewer also bears responsibility for the images that become public." (Michael Brynntrup) "Noted German experimental filmmaker Michael Brynntrup tantalizes us with his diaristic account of his many lovers. What seems at first to be an extended exercise in ego, gradually becomes a powerful social record of gay life in the years spanning gay liberation and the ...
AIDE MÉMOIRE - ein schwules Gedächtnisprotokoll
1996 | 16 min | Biography
Photographer Jürgen Baldiga (1959-1993) and filmmaker Michael Brynntrup engage in a private discourse and personal investigation into the handling of images of life and death. "AIDE MÉMOIRE recalls a deceased friend in a radically personal way. The intimate, tender gaze of the filmmaker causes a closeness also of the spectators on AIDS disease, death and transience." (Jury statement - International Short Film Festival Oberhausen)
Pix
2017 | 8 min | Shorts
Baby photos, Christmas snapshots, school enrollment photos, wedding photos - our lives are an endless succession of photogenic moments. A father shoots the first photo of his newborn and sets a cycle in motion. The boy's life passes us by in fast-forward, reduced to the photo-worthy moments of life: the first Christmas, starting school, children's birthdays, the first great love, the wedding, the birth of his own child. The boy himself remains an extra, while his life is built up and dismantled ...
The Statics - Engineering Memory Bridges (Die Statik der Eselsbrücken)
1990 | 20 min | Icons & Media Art
The short film by director Michael Brynntrup is "a superb biography - a pseudo-scientific collection of curiosities with puns turning artistic somersaults." (Abendzeitung, Nuremberg) Relics and tests from an inquiry into prototypes. Formal proof won through pregnant experiments on one's own body.
Kabatas | Fillmore | Atlanten
2013 | 13 min | Icons & Media Art
Yalda Afsahs 3-film-series superimposes fleeting insights into the inner workings of the building spaces of the private and the public, of intimacy and spectacle. In KABATAS, the viewer’s gaze is directed by the movement of the wind occasionally lifting a plastic veil of an Istanbul building. Shot in San Francisco, FILLMORE is a continuation of Yalda Afsah’s close observations of urban spaces. ATLANTEN, shot in Berlin, shows two parts of a viaduct breaching out of a corner building otherwise ...
GDR Experimental: Metamorphosis 1
1978 | 6 min | Icons & Media Art
In 1976, Lutz Dammbeck and five Leipzig artists conceived the interdisciplinary exhibition “Tangente I”, which was intended to serve as a platform for experimental art forms in the GDR. The focus was on collaborative works combining various media such as painting, film and installation. However, before the exhibition could be realized, it was banned by the authorities in 1977 – a typical fate for avant-garde art in the GDR that operated outside the state-regulated framework. Dammbeck did not let ...
E.K.G. Expositus (the public and the artistic media)
2004 | 101 min | Biography
A hospital in Berlin-Neukölln at midnight. A patient is being admitted. TV journalists are on the scene. The beginning of a story that tells itself. At the beginning of the film a dramatic story is suggested, which in the course of the film develops into a reflection on storytelling. The making of films and images itself comes into view. The handling of images is thematized, visualized and documented on several media narrative levels: from the making of the film (shooting) to the TV coverage of ...
Narcissus and Echo
1989 | 14 min | Icons & Media Art
Long seemed invalid the Prophet's word, / But honored it was, by the outcome at last: / How odd the madness, how strange a death! (Ovid, Metamorphoses) NARCISSUS AND ECHO, a short film by Michael Brynntrup, is a “delightfully mannered game of deception, honored by the German Film Critics Association as the best experimental film of 1990. A highlight of camp aesthetic.” (Rundbrief Film) The director describes NARCISSUS AND ECHO as a film in the form of a riddle, a special kind of entertainment film ...
A Space Exodus
2008 | 5 min | Icons & Media Art
A SPACE EXODUS is the first part of Larissa Sansour’s science fiction trilogy along with NATION ESTATE and IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN. Under the common themes of loss, belonging, heritage, and national identity, the three films each explore different aspects of the political turmoil the Middle East. Using the language of sci-fi and glossy production, Sansour’s trilogy presents a dystopian vision of a Middle East on the brink of the apocalypse. A SPACE EXODUS envisions the ...
Shot In The Dark
2017 | 79 min | Documentary
"I only understood how powerful light is after I went blind." A documentary about three blind photographers: Pete Eckert, Sonia Soberats and Bruce Hall - three exhibiting artists. What do they see in their mind's eyes? "Even with no input the brain keeps creating images," says Pete Eckert. Sonia Soberats states, "I only understood how powerful light is after I went blind." A blind person is probably the last person you’d expect to be a photographer. Shot in the dark is an intimate portrait of ...