CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
reviews/comments from people::
On the short film ‘The New Advocate”
from the short story by Franz Kafka
"This is a delight! I play it over and over … and not least because of the Daseinsreim, so to speak. I have just written a few words about this very piece for a lecture I need to give to some Jungians. I’ve attached them.
Congratulations on your canny visual skills and refined (right on!) literary taste."
- Stanley Alan Corngold,
Professor of German & Comparative Literature, Emeritus.
(Princeton University)
* Daseinsreim, translates to Rhyme of existence.
"Peter, I was thinking about the New Advocate film and how much I enjoyed your narration. Your voice was perfectly suited for the text.what a treat. I’ve seen it now three times and each time discover something new. The writing is wonderful, poetic, exuberant, lyrical.
The filming and editing are exceptional. How the images comfort the dialogue is just beautiful. There is the story, there is the film, and there is the elevation of the experience."
- Gunter Kleemann
On the film ‘Amerikan Peephole’
"Pretty good...and pretty slick but also conceptually this is an interesting instinctive journey of discovery. Maybe a bit too fast for my slow brain at times but always engaging and even entertaining.
Your director's statement is pretty amazing too. I just hope that the people who hold the purse strings will have some idea about what you're driving at...Most of them are on a different planet..."
- Paul Cox - Melbourne-based international film director
"In his latest offering, 'Amerikan Peephole', Leiss has revived the art of the polemic in documentary film. By allowing his subjects the space to elaborate on their feelings and theories on contemporary American society and politics, we are given a glimpse of this most extraordinary period in modern US history, through the lens of some of its most strident native critics. Make no mistake, this is not your run of the mill documentary; there is no concession to 'objectivity' beyond that expressed by the interviewees themselves. They describe the legacy of the current administration's monstrous failure to aid the hurricane-stricken city of New Orleans and the impact of the costs born of foreign military adventurism. What we can take from this film is manifold: the meaning of post-Cold War triumphalism and the ramping-up of consumerism, the logical extension of George Bush senior's 1992 doctrine "the American lifestyle is not negotiable", or the inherent dangers of aggressive pre-emptive unilateralism. However, perhaps most significant is the Kafkaesque connotations of the neo-con juggernaut and its theoretically limitless war on 'terror', caught in full throttle before the 2006 congressional elections."
- Toby Heydon - Melbourne-based writer and historian
For more comments from people:
Comments on Peter Leiss films (PDF)
Links and reviews on Peter Leiss films (PDF)
FILMOGRAPHY:
Metamorphosis 1970
Short
5.5min 16mm B/W
Student
film 1970 Prahran College of Art & Design.
Based
on the Franz Kafka novella The Metamorphosis.
music
by Ian Wallace,
Gregor
Samsa; Ian Pringle, Gregor's sister; Anne Callaghan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1md2T8HD49Q
Urban
Labyrinth 1999
Short
6min
A
rapid narrative through our city... any city...
A
journey into a manic mosaic of mechanical assault, Identification and
belief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w16oGCmCcK8
An
Australian Arsonist In New York 2001
34min
Shot
in Melbourne, Newcastle And New York City, it examines the nature of
arson in our global culture as Phillip Corbett's play, "The
Arsonist," is premiered by an all Australian Production Company
in New York.
Cakewalk 2001
50min
From
the New York art world, Andy Warhol, Mickey Mouse to New Jersey, the
diner capital of the world, we journey through the world of Robert
Heide, John Gilman and Hoop, the King of Art, on an American Pop
culture odyssey.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTTNfqdyHBM
Full
Movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMaTUDLwEKY
Cakewalking
Again 2005
26mins
Three years later and the trip continues with Bob, John and Hoop.
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8er4I6I_ZKw
Full
Movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCNulBU7GU
Upon
The Day In Australia 2005
52min
On
Federal Election Day 2004 in Melbourne we follow two candidates
running at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Concentrating on
the human rather than the political aspects of this day is a rare
entry into the world of multi-cultural Australian political belief.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k23E62XEck
Full
movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsz7WToN1l0&list=FLxwbfzOjwu3Mp7JTi3hWVCA&index=2
Amerikan
Peephole 2005
52min
Twenty-four
Americans from New Mexico and California weave a tapestry of pressing
contemporary behavioural and social issues within a Kafka motif.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJFLMFjixX8
Full
Movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58YlHIPRmis
The
Bridge at Midnight Trembles 2005
52min
Co-directed
and photographed for two years on a borrowed DV camera. It shared
first place for best Australian documentary at the Real Life Film
Festival Melbourne Australia in 2006 with ‘Anthem: An Act of
Sedition’ and was nominated for best documentary at the 2007
Australian TV Logie awards. It premiered on October 5th 2006 on SBS
TV Australia. First television release October 5th 8:30 pm 2006 SBS)
The
Spirit of Infirmity, a Parkinson’s Diary 2010
52min
Richard
Moir’s personal examination while dealing with Parkinson’s
diseases’. A provocative and entertaining perspective to a very
difficult subject, five years after award winning ‘The Bridge at
Midnight Trembles’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZtFa36fBc
The
Terror of Art; The Legacy Of The Doors 2011
90min
A
cross section of fans & good friends, artists of The Doors, along
with scholars and musicologists express their view of the phenomena
of the remarkable band, their music and the lead sing Jim Morrison
and what that legacy means today.
Trailers:
Five
To One, The Doors
https://youtu.be/D-apyllMI-Q
With
Tony Funches & David Shaing
Not
to Touch the Earth
https://youtu.be/MMconPWCcdU
Spanish
Caravan
With
Tony Funches
https://youtu.be/eOWoDwQtIL4
When
the Music's Over
https://youtu.be/oePqJ5Ml4Rw
Summer's
Almost Gone
https://youtu.be/NTk4kRA6Fsk
End
of the Night
https://youtu.be/LrRvl1rYAaE
Doing
Your Head In 2006 - 2011
65min
Following
the raw and humorous emotions of a young suburban theatre company as
they prepare their sexual "edutainment" production for the
bright lights of the annual Melbourne fringe festival & at
various schools.
Trailer
01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pygh0dBzMj8
McSpedden The Man Behind The Myth 2015
43.5min
A
film by Peter Leiss and produced by Ian Wallace
Innovative
light show artist Hugh McSpedden talks about his life and work.
Brutally
honest and very funny, McSpedden is a brilliant raconteur. Inspiring
story. Compulsive viewing.
THE
FRANZ KAFKA INTERNET PORTRAIT COLLECTION MOVIE 2015
5.5min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaFafHjWyQM
A
music video of Kafka related images incorporated into the music by
Rene De La Soyo’s: “IN THE HANDS OF A LUNATIC”, a film by Peter
Leiss
The
New Advocate 2022
Short
3min
A
film by Peter Leiss
Based
on the short story by Franz Kafka.
https://youtu.be/X_RLDMNobsA
See also:
All YouTube links, plus to Books published (PDF)
©
Peter Leiss, April 2024.
Peter Leiss's YouTube channel 1
Peter Leiss's YouTube channel 2
Contact Peter Leiss
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