Realistically, I conceived of this maybe a month ago. We shot it a couple of weeks ego. It’s a pure furious burst of work. A real collaboration, with David, Max, Franziska, Robert. The Austrian Cultural Forum are amazing people to work with. At times, a lot of work, but now out, already worth it. This is what I wanted to do if we are online. Not a simulacra, a new piece of work. A friend wrote to me, in response to the film, ‘you’ve squeezed the blood from the stone of online events’ and I replied ‘we tried to make a new stone.’
Supported by Austrian Cultural Forum, London. A film by David Spittle. Written & conceived by Steven J. Fowler. Starring Franziska Füchsl, Max Höfler, Robert Prosser, SJ Fowler. Director of Photography and Editor : David Spittle. Music by Benedict Taylor. www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/austriafilm
An empty house and the people who should have been there.
As three Austrian poets come to terms with the prisons of the now and their host is forced to confront their absence, Where Are You Austria documents their poetic descent into madness. What follows is as uncanny as it is unlikely, and, ultimately, inevitable. An epic poetry film about the consequences of that which does not happen, the intimacy of isolation, metal work and Erwin Schrödinger.
A film as part of the European Poetry Festival Digital program. With no physical events in 2020, EPF digital reveals what can be created without proximity, generating new insights into poetic practice in continental Europe and creating ambitious film-poetry collaborations especially for this two week e-fest.
